| November 24, 2007 | Saturday | Ziqa’ad 13, 1428 |
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Student leadership
Paradise lost
Women’s manhandling by police
Saving the environment
Lagay raho...
Missing Inzamam
Wheat pricing in Pakistan
Consumer prices
Relinquish your office
Spread of viral fever
No political culture
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
ON Dec 17, 1971 the fall of Dhaka flashed a wave of shock and melancholy throughout West Pakistan and one can vividly remember how hoarsely the patriots had cried then.
On every Dec 17, thereafter, articles are written and seminars held to remember, with tears, that black day that brought about the dissection of links between two communities of Muslim brethren of the same country. Alas! No rapprochement in any form was made with the Bangladeshi people when their country was struck by the recent cyclones and flood that left more than 10,000 people dead and rendered hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshis homeless.
For those of us who had remained irreconciled to the division of the Quaid-i-Azam’s Pakistan in 1971, the recent unfortunate devastation in Bangladesh provided an opportunity to bring the two people closer together by extending maximum moral and monetary help to the victims of the natural calamity.
Just recall the stance of Bangladeshis when a major part of northern Pakistan and Kashmir was devastated by an earthquake in October 2005. Despite their meagre resources Bangladesh was the first country to respond with material help to the plight of victims of the quake.
Where are the religious parties and the jihadi groups and the lofty politicians? In 1971 when the situation required cooling of differing emotions, the Jamaat-i-Islami was engaged in raising Al Badar and Al Shams force to fuel fighting between West Pakistani forces and Bengalis.
Today the same party is busy fuelling differences between the establishment and the opposition in order to carve a place for its members in the next government,
How can they pay attention to the plight of Muslim Bengalis in their hour of grief. The jihadis are too pre-occupied raising suicide squads for the destruction of fellow Muslims. For them, deaths of Bangladeshi Muslims as a result of a natural disaster hold no significance. Not a single maulvi has exhorted the ‘momins’ at Friday congregations to help the Bangladeshi victims of the recent calamity.
On the other hand, these maulvis are quick to use Friday congregations to whip up feelings against their rivals in the name of Islam. The government of Pakistan too has been very cool towards the sufferings of the Bangladeshis. A mere telephone call of sympathy from President.Pervez Musharraf to the head of state in Bangladesh, Dr Fakhruddin Ahmad, is not enough.
Pakistan must come forward immediately and send teams of doctors, medicines, food items and tents and blankets to Bangladesh to rehabilitate the population affected by the recent cyclone. It is a moment for the numerous NGOs that hold seminars on the fall of Dhaka, in airconditioned halls of five-star hotels to reach out to the victims in the flood-affected areas of Bangladesh.
Helping our brethren in Bangladesh in time of their hour of grief is the best way to heel the scars that were left on the face of Muslims 36 years ago.
SAYED G. B. SHAH BOKHARI
Peshawar
Political training as part of education can make students active citizens who work for the welfare of other students and produce leadership in them, but the current scenario suggests an opposite situation, they all engage in violence. We need new blood in national politics.
As Pakistan is and has always been ruled by the military and the feudals, it’s necessary more than ever to bring the fresh educated masses in politics. Aristotle said: “When the system becomes corrupt everyone will jump into politics, only two types of people won’t – the ones who are too afraid to face the hardships or the ones who are benefiting from the system”.
So in our not-so-perfect system we can’t stay aloof or totally indifferent to it. Most of our ‘respectable’ middle class just sits back and pessimistically complain. They don’t have any right to complain if they are not doing anything to fix it.
Student politics should not be banned. If educational institutions can produce future engineers, teachers and doctors, it can also produce good politicians. Saying that politics should be banned is denying political justice. Students should have full liberty to associate themselves with any organisation because freedom of expression includes freedom of thought, speech, and communication. So it’s not politics that should be banned but the violence.
Strict law enforcement should ensue so that no matter who tries to break the law, strict action is immediately taken against him. Second, university administrations should perform their duties well. Not being able to manage students is a failure on their part. The curriculum taught should not contain elements of prejudice or distorted political facts.
Finally, dialogue and political debates should be encouraged.
Political leaders are to be blamed for violence because they misuse the energies of the youth by giving them weapons and protection against the law. The students and their leaders need to be more tolerant and responsible. They should focus their energies on solving student issues and instead of using force, try to communicate their message peacefully. In this way, we can have a useful political setup in the country and student politics will be able to play a role.
AIMAN HAMEED
Karachi
SWAT has been gifted with special beauty. Therefore, this wonderful valley has attracted many people across the world due its beauty. It had been a host to many tourists every year. Unfortunately this year the local people are abandoning it due to the uncertain situation.
Negligence on the part of the government has cost us winsome Swat. I place the responsibility on the government because it had given a free hand to the clerics of this area. These narrow-minded clerics through FM radios incited the simple Swati against the government. A few days back, they slaughtered many government servants ruthlessly, who, according to their conviction, were not Muslims, because they had no beards and long hair. These so-called Mujahideen defamed Swat and Islam in particular in the world by slaughtering human beings.
