| December 19, 2007 | Wednesday | Zilhaj 8, 1428 |
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Benazir’s sophistry
Diehard’s plea
Public representative & rape issue
Lightening the saddle
General (retd)
Adding insult to injury
Hurdles to PTA
Hike in price of sacrificial animals
Constitutional amendments
Book fair with a purpose
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
A NATION is free when it is able to govern itself and the best mechanism for a people to govern itself is democracy. If democracy is the body of freedom, then the free and independent judiciary and the media are its soul and blood.
An independent judiciary assures that decisions will be based on laws and the constitution, not on the pressures of a temporary majority. Thus an independent judicial system in a democracy serves as a safeguard of the people’s rights and freedoms.
Democracy thrives on freedom of speech. It depends upon a literate, knowledgeable citizenry whose access to information enables it to participate in the public life of their society and to criticise unwise government policies.
The recent movement of judicial activism was nurtured by the media. It was the media which brought to light the political maturity of the nation and showed the world that it has awakened from the deep slumber and would support those who would go for the movement.
The mood of the public forced the political parties to support the movement initially, but most transgressed later. Political parties aspiring to come to power would not like to have an independent and strong judiciary and media. They supported the movement then because they were not able to muster any support from the public on issues other than the judiciary.
The U-turns of the three pundits (Musharraf, Benazir and Nawaz) about each other, the judiciary and the media reminds one of the story of three friends who wanted to cheat a man of his hide.
The first one came to his prey and asked him if he wanted to sell its hide. On an affirmative reply, he asked the man as how he tanned the skin.
He replied that he tanned it under the sun. The cheat exclaimed that he had destroyed a perfect skin by tanning it under the sun instead of a shade.
His reply to the second friend was that he had tanned it under a shade. The man was told that he had committed a mistake as skin is tanned under the sun.
The disappointed man’s reply to the third friend was that he tanned the skin half under a shade and half under the sun. He was dismayed when he was told that skin is either tanned under the sun or under a shade.
The way the three big are dealing among themselves and with the international players suggests that Pakistan was a deal between the ruling class and the masters: the ruler would enjoy ruling the masses and the masters would get unhindered cooperation.
The Muslim of South Asia voted for one thing: government of the people, by the people and for the people. Would there be anyone who has the acumen, the aspiration, and the will-power to make a deal with the masses: the owners of Pakistan?
One would dare remind those who matter of a saying: “You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”
TAHIR ZAMAN
Via email
YOUR report about Benazir Bhutto’s press conference did not cover some points, including a most important one (Dec 14). However, the BBC Urdu Service did bring them to the listeners (Dec 13).
According to Dawn’s story, she didn’t support reinstatement of judges right now, and said, among other things, a) there were the same judges when local body polls were rigged, b) “judges come and go just like Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui and Nasir Aslam Zahid who refused to take the oath under the PCO”. Also, that if any judge wants to do politics, he should set up a political party.
She, like every educated person, would know that there has been a veritable revolution in the judiciary and the legal fraternity, after the deposed chief justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar M. Chaudhry, took a firm and fearless stand when President Musharraf reportedly asked him to resign, the real reasons for which are known to all of us. He and the other judges did take the oath under the PCO of 2000, but the new development has wiped out that stigma.
The new survey by the International Republican Institute makes it abundantly clear that the majority is supportive of the deposed judges, despite Ms Bhutto’s unwarranted cynicism. As far as her sarcasm about a judge wanting to do politics is concerned, the fact that neither Justice Chaudhry nor any of the judges did a deal with Musharraf, unlike her or some of the other politicians, should have been sufficient to embarrass her. Like judges, prime ministers and politicians also come and go, so nobody should be arrogant because of that.
Also, none of them was sentenced for any wrongdoing by a Swiss or any other court, unlike Benazir Bhutto, besides the many accusations that have been dogging her and her husband, because they haven’t any weaknesses that would necessitate deal-making.
They didn’t run away from the country either, as is clear from the CJP’s refusal to accept the government’s reported offer on March 9 or the Saudi ambassador’s later proposals. They obviously didn’t do the rigging of the local bodies polls and the aggrieved parties had recourse to the courts to address their complaints.
The reality is that some people are afraid of the conscientious judges’ return because they are likely to rule against Musharraf’s re-election as well as the NRO which cleared the way for those politicians and dash all their hopes for joining the power-wielders.
A very important point noted by the BBC correspondent was that when Ms Bhutto was questioned about her earlier statement that Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry should be reinstated, she declined to answer it. That makes her stance a lot clearer, especially in the context of John Negroponte’s visit.
She may be able to entice the poor masses by her slogan of ‘roti, kapra aur makan’ but the intelligentsia cannot be fooled by her sophistry and it is they whose admiration or lack of it really means something. But in democracy, numbers matter more and that is the cause of her arrogance.
I.RAHIM
Karachi
THIS is with reference to the news story, ‘Women reserved seats: not all PPP nominations welcomed with cheers” (Dec 9).
