| November 19, 2007 | Monday | Ziqa’ad 08, 1428 |
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How we lost the Frontier
What governs a society?
Far from the crowd
Clarification
Tribute to organ donors
The country is normal
Plight of policemen
Incomplete service road
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
IN an attempt to ward off world pressure and justify the imposition of emergency, President Musharraf has come up with a new argument (Nov 14).
He put a question to an American TV channel: “Is democracy more important than Pakistan?” Also, “When a nation is about to be declared a failed state, tell me whether the (restoration) of so-called democracy is important or efforts to save the country?”
This argument is untenable. He is still refusing to believe that Pakistan has reached this dangerous situation only because of his policies. He appears to think that his one man’s wisdom is greater than that of 160 million Pakistanis. The president should consider the possibility that at least, theoretically, his conclusion of his indispensability for the country could be wrong.
A reality check must be carried out. Instead of considering himself to be some kind of deity without whom the nation just can’t survive, he should let the citizens decide whether they agree with him, by holding free and fair elections. This must not be by his own assessment of what constitutes fair electioneering but by acceding to what the domestic and international observers recommend.
A number of surveys by respectable organisations, including the International Republican Institute, have shown that his popularity has continued to plummet and was around 21 per cent last month, which may be lower now.
Some other logical ways of assessing the validity of his conclusion could be done by looking at how President Bush’s decision, which he ascribed to God, to invade Iraq has turned out to be disastrous. Pakistan and many other countries, including France and Germany, had opposed the invasion. However, Gen Musharraf had been trying very hard a couple of years back to send our soldiers to Iraq to allow the American forces to withdraw. Time has shown that the nation was absolutely correct in opposing his move.
Another telling fact is that even two months back some foreign newspapers had foreseen the president’s intentions based on his wrong conclusions. In a candid assessment, the New York Times had written: “If the general won’t listen to his own people, Washington needs to tell him the facts of Pakistan’s increasingly precarious political rife. It’s time for Gen Musharraf to leave the military, for Pakistan to hold free and fair elections ....” (Dawn, Sept 12).
The Indian Express was even more blunt and accurate: “The surest sign of fading dictatorship is self-delusion. With no possibility of legally extending his tenure either as president or as army chief, Musharraf might have to fall back on martial law.
“As he sinks, Musharraf may want to take Pakistan with him. But that is not where the people of Pakistan want to go (Dawn, Sept 12).”
How prescient and absolutely right! This is precisely what almost all the writers and correspondents have been trying to tell Musharraf through these pages. But, he is simply refusing to face reality. It is obvious to everyone that the president is deluding himself and the nation by saying he is the only person who can save Pakistan. With every passing month and week he is adding to our list of troubles.
Colton’s sagacious words must be heeded: “We strive as hard to hide our hearts from ourselves as from others, and always with more success; for in deciding upon our own case we are both judge, jury and executioner, and where sophistry cannot overcome the first or flattery the second, self-love is always ready to defeat the sentence by bribing the third.”
S. KARIM
Karachi
THIS is in connection with the explanation by Rashid Siddiqi as to ‘how we lost the Frontier’ (Nov 12). I dare say we never lost the Frontier, the little educated and ignorant mullahs and religious fanatics of this province have lost us.
This accusation that the successive governments never had a Frontier policy does not seem to be close to reality. Tell us, if the governments had Balochistan policy, Sindh or Punjab policy? During my schooling days, in fact it was the Ayub Khan era, we used to hear that Islamabad has to satisfy all the five provinces (the former province of East Pakistan was still with us).
Mr Siddiqi thinks that the Frontier has been neglected by the centre. It is the failure of the Frontier people who did not alleviate it themselves. The Baloch think that Balochistan has been kept deliberately backward – meaning that the government did not have a Balochistan policy — as Mr Siddiqi would suggest.
More or less, same was the complaint of former East Pakistan. I think ours is a nation of complainers besides being ignorant. Perhaps ignorance nudges you to complain. Sindh also complained negligibly. The study would tell you that the smaller the province – manpower-wise – the greater are complaints. Also the higher the education level, the fewer would be the grievances. Perhaps for this reason Punjab never had complaints.
Mr Siddiqi, be assured it is the mistakes of everybody all around: I do not have to enumerate them. Half of our people are uneducated — which means that we are an ignorant nation. Such nations make mistakes because of their inability to do thing right. Our governments have been composed of men from this nation but slightly literate, few of them knowledgeable.
I would tell you now the chief reason of government forces not defeating the Taliban and religious extremists: there will be a lot of killing of our own people if the full-scale attack is launched; these people never thought in such terms because they are supplied with the much-needed money, sophisticated weapons and training facilities from the enemies of Pakistan — the Indian embassy and its various consulates and Northern Alliance in neighbouring Afghanistan.
An army operation may start to: (a) eradicate foreign militants who urge and help locals to fight, and (b) cut the supply lines.
