| November 17, 2007 | Saturday | Ziqa’ad 06, 1428 |
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An open letter to Punjab CM
Nawabshah Municipal Library
A democratic system
Instant help
History marginalized
Another bridge may fall
Fire at Radio Pakistan
A response outlandish
Same old story
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 may be other reasons for the meteoric rise of terrorism in the most peaceful locality of Pakistan, Swat, the major cause is the encouragement they received from a tacit public support extended to them by the leadership of the Mutahidda Majlis-i-Amal.
The MMA has ruled the NWFP for the past five years. Maulana Fazlullah, a self-proclaimed preacher of Shariah, a semi-illiterate, not an Islamic scholar by any description, was allowed to preach violence through his FM radio since 2004.
In his sermons to the innocent, Islam-loving devotees, he has been exhorting them to stop female education, prevent administration of polio drops to their children, ban music and shaving, forcing schoolchildren to abandon wearing of trousers and ties.
He prefers to use a horse rather than a motorcar for his own movement. In fact, he wants to push society back to the 7th century AD on the premise that he wants to revive the past glory of Islam.
The MMA government took no action when the Maulana raised his own commando force of 4,500 men, neither was he stopped from administering public justice through his self-appointed Shariah courts. Ipso facto, the Maulana was allowed to run a parallel government in Swat by the then provincial government.
The dissolution of the NWFP government in October proved to be a blessing since the first step the interim government took was to enforce its writ by sending paramilitary troops and the police to the area that was hitherto considered the domain of Maulana Fazlullah.
Shocking, however, is the reaction of the MMA leaders to the action taken against the miscreants in Swat by the Shamsul Mulk government. That Jamaat-i-Islami leader Sirajul Haq has threatened to march on Islamabad because of the government action against the miscreants in Swat only confirms that his party was a supporter of Maulana Fazlullah.
He never said a word when Fazlullah’s men publicly executed security men and did not allow anyone to remove those bodies for burial — an act that no religion will allow.
On the other hand, that JUI and JI workers demonstrated in Peshawar and Bannu for the same reason shows a marked difference of thinking between the MMA leaders and the rest of Pakistan.
One factor that is encouraging militancy in tribal areas and suicide bombings in settled areas is the support extended to the militants by the MMA leadership.
I appeal to ulema and prominent religious leaders that to save innocent Muslims from being killed, they should spread Islam through peaceful means by setting a personal example of living a life of righteousness.
On the other hand, the federal government must come hard on those religious leaders or political leaders who in any way support militants. All ‘khutbas’ in Friday congregations must be carefully monitored.
SAYED G.B. SHAH BOKHARI
Peshawar
TILL just before the imposition of emergency plus, the chief minister of Punjab had spent a huge amount of government funds in an advertisement campaign for his own self-aggrandisement. The main focus was on self-projection at government expense while raising misleading slogans such as ‘Parha Likha Punjab”.
While improvement in the literacy level prevalent within the province may be difficult to gauge, it is easier to judge some other aspects of development during the tenure of Chaudhry Pervaiz Illahi. Being a frequent road traveller, I can comment on the improvement or otherwise in the state of inter-city road network in the province during the tenure of the chief minister.
Leaving aside a few high-profile roads constructed by the government, the rest of the rural road network has by and large degenerated in the last five to eight years. After the construction of the Islamabad-Lahore Motorway, the next logical step for the government should have been to link up this motorway with the rest of the cities in Punjab through link roads.
Sadly this has not happened. The existing link roads are so bad that they are not even fit to be called roads. Wherever one gets off the motorway between Islamabad and Lahore, be it Pindi Bhattian interchange or the Sial-Mor interchange, there are huge potholes waiting to play hell with the tyres and the undercarriage of one’s car.
While a bumpy road only slows down the traffic, a pothole- filled road causes considerable damage to the vehicle and there is no excuse whatsoever for not repairing the potholes. If the government is short of funds, then road-specific tolls can be levied to keep them in a good state of maintenance. However, to let the inter-city road infrastructure deteriorate is just not acceptable.
PIR SHABBIR AHMAD
Islamabad
RECENTLY I had been to my native city of Nawabshah after many years and visited my class fellows, friends and places where I had spent most of my precious time as a student. I particularly went to see my old class fellows and was sorry to note that many of them were dead and some were suffering from various diseases.
I particularly went to see the municipal library at Chakra Bazaar (Circular Road) in the heart of the city where I used to spend at least four to five hours a day and seven to eight hours on holidays during my high school and college study in the city.
The municipal library was located in the heart of the city where it was easy to reach. It was surrounded by a beautiful circular green park, and outside there was an iron grille. The atmosphere of the library was conducive. Here newspapers and magazines, both Pakistani and foreign, were available for reading. Certainly this library must have helped a great many people in their lives.
The location of the library attracted people from surrounding villages who would come to the city with their family members for shopping, particularly during hot days, and would take rest for some time in the park of the library.
