| October 29, 2007 | Monday | Shawwal 16, 1428 |
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A welcome change of heart?
Suicide bombing
Why Punjab needs democracy
Non-immigrant visa policy
Abuses in Kashmir
Chronic loadshedding
Travel links with India
Maund
Ordeal of credit card customer
Phones dead
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
ALL discussions based on objectivity are welcome. However, sometimes one finds that an odd writer, anchor person or speaker starts playing to the gallery and say things that are highly detrimental to our institutions and thus become a cause of lowering the motivation of the people who serve those institutions.
To quote an example, criticising the armed forces and talking of their reduction without a dispassionate assessment of the Pakistan-India equation is puzzling and one wonders whose interests are being served.
By airing such thoughts, a democratic right is exercised, yes, but it has its deeper implications which must not be lost sight of.
To substantiate this point, we often forget that, despite flexibility shown by Gen Musharraf, in our relations with India, for which he has been unjustifiably criticised by the mullah-right wing alliance, India has not budged an inch and continues to be silently treacherous as is evident from the establishment of consulates in Afghanistan and on Pakistan-Iran border.
The incursions in Siachin, the efforts to make dams in violation of the Indus Water Treaty and numerous other examples point towards the intransigent attitude of India. Can, in the circumstances, Pakistan afford to weaken its guard? That would spell disaster.
Similarly, the extremists, who are devastating this country, are homegrown as well as foreign-aided. Who will deal with them when they take out their blood thirsty fangs? Society has a certain contribution to make. But what happens when it cannot handle these problems.
At the end of the day it has to fall on the armed forces, Rangers and the police.
Pakistan has survived only because of our armed forces. While saying this I do not want to belittle the contribution of the police which receive the stick all the time but seldom get accolades. Look at the large number which has been butchered by the suicide attackers.
We need to respect their contribution. Belittling their efforts through half-cooked suggestions will only add impetus to the early achievement of the objectives of our enemy.
It may be stressed that most of the criticism being levelled on the operational role of our armed forces is not justified. A common punching bag is the loss of East Pakistan. This blame cannot singularly be placed on the armed forces. There is a history behind it. Politicians, without naming any, have a huge role to play in the break-up of the country. The mistakes were political whosoever made them. Care has to be taken not to repeat blatant political blunders.
East Pakistan is, if at all, a classical example of our need to stay strong and not to weaken our guard, something which India is working towards by not settling the Kashmir and other issues.
I am confident if we had the bomb in 1970, East Pakistan would never have gone. It has become somewhat fashionable to say that the rank and file of the armed forces have not done enough, this can only sadden and demoralise those fighting in Siachin, Waziristan and performing duties in aid of the civilian administration in floods, earthquakes, etc. While some aspects of the armed forces’ role can be discussed, they should be in a context and the complete picture must not be ignored.
Should this be countered by saying that the judges, the lawyers, the bureaucracy, the politicians, civil society, the clerics, the doctors, the educationists and others are also not doing enough, a mutual blame game inevitably follows and in the ensuing battle of words the whole society with all its pillars is targeted and nobody gains. Where will it stop?
It is about time we started looking at the good things that have been done and will continue to be done. We need to have good intentions and we need commit ourselves to the future. The argument should be on agendas and how to accomplish the targets set forth. All other debates are fruitless.
SHAMS ZAHEER ABBAS
Lahore
THIS is apropos of your editorial, ‘A welcome change of heart’ (Oct 10). I can only smile over it. When read along with the preceding editorial on Fata, frankly speaking I am very much perturbed.
Who are you actually representing? Whose voices are these? It is not the voice of people of Pakistan. Every Pakistani is concerned over the bloodshed going on in his land.
Remind you, sir, this is not our war. The Taliban never attacked or threatened to attack Pakistan. The so-called local Taliban emerged only after the wholesale selling out of the nation to the US by our unlawful ‘enlightened moderate’ general-president.
Who these people are by the way? They are merely reactionaries. We went there as occupiers to appease our foreign masters. They are defending their lands. We should not even think that we can cow them. Never, how come this army which is into every walk of life except defence can defeat a guerilla insurgency? Do we have any precedent?
God forbid 300 soldiers have been captured and there is no movement at the higher echelons.
Just consider the inconsistency in the editorial. It is pointed out:
”The United States, Britain, France, Germany and Italy have witnessed a drop in the number of people who favour the complete segregation of religion and government. Moving east, Turkey and India, the two bastions of secularism, have seen a similar reversal of opinion.”
And then it is concluded thus: “... one can only welcome the growing view to keep religion and the state separate, as it is this public mindset that will eventually prove to be an effective tool against the spread of militancy. “
What point the writer has attempted to bring to the fore? It is not the matter of “to be religious or not to be religious”. It is a global political struggle for power.
Remember we cannot win over our own people by F16s. Both sides are the losers, even if one wins over. I beg don’t kill my people for God’s sake. And please do not try to cover up their bloodless slaughtering on theoretical front. Their blood will not go to waste because they are innocent. Please speak with them. They do not want their sons and daughters reduced to ashes for a pointless war.
