| October 30, 2007 | Tuesday | Shawwal 17, 1428 |
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Energy efficiency
Plea against US resolution
Bills from exchequer
An environmental disaster
Too little written for too many
British Islamphobia
PARC’s working
Out of order
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 is unfortunate that a number of our doctors are not playing their due role in maintaining law and order and justice in society. The unfortunate actions like the issuance of fake medico-legal certificates by hospital casualty medical officers, covering up of jail deaths and fake certification by jail doctors are playing a havoc with the law and order.
Commonly, the persons who are killed are declared to have died naturally; virgins who are raped are declared habitual adulterers, semen stains turn up as saliva, a grievous injury is reported as minor or vice versa, depending on who pays more.
This is pathetic. Forensic textbooks used in our courts are 50-year-old. Many doctors, some judges and most policemen are mere actors of law, corrupt and sellable. Islamabad ASIs sell for Rs8,000 onwards, Thanedars have children studying in western countries, some are property dealers in connivance with ‘qabza groups, others are true free lancers.
During the pre-independence days there were a few doctors who were mostly posted in larger towns.
These doctors were called civil surgeons, most were English, some were Hindus, rarely Muslim, and many were properly qualified surgeons, i.e. FRCS.
The civil surgeon was told clearly that helping law was his prime duty and the whole system of cognizable offence (which category of crime belongs to the realm of police) was made dependent on the doctors’s report.
The system still exists except for the fact that qualified surgeons, even though in abundance nowadays, are not involved in medico-legal cases, rather non-specialists covet this post and get it. After the medical superintendent’s post the medico-legal post is the most-sought-after by a non-specialist doctor.
I have routinely seen wrong post-mortem reports, wrong conclusions from right observations, reports using fake samples, every error or commission is there, medical malpractice is common.
Even honest medico-legal reports of homicide are read as suicide by (even honest) thanedars (SHO) for want of English reading skills and love of sparing them trouble of investigation of a body, say found in a greenbelt of Islamabad.
Doorwaymen of hospitals to CMOs all are involved in this gory business of selling favourable reports, switching samples. Islamabad’s state hospitals are equally notorious like the rest. No local chemical examiner exists except in Lahore. Toxicology labs do not exist.
Jails are even worse, jail doctors help in getting murderers out via fake referrals to hospitals whilst simultaneously the fake natural death certificates of tortured-to-death prisoners are routinely given to hide crime.
This is complicity in murder. Even the supreme court is helpless in custodial deaths as doctors cover up police wrongdoings. This is a horrible state of affairs.
The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) should take notice and frame rules of medico-legal and jail medical examinations afresh.
Doctors who need to do medical legal duties should be specially certified and trained and preferably should be qualified surgeons or physicians. Complaints against jail doctors and issuance of fake certificates must lead to the PMDC taking punitive action against the guilty.
All past fake medico-legal cases in high courts and districts court must be reviewed by the PMDC, that is if the PMDC and the federal health ministry are to have some relevance for Pakistan.
Parliament should consider some legislation to expand the police role in the protection of citizens in non-cognizable crimes and create a register of approved doctors for medico-legal examination.
If this is not done, crime will remain uninvestigable, the innocent may hang and murderers laugh at judges, victims and lawmakers.
DR M. I. SHAIKH
Islamabad
THE latest recognition of care for the environment with peace in the shape of Nobel prize should get a lot of us thinking as to what we are doing to stay out of the list of ‘musrafeen’ (Allah does not like those who waste).
Whereas the world is moving towards energy and water conservation, we condole with our ‘leaders’ when they are given the ‘environment portfolio’.
How shortsighted we can be when we are getting an opportunity to meet the demands of both this world and the hereafter and yet we present a ‘long face’ and accept the ‘punishment’ for the while (with really no action) till someone else deserves this ‘demotion’ more.
It is now an accepted fact that companies’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) effort leads to higher employment engagement levels, and more favourable views of senior management.
CSR is a concept whereby organisations take responsibility for the impact of their activities on the environment.
CSR is noted to positively affect an employee’s personal outlook on the future, satisfaction with their job and confidence in the company’s future.
Unfortunately, in Pakistan it is the highest level in corporate structure that generally does not care for the environment. We find the ‘best’ award winning organisations totally unaware or unwilling to accept CSR.
Whether it is an office building, hospital, hotel or airport terminal, the concept of ‘greening’ does not even enter into the basic thinking process.
Of course, in the industrial sector the situation is just as bad, if not worse. We do not care for energy efficiency which not only increases our cost of production but also adds considerably to environmental pollution and this ‘dual menace’ is literally killing us.
CSR just does not exist in our system and we are busy making money, oblivious of our responsibility and merrily wasting our precious Sui gas (available to our industries at less than 50 per cent of international gas prices) and also in case of power generation, burning the most polluting furnace oil without any exhaust pollution control measures.
How far can we be from corporate social responsibility to our hapless people?
We need to wake up and take stock of the energy crisis situation. Fossil fuel is both finite and very expensive ($100 per barrel) and we really need to use the best available, economically attractive technologies to ensure a sustainable future.
