| December 02, 2007 | Sunday | Ziqa’ad 21, 1428 |
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Transparent election
Freedom of expression
Welcome to Turkish president
Student leadership
If polls are postponed
Unplanned construction
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
I WISH to share with Maulana Fazlullah and the likes calling for ‘Shariah’ an incident that happened to me some years ago at Malakand. Having spent some days there with a friend about some work, I was scheduled to return the following day to Peshawar when we happened to meet a friend of his. He invited me to be his guest before I left.
This young man was not well-off. He didn’t have much of an education and was unemployed for most of his life, doing various small jobs to make ends meet. I was later told that his father had died many years before and that he had only his mother and no other sibling. His home was a small mud-brick hut with no running water or power, with just a small gas cylinder for cooking.
I was first hesitant but knowing how much being a guest means to a Pathan, I accepted their invitation for a brief stay.
We had simple beef and potato ‘salan’ with homemade naan for dinner. The guest room, small and cramped, with a bumpy uneven floor, was difficult to sleep in. But it was my five-star suite for the night.
I woke late in the morning and was late for Peshawar, onwards to Karachi. In the rush of getting ready I couldn’t seem to find a 1,000-rupee note that I knew I had somewhere in my bags or pocket. After a few minutes, I had to forgo it as I had my main wallet and was getting very late.
I thanked mother and son for their kindness, jotted down my contact info in Karachi so that I could return the favour if ever, and left for Peshawar.
A year later I was in Peshawar for business when coincidentally I came across the young man again during my final day there. He was overjoyed to see me, and said he was able to get a small job in Peshawar and moved there with his mother. Then he seemed to remember something important, and said that it was vital that I wait for him to give me something before departing for Karachi. Shortly after, he returned with a small sealed envelope. On it was written ‘For Nasim Bhai’. When I opened it, I was surprised to see a 1000-rupee note in it.
I confessed that I didn’t understand. He told me that a few days after my departure, his mother found it under a cushion in the guest room where I was staying. As she hadn’t seen it the previous cleaning, she could only assume that it belonged to me. Unfortunately, the young man had lost my address, and was also unable to reach my friend. So his mother instructed that he put the note in an envelope and save for me if we ever met again.
I was touched. Later, I was told that mother and son were so poor that they could afford to eat meat only a few times a year, such as Eid or when an important guest arrived. All during my return to Karachi I couldn’t help but think of this great act from a family having so little.
I want Maulana Fazlullah and others like him to know that Shariah is alive and well in the NWFP. The people there do not need a physical Shariah, because there is nothing better than ‘Shariah’ of the heart. What they need are better education and job opportunities, better roads and hospitals, a better infrastructure to help bring out the best they can be.
You don’t start Shariah by waging a war with people who might not see your views, or beheading captives. Shariah starts at home.
Also, I wish to know how the editors of Newsweek came to the conclusion that Pakistan is the ‘most dangerous place in the world’. Sure, I agree that there is good and bad everywhere. However, the next time they contemplate a ridiculous headline for this part of the world, could they please consult with a wider source of input?
NASIM AHMAD
Karachi
I WOULD beg to differ with the opinion expressed by Shaikh Abdul Haq in his letter (Nov 28) in which he criticised the APDM on their decision of the boycott of the forthcoming general election.
In my honest opinion, under President Musharraf one cannot expect a fair and free election and APDM has taken the right decision of not taking part in the election held under the PCO. In his eight-year rule of the country, the president has clearly shown that he is willing to take any step legal or otherwise to stay in power. He will now do everything to ensure that none of the opposition parties get enough seats to cause any problems for his presidency.
In the past few years the president has regularly been addressing the public rallies of the PML-Q and repeatedly given statements demanding the public to vote for his favourite political party. The president of any country has to act as a neutral person and all his decisions in the recent past are anything but neutral.
He has completely destroyed the top judiciary of the country just to survive as president. Where would the opposition parties go for help in case of any problems they encounter during the election process? The new judges have already taken the oath that they will not take any action against the decisions of the president and they have also given the power to the president to amend the Constitution.
Opposition parties have repeatedly expressed their lack of confidence in the present election commission but President Musharraf has not taken any action in this regard. In this scenario the so-called free and fair election will not be very much different from the referendum that he conducted to legitimise his initial years of presidency.
President Musharraf must realise that his experiment with ‘controlled democracy’ in Pakistan in the past eight years has failed. During these eight years the parliament acted like a rubber-stamp and recent emergency has destroyed the two important pillars of the state – the media and the judiciary.
It’s time Mr Musharraf resigned as president also and let a neutral caretaker government take measures for the return of true democracy in Pakistan. This can be achieved by restoring the Constitution, reinstating an independent judiciary, reopening independent media without restrictions, and holding free and fair elections in which all Pakistani political parties are able to participate.