M. ZUBAIR ABBASI
University of Manchester, UK
IT is with deep sorrow that I express my feelings at the most unfortunate calamity of Oct 18/19 in which over 150 people lost their lives and some 500 were injured for no fault of theirs. They were apparently the victim of a group of extremists with warped minds who are now bent upon causing misery and anguish to all those who do not agree with them or follow their thinking.
Unfortunately, suicide bombing now seems to have plagued our country It is a menace not all that easy to eradicate on account of several factors: primarily lack of education and proper upbringing, poverty and a feeling of deprivation in some of the backward areas of the country which add fuel to fire.
However, one should also bear in mind that these problems have existed for years and despite sincere efforts being made to eradicate cannot be bridged overnight.
The most damaging invention is the creation of a group of extremists, who are fundamentalists and strongly believe in a theocratic state and that the present form of government and our way of living is not to their liking. They demand quick action and are in no mood to follow the democratic path.
For such people there is nothing unholy in blowing up human beings or causing disaster of any magnitude as they consider it to be a form of jihad and tutor the mind of the bomber that no sin is being committed and that he will find a safe passage to the heaven. We can combat this curse only when all our religious clerics from all schools of thought and belief speak out vehemently and explain what a big sin is being committed in killing innocent people. The media can also play a significant role in this respect.
MUNEER MUHAMMAD KHAN
Karachi
THIS is apropos of Abdul Khalique Junejo’s article, ‘Why Punjab needs democracy’, (Encounters, Oct 20). The writer has stated that “Punjab, by virtue of its domination of the state, has acquired abundance of wealth and has reached a certain stage of development where it needs democracy”.
According to him, a middle class, as such, has emerged which for its further survival and advancement will need democracy.
Mr Junejo cannot ignore the fact that the very preamble of the Constitution of Pakistan guarantees in clear terms that “Pakistan shall form a federation wherein the units will be autonomous”.
The units and their authority are provided in the Constitution. The basic structure of the state under the Constitution is federal, both in letter and in spirit.
Ours being a federal democracy, it would work only if it is available at federal level as well as at the level of each province. In our country the federal government controls, runs and dictates and dispels democracy at provincial levels.
The newly-created middle class in Punjab would get democracy to its advancement only when Punjab will neither smother nor kill democracy in the provinces. Punjab has not come up as a middle class economy and would now like to leap to democracy but like Londoners who thrived on colonies during the days of the Raj, with democracy or even without it.
ROCHI RAM
Karachi
THERE is no time limit in the rules and the procedures for issue of non-immigrant visa (NIV) by the US consulate in Pakistan. As per the procedure prescribed by the US authorities for Pakistani applicants for the issue of NIV, there are prescribed forms to be filled in by the applicant. These forms, along with the required documents and prescribed visa fee, are deposited with the US consulate in Pakistan through the American Express office.
The second stage comes when an applicant is called for an interview by the consulate office in Pakistan. It is noticed that a round mark is drawn on the name ‘Ahmad’ or ‘Mohammad’. As a result of the interview, the application is either rejected outright or those not rejected are handed over a stereotyped letter saying that the application has been accepted and that it shall be processed before issue of visa. The passport of the applicant is retained by the consulate. For this stage there is no time limit prescribed for the issue of visa. This flaw is not removed because it serves the interest of the authorities in keeping away Ahmad’s and Mohammad’s from US soil – perhaps for security reasons. Consequently, passports of persons with the name of Ahmad or Mohammad are piled up in the US consulate in Pakistan.
Every country has a right to refuse a visa and not to allow anyone with the name of Ahmad or Mohammad to touch its soil but it should be bold enough to declare it publicly so that nobody with the name of Ahmad or Mohammad should seek a visa for a visit to the US.
Our meek foreign office does not have the courage to take up this issue with the US government.
NASIM AHMAD
Islamabad
According to a photograph from Srinagar that appeared on the back page of Dawn (Oct 26), the Indian police detained dozens of women activists of the Muslim Khawateen Markaz (Muslim Women’s Centre) in held Kashmir, a party struggling for independence from Indian occupation.
The picture taken by Reuters shows some of the policemen mercilessly dragging veiled middle aged and young women like cattle, onto a truck which was in such a bad shape that people in the West wouldn’t even carry their pet dogs in it.
The only sin of these poor ladies was that they were trying to march to the office of the United Nations Military Observers Group to highlight the human rights violations by Indian troops. If curbing the democratic right of these women was so important, at least policewomen should have been deployed.A few days before that there was another incident when some Kashmiri teachers told a group of Indian soldiers not to tease their female colleagues. A soldier got so annoyed by this that he shot and killed one of the protesting men. But despite the presence of several eyewitnesses, the Indian military authorities, in response to a demand for an inquiry into the incident, gave the spin that the trooper and the teacher got into an argument and his gun went off accidentally, killing the innocent educator.It is so sad to see that while the international community has very rightly taken a stern notice of a few weeks of a crackdown in Myanmar, it has done nothing to end nearly six decades of grave human rights abuses in occupied Kashmir.