The government has deployed troops here, but it is too late. Many civilians will be killed and many government institutions will be damaged during the indispensable operation. Paradise is lost because of the hypocrisy of clerics, simplicity of Swatis and negligence of the government. It will be an uphill task for the government to regain this paradise.
NAJEEBULLAH
Swat
WHAT has been going on , especially in the last two weeks, is simply deplorable , disgusting and despicable. Actions by the military government agents to thwart the voice of the people is never going to work and the efforts of the people will not go in vain.
Today the situation in Pakistan reached new heights when I saw on TV women being manhandled by policemen while they were protesting against Imran Khan’s arrest. The dual role of Jamaat-i-Islami students played on the campus is worse than a hypocrite would play, they are sell-outs, nothing else. This is the only government of Pakistan that has subdued the judicial system to a level where the International Legal Association has come out on the streets in large numbers to protest the brutality and one man’s rule.
Never has a government used plainclothes policemen with uniformed policemen to create terror when the masses are protesting the injustice. This is the worst regime if we compare to all the regimes of the past: a matter of regret for all of us. By staying in power, our military man is doing a disservice to Pakistan.
PERWAIZ AHMAD
USA
THIS is with reference to the letter (Nov 9) regarding cutting of cornicopus trees. I cannot more than agree with the writer; the whole world is right now concerned about the changing climate and the associated changes felt every now and then in the form of cyclones, heavy snowfalls and droughts.
The need to grow as many trees as possible can never be overemphasised as there exists no other way so far to fight the CO2 emissions and global warming. This is also true that cornicopus is the most environment-friendly tree suited best to our soil and climatic conditions notwithstanding the saline subsoil water in the city.
A majority of households have started growing this tree in their surroundings having discovered its qualities. It is, however, heart-wrenching to see that the public sector departments, like always, are totally oblivious when the lower staff treats this tree like a shrub or creeper. These trees grown on many road islands/parks of Defence, Clifton and other areas of the city need to be given a chance to grow to their full height. Let’s have a cleaner and greener Pakistan.
AMNA HAMZA
Karachi
IT was nice to see in Dawn’s issue of Nov 22 the picture of a female journalist offering a red rose to a police official outside Karachi Press Club despite the police’s brutal behaviour with the journalists a day before.
This reminded me of Indian movie ‘Lage Raho Munna Bhai’ in which Munna Bhai (Sanjay Dutt) launches peaceful defiance through the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, which he calls ‘Gandhigiri’.
He sends flower bouquets to the landlord of an old-age home who forces the occupants of the house to vacate.
Following in the footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi by adopting a peaceful way of protest, he asks the general public to send flower bouquets to the landlord of the old-age home with a ‘Get Well Soon’ card, and ‘Gandhigiri’ does wonders for Munna Bhai.
I think it is time we Pakistanis started sending flower bouquets to the presidency for Gen Pervez Musharraf with ‘Get Well Soon’ cards. Let us put ‘Gandhigiri’ to test in Pakistan.
M. RAFIQUE ZAKARIA
Karachi
WE Indians are missing Inzamamul Haq in action in the ongoing Test series against India. He should not have called it a day when there is enough cricket left in him. He has immense potential to play cricket for Pakistan for at least next two to three years. Inzamam’s batting prowess has not weaned down. Next to Zaheer Abbas, it is only Inzamam who has taken Pakistan batting to greater heights. Without doubt, he is Pakistan’s pride.
K. PRADEEP
India
WE had a bumper crop of wheat of 23.5 million tons this year. This was sufficient to go for the local consumption. Many economists had doubts about the figure of wheat crop. We had about 20,000 tons from the last year’s crop in our stock also.
Just after the budget for 2007-8, the special secretary, ministry of finance, Dr Ashfaque Hassan Khan, said several times on TV channels that wheat was being hoarded by some people and even containers were parked at petrol pumps and available in godowns. The government did not find a single kilogram!
Then, we saw five million tons of wheat being exported to India and 1,000 tons gifted to Bangladesh.
Suddenly, it was halted on the pretext that it is going to be in short supply in the near future. Now, we are planning to import one million tons of wheat.
What is the use of so many people working in the ministry of food and agriculture.
The responsibility, finally, falls on the shoulders of the overstaffed planning commission which is doing these wasteful exercises of first exporting the product and then importing the same at much a higher price. In the meantime, the consumers did not get any wheat flour during Ramazan. Somebody should take the responsibility for the fiasco. And more important, did we do the right figures of our production of 23.5 million tons of wheat?
The price of wheat flour at the time of the budget was Rs15 to Rs16 per kg.
Today, it is not available in many parts of the country and if available it costs Rs20 to Rs21 per kilo.