What we actually are doing is equivalent to cutting the tree branch on which we are sitting, enjoying the short-term benefits and totally unconcerned with our suicidal action on real issues of waste and pollution.
We urgently need to understand our predicament and ensure a reasonable conservation policy, covering both green buildings and energy efficiency for a sustainable future for our children.
AINUL ABEDIN
Karachi
THE US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee has approved a resolution branding killing of a few thousand Armenians in 1915 as genocide.
Turkey has very rightly reacted strongly threatening serious repercussions, which might include denying the US the use of air base Incirlik in Anatolia from where major US supplies are airlifted for Iraq and Afghanistan, because Turkey has the second largest army in Nato.
Even US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has admitted that 70 per cent of air cargo, 30 per cent of fuel shipment and 95 per cent of new mine-resistant vehicles destined for US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan go through Incirlik.
The Turks have been quite clear about some of the measures they would have to take if this resolution passes, Mr Gates said citing the example of Turkish military sanctions against France.
Here as a native Turk I would like to narrate the story of Armenians’ revolt which our ancestors used to tell us during our childhood days.
During the last days of the Ottoman Empire almost every able-bodied male Turk had gone to the border areas to fight, leaving behind mostly women and children.
During this period the Armenians revolted mainly in the city of Tarabzon, bordering my native city Rize. They massacred Turkish women and children. Then an army led by Gen Kazim Karabkir was sent to crush this rebellion.
As a result, during the war a few thousand Armenians were killed. This was a war against the Ottoman Empire in which even several thousand Turk soldiers were killed.
Even if we concede that the Armenians were massacred, was it justifiable that the present-day Turk nation be punished for the wrongdoings of the past.
The Turk government, as well as the nation, is rightly reacting to defend its prestige and honour. The present German government then should also be censured for the massacres of six million Jews by the German army led by Hitler.
In fact, Armenians are playing the game of some European countries which want to keep Turkey out of the European Union.
Armenians settled in France first launched their campaign from there. These Armenians have also been behind the killing of Turkish diplomats in the 1970s. Now they have succeeded in misguiding the US House of Representatives.
I, therefore, appeal to the American people to pressure their government to withdraw the said bill which was unnecessarily reviving old grievances and could endanger US relationship with Turkey, one of the most trusted allies of the US in Nato.
K. MURAD BEY
Karachi
I WAS shocked to read a news item captioned, ‘Bills from exchequer, secretaries granted yet another perk’ (Oct 18). According to the news item, the government will pay utility bills of all administrative secretaries up to Rs30,000 a month, making nearly 75 per cent of the take-home salary of most of these officers. What a shame!
The idea is to bribe those in authority so that they help the regime in the next general elections. There are some 75 BS-20 DMG officers in Punjab, out of which only 25 will be benefit. What will be the feelings of the remaining officers is anybody’s guess. They will feel frustrated now but get themselves the same perks ultimately, using their influence.
If it so happens, what is the fault of other BS-20 officers not so influential. Can our exchequer bear this brunt? Surely not, but who cares. Some seven to eight years ago the government allowed new Corolla cars to some four top bureaucrats in the province, now anybody who matters is having it while the top bureaucracy is enjoying Prados and alike.
Another hallmark of good governance in the province is mass-scale re-employment of those retiring now or in future. I think those in command in the province have lost hopes to come back after the next general election. That is why one finds a number of re-employment sanctioned every day.
Dawn of the same date carries such cases of re-employment from 2008 upwards. This includes the cane commissioner of Punjab and the ED (Revenue) of Gujrat, besides many seen in the press during the last couple of months.
I am an ardent supporter of Chaudhrys and am sure that they will come back to power in the next term too, then why hurry now!
HAFEEZ AKHTAR
Lahore
THE Karachi Port Trust is undoubtedly one of the wealthiest trusts in our otherwise poor country. The Jinnah Bridge (old native jetties), Mai Kolachi bypass, new M.T. Khan Bridge, KPT underpass and new flyovers, even with some of their inherent design faults and flaws, are all big landmarks and worthy gifts of the KPT to the much-neglected and orphaned ‘poor city of the rich’. Imagine Karachi minus these for a moment, just to realise their worth today. Bravo! and well done Port Trust.
The famous, or rather infamous ‘Fountain’, however, is controversial with its plus and minus points like everything else. Claimed as yet another landmark and gift, though a very delicate and costly one and also claimed to be second highest of its kind in Southeast Asia (still not clear why necessary?) or in the world whatsoever, it does little more than please the eye of the onlooker at a clear sunset/evening, only about 50 per cent in Karachi. But surely the sunset alone is more pleasing to the eyes.
This show of a powerful spout of seawater, abundantly polluted with untreated sewerage from many localities around, plus the oily and industrial wastes from the nearby oil installations, supertanker terminals, dozens of large ships in harbour, are hardly observing the international sea pollution protocol of the 1970s.
Last but not the least, thousands of all kinds of fishing and other harbour-related boats — mostly manned by illiterate and arrogant crew, unaware (or even if aware) of the serious environmental pollution being caused by them and its ultimate consequences (some a generation later).