According to Kashmiri sources, close to 100,000 people have been killed in the disputed territory since the current uprising began in 1989, while thousands of women have been raped and an equal number of Kashmiris have ‘disappeared’.The world is neither taking due notice nor making serious efforts to end these cruelties but is also discouraging the Kashmiris when they take up arms against the occupying forces. Some western countries have criticised China and India for not using their influence over the ruling junta in Burma to stop the rights violation. However, they themselves aren’t exerting upon New Delhi to end the abuses in Kashmir.
Such neglect and discrimination leads to violence on the part of long suffering victims, which is then forcefully opposed, being termed as ‘terrorism’. I live about a thousand miles away from these unfortunate people yet I feel so frustrated by their and my own helplessness to relieve them of their predicament. Can’t anyone rescue them, for God’s sake?
NASEER AHMED
Karachi
IT is really ironic that Wapda has resorted to loadshedding when winters are about to set in (Oct 24). The shortfall in supply and demand has crossed 1,500 MWs.
The new power generation plants are expected to be up and running by 2009 but by the time they are operational, energy demand would have again crossed the supply demand. The whole country experienced terrible loadshedding, which Wapda calls ‘load management’, throughout summers for the last so many years.
One way to get rid of this chronic deficit in supply and demand of electricity is to ‘import’ power from the many captive power plants, now redundant due to high furnace oil prices. The power available from the power plants to Lesco amounts to a substantial chunk of the deficit being encountered.
Wapda was on course to finalise the deal with CPP and SPP owners. The unit price was set mutually with the cost of fuel as a pass through item. Due to reasons best known to Wapda the process was put on the back-burner and files closed. I am sure Wapda shall again wake up next year when public pressure forces them to supply more electricity.
It is time proper stock was taken of the situation and citizens were spared of the agony in which they passed the summers of 2007.
A SUFFERER
Lahore
IT was quite encouraging to read the letter of Mr Waqif Lahori about Indo-Pakistan travel links.
I hope there are a lot of people, particularly among young generation, who think like this and that these people will try to enhance this enthusiasm which will only bring peace, forward the ties and make things understandable from an angle which is deliberately kept obscure by the false leaders in the two brother countries.
Yes, living in Europe, I see every day that ‘reasonable’ Indians and Pakistanis do get along and together very well, and travelling is the just a part of the whole picture.
MUTTAQUEE HUSAIN
Strasbourg
THIS is apropos of Kaleeq Kiani’s write-up (Oct 8) . Habib Jalib, the ‘awami sh’ar’, wrote the famous ‘nazm’ in late 1968 and not in 1969. Then, he says that maund is equal to 32 kgs. This is not true. A maund is equal to approximately 37.32 kgs. The exact words of the poem were as under:
“Bees rupiaiya mun hay atta/ us par bhee hay sannata.” Today, if we calculate atta to be Rs20 per kg, then per maund it is Rs746.40.
A READER
Via email
THE distress caused to Muneeb Mobin by the bank in addressing his lawful and genuine anxiety explained in his letter, ‘Ordeal of credit card customer’ (Oct 24), is beyond comprehension. The bankers who once used to be paragon of courtesy and facilitation have now become unapproachable and full of hubris, an attitude of a pre-partition colonial bureaucrat.
The reason for this lack of interest and lack of professionalism has been developed during the last few years when some senior bankers have achieved higher positions at different levels of the government. Now the banks headed by executives drawing fabulous perquisites almost in millions, unheard of in this part of world, are allowed to charge huge interest from the customers and pay a little on deposits without any compunction. Even the State Bank of Pakistan, a financial watchdog and supreme regulatory authority, is helpless in implementing financial prudence rules.
Under these circumstances when needy customers are being deprived of their hard - earned income/savings by being charged exorbitant markup, the grievance of Mr Mobin stands nowhere. On the contrary, he should be grateful to the Askari Bank for not charging him extra amount for bothering their staff/officials many a time.
DR ALI AKBAR M. DHAKAN
Karachi
My phone 5868072 has been dead for the last three months, though many a complaint was lodged in this regard with the PTCL.
I have decided not to pay the bills in future, as I am not getting any service. I suggest the same to all subscribers who face such a problem. I am sure a lot of subscribers feel that the privatisation of public utilities like the PTCL and the KESC have resulted in very poor service.
I write this letter also to awaken the authorities to take action against the PTCL management before this public utility is also turned into a KESC.”
MOHAMMAD YASIN LAKHANI
Karachi
MY telephone 5832382 has been dead for the last two months. Many complaints have been filed through the automated system, as well as with the Clifton Exchange, but no remedial action has been taken.
My family has literally no connection with the world, and even the death of my sister-in-law could not be reported on time.
I have tried to contact the authorities, but no plausible reason has been provided for not rectifying the fault. I would, therefore, request the PTCL to restore my phone as early as possible.
A. REHMAN YUSUF
Karachi
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