The crop of Australia is half of normal. India has shortage of wheat and is importing from Iran and Russia.
If we import this wheat from abroad, the European price is around $400 per ton FOB. The C and F price of imported wheat will not be less than Rs26 per kg.
What is wrong is that we paid to our farmer the price of Rs10.63 per kg and now we are importing wheat at the rate of Rs26. Does it make any sense? For the poor farmer, our government. controls every item of input, viz. fertiliser, pesticides and water, and then we pay him as little as possible. Why should we pay double the price to foreigners and not to our farmers? Is there some logic behind this?
Europe and the US pay a subsidy of $300 billion to their farmers while we every time try to fleece our farmers. What a pity?
INAYAT ULLAH SHEIKH
Karachi
SULTAN Ahmed has recently highlighted the rising inflationary pressure on the consumers. Inflation is the primary indicator of healthy consumption which is the outcome of improved purchasing power. Businessman’s greed is a common phenomenon all over the world, however, like everything else in our society, the element of greed is more intense in our business-folk.
They bribe the administration, earn high profits at the consumer’s expense and then bribe the tax department to make further windfalls. Now they are into politics to make it even more corrupt.
A similar situation existed even in the land of the plenty (USA) until an individual called Ralph Nader took up the issue to expose the large-scale manufacturers and businesses by publicising their hidden faults which were harmful for human consumption. His effort laid the foundation for ‘consumer societies’. We have copied this feature but obviously it is not functional, like everything else.
It falls to the consumer to take charge: if we can restrict our purchases, insist on buying only what is needed, buy the best and not buy trash with our hard-earned money with the intent to bring down the prices, a lot can be achieved. Of course, this would mean tangible sacrifice.
My family and I always consume much less during Ramazan, as it is intended. If all families skip one meal for three days in a week (a self-imposed extension of the fasting duty) we would be healthier, reduce pressure on the wallet and compel the business folk to see reason. Our ‘we’ up to the challenge?
SYED RAHEEL MAHMOOD
USA
MR President, I am a well- wisher of yours. As said in earlier mails, you had done good to your country, but all things come to an end. I accept you are supported by the army, but there had been to much water under the bridge, it is time that you vacate the office. I list the reasons for it.
The emergency should have been declared by the president and the commander-in-chief of the defence forces. However, it was done by the chief of the Army staff. The implication being that the Army ignored the president in doing so.
The sacking of the judges is unprecedented in modern democracies. It will be impossible for you to exonerate yourself from this act. People of Pakistan will not accept you turning the country into a Myanmar. If people don’t want you, say: “Hell to you, I am going”. Let them sort their problems.
Ten years are more than enough to be a president. I fail to reason your desire for power.
Your political problems are encouraging religious fanatics who are exploiting the unstable political climate.
S.A. KHAN
London
THE Karachi city government’s much-trumpeted claim of development in the city is meaningless when at the distance of not more than a few kilometres, which is within the civil jurisdiction of the metropolis, people are dying of viral fever for want of medical facilities. The report, ‘No government help as viral fever toll arises’ (Nov, 10), is an eye-opener for civil society.
The coastal area of the Keamari town, bordering Hub and inhabited mostly by impoverished fishermen communities, is afflicted by ‘viral fever epidemic’ which took 14 lives in a few months. These people are so poor that they cannot even manage the transport charges to approach city hospitals, let alone pay for medicines and doctors’ fees.
The irony is that the only medical facility available in the locality is a small government dispensary, which has reportedly been not functional for the last decade as the doctors and staff posted here hardly attend their duties. It is deprived of basic necessity such as healthcare.
I request the authorities, i.e. the honourable governor, the chief minister and the minister for health, to pay special attention to the affairs of the health department so that health facilities can be made accessible to the neglected areas, specially the one reported above, at the earliest.
As for abandoned dispensary already available in the said area, the instructions for its reactivation, along with essential medicines, may be issued immediately and those responsible for delinquency be taken to task so that inhabitants can get the required treatment and feeling of not being abandoned by society.
MANSOOR UL HAQUE SOLANGI
Karachi
THIS is apropos of Mr Burhanuddin’s letter (Nov 19) in which he has claimed (though based on spurious arguments) that the masses are either indifferent to the current political situation or they are content with Musharraf’s doings.
He is right that the life of the common people goes ‘unaffected’. When did any government think for the common people? Common people have never been the priority of military and civil oligarchy that has brought this country to a standstill.
There are a lot happening on the streets of the country that speaks volume for the common people and their struggle to get rid of a military dictator. Does this struggle and resistance (though sparse) not tell the difference between affected and unaffected?
What is more disturbing is the existentialist notion (indeed a slur) that Musharraf is the ‘people’s choice’.
Unfortunately, we were never allowed to have a political culture of dissent and resistance. That is why we have become myopic in political analysis.
RIZWAN AKHTAR
Lahore
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