Now the beautiful park is gone, and two to three rows of shops surround the library. It is difficult to find the way to the library. There are some 50 shops, each having paid goodwill money worth Rs1 million. Thus a sum of Rs50 million was illegally obtained by the former administrator.
Finally, when I got the way to the library, I was shocked to note it was in one small room looking like a dark cell of a prison. It was very difficult to read any newspaper with concentration due to busy shops there.
I was told that one person who was administrator of the Nawabshah Municipal Corporation and belonged to a political party had sold the shops for making illegal money.
I would request the leader of his party not to give any ticket to such people in the ensuing general election, or else they will sell all government property like airports and railway stations.
MOHAMMAD KHAN SIAL
Karachi
A DEMOCRATIC system based on egalite, on the idea of all people being born equal, cannot sustain where the hearts of people are becoming desiccated, where compassion, charity, grace, and humanity are being lost as a result of self-interested materialism and ethical cowardice.
A society that does not assist its weak, elderly and infirmed, that lends no helping neighbourly hand to those in need, that judges and condemns the down and out, that neglects and condemns the disadvantaged even further as their circumstances worsen generation after generation, fails to fulfil its potential, and creates the bases for increasing inhumanity and social unrest.
A conservatism that worships commercial productivity but rejects and downplays activities conducive to the cultivation of the soil and soul cannot but fail to conserve the spirit upon which democracies and civil societies are maintained.
A work ethic that implies we are only productive and useful when we are making or spending money, when we are producing and consuming more or less, that negates the importance of spiritual and cultural enrichment, that holds in low regard qualities such as charity, compassion, grace, loyalty, and thankfulness for the providence of nature, cannot protect or preserve the bases for family, for civil society, for national integrity, or for democracy.
Any country that is losing social or communal conscience pays many times over through the need for increasingly severe law-enforcement measures and the loss of basic liberties.
We know that democracy is not infallible or eternal, because it has failed in history. Desires for equality, freedom, and liberty that found expression in modern times in the establishment of egalitarial democracies around the world arose because of a deep courage and conviction among the founders of nations that all people are born equal, that the heavens bless the meek, the pure of heart, the peacemakers.
For a country to be fair, just, and prosperous, the proceeds from the exploitation of its natural assets and resources should be shared fairly.
A generation that exploits its natural resources, then passes on the debt in terms of a degraded environment, a sequestered toxic and radioactive legacy, depleted national institutions, and a degraded, desiccated heartland is unworthy of trust, respect, or support.
BRUCE TERRY
Lenah Valley,
Tasmania
I WAS travelling with my family from Chakwal on the motorway that our car stopped on the way. With great difficulty we were able to reach the last service area. The first thing that we came to know was that there was no CNG on the service station.
After barely covering a kilometre or more, our car broke down and we stopped at a deserted place. It was 10pm and there was complete darkness around us. I quickly called the Motorway police from emergency call boxes installed for help.
My repeated efforts proved futile as a recorded voice message asked to wait for the operator but I could not find anyone on the other side to respond to the voice message.
In a desperate attempt I called one of my friends to get an emergency number of the Motorway police. I called again at the number and within five minutes the Motorway mobile workshop and patrolling car reached the scene and helped us out of the trouble. I thank the Motorway police for their quick action.
MUHAMMAD AAMIR
Rawalpindi
“The present state of things is the consequence of the past: and it is natural to inquire as to the sources of the good we enjoy or the evils we suffer. If we act only for ourselves, to neglect the study of history is not prudent; if entrusted with care of others, it is not just”. — Samuel Johnson
Dr Mubark Ali, while dilating on ‘Remembering 1857’ (Nov 11), has pinpointed lack of enthusiasm for 150th anniversary of such a significant event of the history of the subcontinent. He has identified correctly that it was due to the reason that since 1960 history hasn’t been taught properly in schools and colleges as an independent subject.
An appreciable transformation has nonetheless been observed, as a seminar was held recently at GIK Institute of Engineering and Science and Technology, themed “1857 war provided basis for Pakistan”, reported in Dawn (Nov 15): its premise though remains debatable.
It is an irrefutable fact that after 1947 history was consciously marginalised in this part. Deterioration begun when after Ayub’s takeover numerous changes were introduced in the syllabus, which include downgrading history to some ‘selective chapters’ suited to the regime and that too was relegated to a part of social studies.
‘History,” Thomas Carlyle, an eminent thinker, has said, “as it lies at the root of all science, is also the first distinct product of man’s spiritual nature: his earliest expression of what can be called Thought. It is a looking before and after: as, indeed, the coming”.
Therefore, continuous lack of familiarity with it caused incalculable distortion to historical perception of people at large; it, however, impaired more extensively when it comes to class of professionals whose occupation is to educate the people.
Thus, as a result of myopic approach, history almost lost its significance in our society, leaving the nation without any ‘sense of history’. Now leaving aside the young generation, even the generation of the 60s, who was fed on ‘selective history’, is completely oblivious of the import of this most essential branch of human knowledge.