M. K. NAQVI
Karachi
ONE would like to share a story with the readers. A long time back, while working overseas I had a Christian female colleague who was originally from Armenia. By a great coincidence it turned out that her last name (if I remember correctly) was Oozounian, which, like the Chaudhry in South Asia, mean ‘a village headman’.
We were both very touched to note how people from far away, belonging to different races and religions, could have names with the same meanings as well as other similarities.
One day we started discussing Bertrand Russell’s book, Power. She didn’t quite agree with Russell’s proposition that it is power, rather than sex, as hypothesised by Freud, or wealth, as propounded by Marx, which truly governs the dynamics of a society.
The lady thought Freud’s theory explained things better. In support of her argument she told me a story. A relative of hers, who was very fond of wine and women, couldn’t stay content with being just a village head because he thought he could access a lot more women if he had more power.
Ultimately, he rose to be a provincial chief and this afforded him a great opportunity to satisfy his two appetites — wine and women. Thus, she reasoned it was his physical needs, not power itself, which pushed him towards acquiring the latter. In the end, the man got reckless and was caught in bed with the wife of his benefactor, who was higher up in the pecking order. She summed it up with the Armenian saying: “Warm up a frozen snake and she will bite you.”
I admitted her argument was very strong but told her about the founder of Pakistan, Mr Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who seemed not be governed by Freudian or Russelian theories, since he was driven neither by sex nor power. He also had a fair amount of wealth, which didn’t make him lose his head, either.
My colleague had to agree that everything could be made subservient if one has enough self-control. Then I told her about the saying of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), “The most excellent Jihad is that for the conquest of self,” with which she readily concurred. The readers, especially the psychologists and sociologists, are requested to offer their views on what really governs social dynamics.
Q. I. CHAUDHRY
Karachi
I READ Nizamuddin Nizamani’s comments on relocation of the US consulate from its present location that would give relief to “common pedestrians, motorbike riders, pickups, families travelling in highroofs and the book lovers like him, who are deprived of the pleasure of going to Frere Hall Library and Sunday Book Bazara” (Dawn, Nov 13).
But he has not sympathised with the Pakistan Central Cotton Committee (PCCC) and the Wool Testing House laboratories that are under the ministry of food, agriculture and livestock (Minfal), which were unceremoniously evicted from their legal locations, where they stood for over half-a-century at a stretch.
It is more painful to see that both PCCC and Wool Testing House were given no alternative locations.
Both the research institutions had international reputation and had the honour to be visited by dignitaries. The US consulate is now being built on their ashes with no regard to their enviable historic past. What is disappointing is to see why the authorities did not explore other options for relocation of the US consulate that could save the majestic building of the PCCC, of which the cotton research workers were proud of?
On account of quick ejectment, the PCCC, having no other option, has rushed into a highrise building, which is not ideal for cotton research at all. If this is how we yield to foreign or local pressure, no wonder, if tomorrow other foreign missions start to come up with more ridiculous demands for their relocation.
There is ample land available on the Super Highway far from the maddening crowd, why not the authorities consider building a ‘diplomatic enclave’ for the foreign missions to live there in peace and tranquillity with tight security?
M. SHAFIQUE AHMED
Karachi
APROPOS of Aisha Jalil’s letter, ‘Students awards’ (Nov 10), it is clarified that the chancellor had announced cash awards of Rs25,000, and not Rs35,000, to each faculty position holder, and not to each gold medallist.
Soon after the convocation, the vice-chancellor, in his letter to the governor, gave a list of faculty position holders from the years 2003 and 2005. There were, in all, 33 position holders. Within a week 33 crossed cheques in the name of the students concerned were received. The university contacted the students and the cheques were later given to them in the office of the deputy registrar.
The chancellor wanted to greet the students personally at a function at the Governor’s House, but because of his pressing official preoccupations that was not possible. In order to avoid any delay in distribution of cash awards, the chancellor had decided to send the cross- cheques to the university for onward distribution to the students concerned.
MUHAMMAD NASEERUDDIN
Deputy Registrar
(Academics) Karachi
University
DECEASED organ transplantation is a life-saving medical science which saved thousands of end-stage organ failure patients worldwide. This is practised in majority of countries, including in many Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Oman, Kuwait and Muscat. This is the need of the hour because people wish to live. Live and let live is a human norm of every society and every religion.
When they were alive, Naveed and Shamim had dreamt of donating their organs which their parents fulfilled after their death.
Naveed was the first deceased organ donor of Pakistan. He met with a road accident and was admitted to the Liaquat National Hospital, Karachi, where he was kept on ventilator (artificial respiratory machine). Doctors tried their best to save his life but did not succeed. He was diagnosed brain-dead by a neurophysician and an intensivist. The family took the decision to donate his organ because Naveed had wished it in his life. Naveed’s father contacted the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT), Karachi, which is a public-sector hospital providing health facilities free of cost to all patients and has been performing renal transplantation for the last 23 years.Both the kidneys were transplanted on two end-stage renal failure patients who had no donor in their families. His two corneas were transplanted on two blind persons. Four people are enjoying life with their children and families and back to society. One could imagine the joy and happiness of patients receiving the organs.