This high and ultra fine spry of salt in the atmosphere and the sea breeze blowing it across a very vast area around ionizes the air with additional saltation, which not only speeds up rotting of all-things-iron but also affects health of the weak, old and young citizens, even in the far out vicinities, prone to severe allergies caused by the extremely polluted seawater.
The huge amount of KPT/national money spent on this fountain, its frequent and costly maintenance could well be spent better say for a modern well-equipped hospital for the poor residents of Baba and Bhit Islands, Manora and Keamari. The old aircraft engine (if I am not misinformed) running the pumps should instead have a standard marine diesel engine from an old ‘fire-tug’ or a scrapped ‘super-tanker’ which would be much cheaper, long-lasting and easy to maintain the aircraft engines, except those of seaplanes as far as I know, are not designed to withstand the highly corrosive and polluted sea water sprays. Except for the monsoon season when fortunately it has to be closed forcibly.
Why must the fresh, life-giving, unpolluted, ozone-laden sea breezes originating from thousands of miles of the vast Indian Ocean, lying directly south of Karachi be deliberately polluted and not left virgin to benefit the citizens of the already overpolluted city? In simple words, the KPT fountain may be called an environmental disaster. And what do the ordinary people gain from it (?) is not clear to most of the concerned educated citizens.
Is there any possibility whatsoever of getting rid of it before it ultimately fails to function itself in the not very distant future?
IJTABA ZAIDI
Karachi
IN this highly charged political time the print media and the electronic media in their news bulletin and talk shows discuss many issues on a daily basis.
Many prominent personalities write and go into deliberation to give their views on different aspects.
I hardly see a news item on a topic about problems being faced by the labour class or working class being discussed, they are one of the most important communities long forgotten.
This class was being governed by IRO 69 previously and the labour leaders were satisfied to an extent.
But this ordinance was amended by the Musharaf regime and made a black law, almost all the power now rests with entrepreneurs and the hire and fire authority is given to the already rich and powerful of Pakistan.
Workers in Pakistan are like labour in bondage in the pharoah days with trade union activities banned in Pakistan, which leaves them without any platform.
True representation of labour does not exist anywhere, their voice cannot be heard, their grievances cannot be redressed.
Justice is too expensive for them; these silent taxpayers, the exploited class, who are behind every small and mega projects are in need of our intellectuals to bring them into limelight.
M. R. SARHANDI
Karachi
I AM being harassed by the police and others. They have approached people at my workplace and told them that I am a threat to society and that I am about to cause harm.
The harassment is due to the fact that I refused to become a paid and registered informer for the police in 1992.
Since member of parliament John Reid stated that Muslim parents should inform on their children, my mother has been called to the police station and has been asked by the bank to make statements against me for credit card fraud?
When police informers are committing the crimes against my mother to harass her, why is she being asked to use my name?
As my own member of parliament has refused to respond to any of my emails, can these matters now be looked into as my life is in danger?
ZULFI KHAN
29 St James Rd,
Watford, UK
AS ONE having interest in agricultural research of the country, I read the Pakistan Agricultural Research Scientists Association’s (PARCSA’s) pledge to help improve the working of PARC with great interest (Oct 11).
Their feelings are admirable. I wish them all the best in their endeavours. It is a fact that agricultural research in the country is stagnant for the reasons of lack of devotion as highlighted.
PARC is the leading research organisation for funding research not only on fruits and vegetables, but also on many other important crops and their aspects. But the nation is not proud of it only because the fruits of their research are not reaching the farming community, nor the scientists are rewarded for their outstanding achievements.
Scientists working in the field or in the laboratories, however, do not need any perks and privileges. Their solid work is their achievement that gives them recognition not only at home but also abroad.
Like PARC, Pakistan Central Cotton Committee (PCCC) — attached to the ministry of food, agriculture and livestock (Minfal) — is devoted to a single crop since its inception to bring about improvement and development of the growing, marketing, and manufacture of cotton.
Like PARC, the PCCC has also got its own peculiar hurdles that are impeding its research programmes. First, the committee is not only badly understaffed, research responsibilities are not properly distributed, but it has been made to give up its roost on M.T. Khan Road, Karachi, where the spacious building that housed its secretariat, directorate and the various fiber-testing laboratories, stood over 50 years. It is marooned for the last two years and has not been able to acquire land for its relocation.
Second, it is not only under-staffed at the headquarters, but also at its central cotton research institutes, cotton research stations located in the cotton-growing areas of the country. I wish the PCCC scientists could also form its own association like PARC’s PARCSA to project its long-standing problems that are still unresolved and have brought the PCCC at a crossroads.
They can also help the cotton research move ahead like the PARSCA and regain its lost image in the cotton world.
M. SHAFIQUE AHMED
Karachi
MY phone number — 498 2158 — has been out of order for 20 days, but the PTCL has not fixed it despite repeated reminders on its automatic complaint registration system. All I hear is the assurance that the complaint has already been made. Will the PTCL staff kindly fix it?
A SUBSCRIBER
Karachi
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