This is the only way in which our country can come out of the present crisis. Any attempt to hold the election without restoring the Constitution and revival of the judiciary will only deepen the present crisis.
JAVAID KHAN
Karachi
FREDOM of expression is inherently a valuable part of self-actualisation of the speakers and listeners. There have always been limitations to express freely and the threshold varies from country to country.
But was the media really free in Pakistan prior to Nov 3? Is the media right in claiming that it was being responsible and professional. With the power to beam into millions of homes around the globe comes the grave responsibility of being just and fair.By inviting ignorant and bewildered politicians on a talk show and to let them say whatever they feel like is not really freedom. Whenever breaking news occurs, instead of inviting specialised analysts, certain channels would interview their own senior journalists, who would present personal opinions as news items. For instance, the following discourse:
Question: “Why do you think the emergency has been imposed?” (Interview over the phone.)
Answer: “This is all a conspiracy hatched by the USA in the war on terror, where the deposed chief justice was releasing so-called terrorists and this was unacceptable to the West, therefore, it was done under their patronage.” (Translated into English from Urdu.)
This might as well be a conversation of two lay people sitting by the roadside. I have no qualms if they want to make such allegations, but it should be a part of a well-researched and investigated documentary and not a frantic news statement.
Nowhere in the West are military operations covered live as they were in Pakistan. The US learnt its lessons from the Vietnam War and since then journalists are embedded with the troops during wars and are shown only specific things.
Ironically, the media portrays that modernisation means westernisation and this has led to the creation of completely distant and confused generation. The truth is not far from the opposite. We see young TV hosts trying to speak English in an imitating foreign accent, while our soaps are cheap imitations of an already plagiarised media industry across the border.
How many journalists can report on the crimes by feudal lords in rural areas of Pakistan and then continue to walk the planet? I have yet to see a single documentary of how criminally-minded our political parties and politicians are.
The media was never really free in Pakistan and it will never be until we really free ourselves from feudal and colonial mindset.
Nevertheless, banning and subjugating fundamental rights is not the answer to anything.
Naom Chomsky says in one of his documentaries: “Goebbels was in favour of free speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you’re in favour of free speech, then you’re in favour of freedom of speech precisely for views you despise. Otherwise, you’re not in favour of free speech.”
DR YASIR ABBASI
Sheffield, UK
ON behalf of all Pakistanis, I, as a Turk who has settled in Pakistan permanently, would like to welcome Turkish President Abdullah Gul, arriving in Pakistan on Dec 2 to meet a nation whose forefathers had given great sacrifices, with their tears and blood, during the Turks’ War of Independence. Even today each stone on Turkey’s soil laid for its survival and better future bears testimony to this historical fact.
President Gul is the first head of Turkish state who is coming to greet our civilian President Pervez Musharraf, which is reflective of the close ties existing between Pakistan and Turkey.
Our two countries in the past in fact lived like one heart in two bodies. The visit of the Turkish president will further strengthen the time-tested relationship between the two countries.
It is hoped further that President Musharraf in his changed situation will take some genuine and concrete steps to take Pakistan towards ‘real enlightened moderation’, for which Turkey should naturally be a role model for him.
On the occasion of the visit of the special guest, I should like to give a brief introduction to the career of President Abdulla Gul. He was born in Kayseri in 1950, graduated from Istanbul University from where he received his PhD degree in 1983. In 1991 he was elected member of parliament from the platform of the Welfare Party. From 1996 to 1997, he served as minister of state and government spokesman. In 1999 he was elected to the parliament for the third time, from the platform of the Virtue Party. From 1992 to 2001 he served as the member of Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Also served as member of the Committee on Culture and Education and Political Committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly.
In August 2001 he became the founding board member of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party). Abdulla Gul was elected as the 11th president by the Turkish Grand National Assembly and assumed his duties on Aug 28, 2007.
He is married with three children.
We hope during his tenure Pakistan and Turkey will come closer and people of the two countries will benefit from this relationship.
K. MURAD BEY
Karachi
THIS is apropos of the letter, ‘Student leadership’ (Nov 24). It is a vital issue which has yet to draw the attention of our policymakers. As students’ unions remained banned in view of their political activities on campuses, their place has been taken over ‘miscreant and extremist’ elements who under various garbs rule the roost in educational premises.
Posting some law-enforcement personnel or debarring a few mischief-mongers cannot produce any constructive results as has been proved during the post-ban period, As colleges and universities are seats of learning, I would suggest that students unions should be restored with a new structure to promote academic objective that should keep students from politics of agitation.