Regrettably this age group lacking understanding of history currently occupies positions in almost every walk of life. The reason for showing scant regard for historical events is, therefore, quite comprehensible.
Dr Ali is right that causes of great insurrection were numerous: social, political, economical, and religious and, above all, loss of national identify. The British period is, however, divided in two parts: the period prior to 1858 when the English East India Company (EIC) was having control over the affairs and after 1858 when the British parliament abolished the EIC and transferred the company’s’ responsibilities to the crown.
It is during the later period when various reforms were introduced in the administration, judiciary and education. Infrastructure such as a communication network and an irrigation system was developed so as to pass on some benefits to the natives.
On the political side the Indian National Congress, political party that led the struggle for India’s independence and later dominated the country’s government, was founded in 1885 by Alvin Octavian Hume, originally advocating limited democratic reforms under the British rule and obtaining a greater share in the government for the educated. These reforms changed the mindset which ultimately culminated into freedom: achived through constitutional means.
As regards the two opium wars discussed in the article, the interesting part is that the western powers, which are making strenuous efforts now to obliterate poppy in Afghanistan, thrust two wars on China only to keep on the prohibited trade.
Britain and France, otherwise Europe’s traditional enemies, joined hands in these wars for the common cause of obtaining concessions of contraband trade. It was in the first opium war that the Chinese agreed to negotiate, and at gunpoint signed the Treaty of Nanjing (Nanking) on Aug 29, 1842, according to which, besides opening four more Chinese ports to trade (Fuzhou, Ningbo, Shanghai and Xiamen), ceded the island of Hong Kong to the British.
ALTAMASH M. KURESHI
Karachi
I AM a resident of the Defence Housing Authority, Karachi, and I have been using the FTC flyover twice daily for the last two years at peak traffic hours between 6 and 6:30pm back and forth to work. At this time, the flyover is jammed with all sorts of vehicles including heavy trucks coming from the Korangi industrial area, long-chassis buses, average-sized cargo carriers, coaches, cars and other innumerable city vehicles.
I want to bring this to the notice of the authorities through your newspaper that there is another potential disaster looming close on the horizon, like the Shershah Bridge that collapsed recently. But this time the loss of lives will be much greater.
The entire belt of this flyover, which covers Sharae Faisal, jolts heavily when a truck, loaded tanker or bus passes over it. If you are waiting in your car anywhere along this portion of the flyover, you can feel strong shudders of the road joints repeatedly several times.
Even when the vehicles are jammed on the flyover, the stationary weight of thousands of tons of the traffic is extremely damaging to the flyover. It should be expedited for a smooth flow of traffic as it happens everywhere else in the world.
On the contrary, the situation is different: the traffic constable posted at the end of the flyover stops the traffic for 15 to 30 minutes daily. If this practice persists, the flyover is going to meet the same fate as the Shershah Bridge. The ascending and descending ramps are unaffected, only the bridge jolts dangerously.
The term ‘flyover’ is self-explanatory. The traffic must be allowed to flow out. This matter should be treated like an SOS signal. Are we going to allow the flyover to collapse and then wake up once the disaster has taken place?
DR QAIS FAROOQUI
Karachi
I WAS saddened to learn from Dr Shireen Khan’s letter (Nov 10) that Radio Pakistan was devastated by fire.
I know the building well and visited twice a month from 1957 to 1962 to rehearse and participate in airing of a half-hour local talent (western music) late-night show.
In those days, M. A. Jinnah Road was known as Bunder Road.
I know the referenced pianos first-hand because I was the official piano accompanist for the programme and my signature tunes were the theme from ‘A Summer’s Place’ and ‘Canadian Sunset’.
During this time, Canada was providing assistance to Wapda in Pakistan and I provided background piano accompaniment for a group of Pakistani children singing ‘O Canada’ for a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation TV documentary. None of us had ever heard this song before.
Thank you, Radio Pakistan, for introducing me to Canada because that is where I am today.
AL FALCAO
Canada
THAT the electronic media could possibly face the imposition of curbs after its activism during the popular uprising against the government that began in March, the outcome is something people had not previously anticipated.
The regime is constantly trying to silence its opposition through ‘legally’ ruthless actions.
But, in the meanwhile, a bit of mischief that made me smile was information minister’s ludicrous statement at the recent inauguration of a press building.
The federal minister had the temerity to tell the journalists that the media is completely free in Pakistan and it is his government that has ensured this freedom.
Respected Minister, you’ve wonderful dexterity to rustle up fun.
SAJJAD HUSSAIN
Quetta
KEEPING all political issues aside, one of the biggest twinges of the imposition of emergency has been the bitter experience of watching PTV.
After years it seems that everything in the country is going hunky-dory and we are on our way to prosperity and well-being. Pakistan has emerged as the biggest economic and social power of the region and the nation is reaping the fruits of this majestic achievement.
The only thing that’s constant is PTV’s background sets and the same old traditional vases, ribbons and furniture being used for ages.
ALTAMASH J. LONE
Karachi
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