Shamim was the second deceased organ donor of our country. A social worker belonging to the Hunza valley, she was ever keen to help others and wished for donating her organ after death. And it so happened that one day she met with an accident and died. Her family approached SIUT for organ donation. Her kidneys and cornea were transplanted on needy persons.
After the promulgation of the Deceased Organ Donation Ordinance, many people from different walks of life have filled donor cards in a campaign organised by SIUT on Oct 25. Amongst them were Abdul Sattar Edhi, a well-known social worker, Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Majida Rizvi, columnist Ardeshir Cowasjee, Vice-Chancellor of Karachi University S. Pirzada Qasim, educationist and former IBA director Dr Abdul Wahab, Prof. Haroon Ahmed, Dr Sethna and Dr Kaleem Butt, businessman Shaukat Tareen , lawyer Iqbal Haider, Zubeida Mustafa and Dr Jabbar Khattak from the print media, Anwar Maqsood and Sultana Siddiqui from the electronic media, sportsman Sikandar Bakht, engineers, doctors and paramedics from SIUT, social workers, students and people from Hindu, Christian and Parsi communities.
We should pay tribute to Naveed and Shamim who donated their organs and saved lives and set an example for others. We also praise those who wished to donate their organs after death.
It shows that as a nation we are very humble, generous and helping. To help others in need is appreciable.
DR MURLI LAL
Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation
Karachi
PUBLIC response to protest calls of political parties against the imposition of emergency and the PCO is ridiculously poor. Common man’s life in the country is unaffected. Marketplaces are wide open, public transport plying in full and shoppers are busy buying what they need unhampered. Similarly government offices as also private sector organizations and schools, colleges and universities are functioning normally.
So, a handful of lawyers, journalists, human rights activists and hired workers of political parties, I understand, cannot make any difference to President Pervaiz Musharraf’s programme of what he calls smooth and peaceful transition to democracy.
People, by and large, if one looks at the ground realities, are not willing to go with Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif. What one reads in newspapers about agitations and demonstrations is in contradiction to what one sees in the streets, which otherwise are peaceful. Issuing statements by political parties and individuals against emergency and PCO and magnifying agitations and demonstrations that are taking place on a ridiculously small scale cannot make any difference to President Musharraf.
In my view Benazir Bhutto has lost much of her charm, firstly, because of her absence from the country for a long period, involvement in various cases and what is called a deal with President Musharraf and, finally, a revolt in her own family, with Fatima Bhutto in the lead.
Nawaz Sharif exile, too, has largely faded him from the political scene of Pakistan.
Freedom of the press is something which cannot be properly assimilated in our society. Objective reporting of events is totally absent. A classic case in point: There is hardly any report in the print and electronic media about the poor response to protest calls and the normalcy of life in the country.
In the circumstances, President Musharraf appears to be the people’s choice. People look united in giving him the opportunity of continuing the country’s march to progress.
BURHANUDDIN
Karachi
WE were on rotation at the Civil Hospital OPD one day when a policeman came in for consultation. He had pains in multiple joints and was a classic case of rheumatic arthritis. Rheumatic arthritis being an auto-immune condition requires extensive treatment which this man will never be able to afford on his meagre income of Rs8,000. According to him, the government had announced a pay raise of Rs2,000 more but it hasn’t made it to his bank account yet.
I don’t understand why military employees, who are in action one-tenth the time, get paid much more and are given more facilities. Pakistani policemen risk their lives (willingly or unwillingly) every day and not only are they deprived of additional facilities, even at the time of their death, there is hardly any compensation.
A friend in the Navy, who retired 10 years ago, recently got a reasonably-sized plot for a joke. He already has a house and club memberships courtesy the Navy. Has anyone gone and looked at the filthy housing policemen have been allotted?
My patient will ultimately lose the ability to carry out his job and will die a slow death, simply because the people he served couldn’t care less about him. My friend in the Navy will never go without the best of everything even though he quit serving 10 years ago. How is this any semblance of justice?
WAJIHA JAZIL FARUQI
Karachi
THE service road of 100 feet double track on the left side of Super Highway while driving towards toll gate has remained incomplete for decades. Actually there are two service roads of 100 feet wide each with a double track both running parallel to the Super Highway. This is a small portion of service road which has been heavily encroached upon by tractors, bull dozers and other earth-moving machinery together with hundreds of huts of Afghan refugees.
It is important that this portion of service road is completed. Heavy congestion of traffic is observed on this small portion of the Super Highway because of obstruction created by the road building machinery and the huts of Afghan refugees. Many accidents take place over here.
The traffic on the Super Highway slows down to a snail’s pace. It is quite puzzling as to why action is not taken to clear that much portion of service road so that it can be joined up ahead with the already completed road stretching all the way up to the toll gate and beyond.
The chief minister, the governor and the chief secretary of Sindh should take note of this.
Osman A. Karim
Karachi
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