This will create a new breed of student leaders whose task will not be to ‘agitate and do politicking’ but of academic leadership and who immediately after completing their education will enter practical life as useful citizens and in most cases academicians and executives. In this regard I present a few suggestions here:
a) The students’ union should be restored but the eligibility of its president should be prescribed for those students who have achieved first position in their education for three times.
b) For the office of general secretary the criterion should be one first position and two second positions,
c) For vice-president, the requirement should be two second positions in three academic years.
d) Similarly, the members of the executive committees should be holders of at least one first position in their respective subjects.
The objective of these suggestions is to create role models for the fellow students by highlighting their academic achievements for their own personal benefits as well as for preparing a talent storehouse.
The method is simple and does not involve any major financial needs. It can be managed by using the present funds available with the provincial and federal educational ministries.
i) If a student attains three first positions in a college or a university department, it suggests he is quite fluent and deeply interested in his subject. To benefit from his talent, let us allow him to teach the same subject to the students of lower classes and even to his own classmates during some extra time, for which he should be paid some respectable stipend. This stipend may help him in accomplishing his plans for doing PhD in the particular subject which he had been teaching to his fellow students – an experience he/she could not have got otherwise.
ii) At present a student has four academic years to achieve his graduation with two compulsory and three optional subjects. Thus, if we find four to five students every year we can add the exact number of scholars in the making, who can achieve their PhDs with a little more effort, and also elevate the standard of education of those students tutored by them in the extra time.
Educational reforms cannot bring social, economic and intellectual refinement overnight. It takes decades, but then there are short-term plans which can also produce positive results within a short time. With the proposed system I suppose we can produce thousands of brilliant, extra-intelligent teachers and subject specialists and, hopefully, hundreds of enthusiastic PhDs, which our country needs the most.
This, I hope, will be a culture of academic glory without the presence of law-enforcement personnel in our educational institutions.
DR AKHTAR JAMAL KHAN
Karachi
WILL polls be postponed? This is merely a multi-million-dollar question being asked in the prevailing political circumstances in the country.
President Pervez Musharraf is on his way to honour his commitment to hold free, fair and transparent polls. The Election Commission has announced the schedule and the process is already under way. The caretaker federal and provincial governments, as directed by President Musharraf, are extending all possible cooperation and assistance to the Election Commission and taking due measures to provide a conducive, harmonious and peaceful atmosphere to enable the people to freely exercise their right of vote.
This question arises from the bitter fact that the opposition parties are mulling the option of boycotting the general election scheduled for January 8 if certain condition of theirs are not met.
Quite obviously, if the opposition parties, irrespective of their numbers, are not going to take part in the election, it will not be possible to hold free, fair and transparent polls for want of participation of all parties and may be postponed.
In all fairness, President Musharraf wants to ensure credibility of the polls and take credit for these being held in a free, fair, transparent and orderly manner and thus complete transition to the civilian rule.
If the opposition parties prefer to opt out in view of some apprehensions, then the polls may be postponed and the whole blame for the unwanted postponement would lay squarely on the opposition parties as the return to complete democratic civilian rule will come to a grinding halt in that case.
The stakes are indeed very high. If the polls are not held as scheduled on Jan 8 due to the opposition’s negative attitude, then it may not be possible to reschedule the polls for some months at least, if not years.
The opposition should take into consideration all pros and cons before taking unpleasant and undemocratic decision of boycotting the general election, which the people at large would also not appreciate. People want election to be held.
Elections are means of bringing about some change. The change this time may be better and welcome for the people.
This is only possible if the polls are going to be held on schedule and the divided opposition suffering from a lot of confusion does not force President Musharraf to take a step which he would be the last person to take and put off the polls.
M. HUMAYUN KHAN
Lahore
A 15-storeyed building is being erected on an open space just close to the right side of the Nazimabed Bridge road leading towards the Nagin Chowragi from Nazimabad. Keeping in view the growing population of motor vehicles in the city, the width of this bridge will have to be expanded in future. But, after the construction of this building so close, no space will be left for its expansion.
According to area residents, the ‘plot’ had always been an open area and it is said to be a disputed property. Several attempts had been made to construct a building on it in the past also, but failed.
But now a builder has managed to purchase/occupy it.
In front of the plot, ST-I, Block-B, North Nazimabad, there is a basketball court belonging to the city government, which has now been demolished to convert it into a ‘park’, exclusively for the residents of the building, which will have 208 luxury flats of four and five rooms.
The city government has allowed the builder to develop the park at its own cost in order to lure the prospective buyers by offering them an ‘additional recreation facility’. But the builder will not be responsible for its future maintenance.
According to a sportsman, this is one of the three basketball courts in the city to which the general public has access.
In addition to flats, a showroom will be built on the ground floor and on one side of the plot several shops have also been planned to be constructed.
The builder has set up its office at the site and stared booking. Construction has yet to start because the project is in its initial stages.
It is the right time that the authorities concerned should stop construction of the building and restore the basketball court.
ASIF ALI KHAN
Karachi
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