The reporter was misguided by someone who may have personal motive.
It is incorrect and baseless that I wrote an article and described Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zardari as the most corrupt couple of the country.
This is a frivolous charge to malign me. I have written several hundred articles in support of PPP, ZAB and MBB.
As far as the merit of my wife is concerned, she was arrested twice along with our four-month-old son and kept in Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore for six months during Gen Zia’s martial law.
I escaped with my life, by the grace of Allah, in an assassination attempt when my rivals threw a hand-grenade into my car during the PNA agitation in 1977. I remained hospitalised in Ganga Ram Hospital for two weeks.
I was flogged with 10 lashes, was arrested four times for my struggle for democracy and was imprisoned for two-and-a-half years, twice in the Lahore Fort.
My 65-year-old father and three brothers were also imprisoned. I was forced into a life full of hardships during my exile for eight long years away from my family and my country.
Due to all these tortures and hardships, we lost our family business, a well-established publishing house, which my father had established with his 50 years’ hard labour.
The late Zulifikar Ali Bhutto acknowledged the sacrifices of my family and me and wrote: “You and your family have rendered great services for the party. You are in my heart and my thoughts. “
I have been assisting BB as part of her core team for the last eight years selflessly without any party office.
I request you to publish our version, which is nothing but the truth.
Q. NIZAMI
(former minister of state)
AND MRS Q. NIZAMI
Via email
THOSE involved in the crime of rape are invariably the powerful people of a locality. In fact, many rapes have been ordered by ‘jirgas’ that consist not of village ‘elders’ but village ‘powerfuls’.
The politicians and the government rather act as ‘supporters of rape’ by remaining silent and doing nothing to help or support the survivors.
Will the voters once again choose the same ‘rape-supporting’ individuals as their representatives in the next elections, or will they make sure that the person they vote for meets their conditions? These are:
1. The representative has not been a rapist himself.
2. The representative has not been a part of a ‘jirga’.
3. The representative makes a public declaration that (s)/he would take steps to implement the following tasks within the first six months of becoming an MNA or an MPA:
a. (S)he will ensure that every city and town of Pakistan has a ‘Women Support Centre’, staffed by a female doctor, a female police officer and a lab technician for carrying out forensic tests.
b. (S)he will ensure that every female victim will receive a dignified and prompt one-window support at these stations.
c. (S)he will ensure that this support includes registering of an FIR, medical examination and forensic test, all to be completed in one hour from the time a survivor reports at the centre.
d. (S)he will ensure that a law is passed that the courts try and decide rape cases within three months.
e. (S)he will resign from her/his MNA or MPA seat, in case of failure to implement the above promises.
Equally important are the political parties which have said a lot but done nothing on these issues.
The voters must insist that they would vote for a political party only if it includes the above points as key features of its manifesto.
NAEEM SADIQ
Via email
I AGREE with Attiya Nazli’s letter (Dec 7) on ‘Saddle of schooling’. The size of the saddle should be reduced.
I would like to make a suggestion. Effectively it can be done at the government level and with the cooperation of schools.
The books should be printed in same size in case of major subjects. They should be divided into 4 sections to cover each section in 3 months.
One section of each subject can be bound in one big book. The child will carry only one book to cover all the major subjects.
Subjects that cannot be included in this book can also be divided in same sizes. The child will carry only one-fourth of the size of a complete book. Also, the cardboard binding should be replaced by reusable plastic covers.
Similarly there should be one large notebook which covers major subjects. Or notebooks of only 24 pages should be introduced.
In some cases, teachers take notebooks from children to be checked after school. In such cases only single or double sheets can be used which after checking the child can keep the record in a plastic folder or jacket for future reference. I am sure the people involved in education can improve further.
Where there is a will there is a way.
MAQBOOL AHMAD
Faisalabad
THE debate (Dec 16) on writing the suffix (retd) to a general’s name after he goes on pension is quite thermal and interesting. For starters, if I were a general (God forbid and I will tell why) I would be an easy target for some of my countrymen (that’s why).
Our retired army officers take their ranks very seriously in life and after. A former federal secretary, historian and a columnist in an Urdu paper wrote a few months ago that along with a friend he had to visit a graveyard in Islamabad to locate a grave of his friend’s relative. He found that army officers were the only ones that had their full ranks and their awards with their names etched on their tombstones.
Let us say when Benazir Bhutto or Nawaz Sharif goes (May they live for ever), one can’t imagine the inscription ‘Twice ex-prime minister’ or ‘Prime minister evicted twice’ on their respective resting places or would we?
May be army officers think they would get a preferential treatment in the purgatory, heaven or hell according to their ranks. When Zia prolonged his stay on one excuse or another under the garb of national interest (the situation is no different today), a joke gained currency. It so happened that Zia went up (after he was dead that is) and God did not rise to welcome him as he had done for other rulers and monarchs. When the angels questioned Him on ‘profiling’ Zia, God said: “He would have occupied my seat!”
Press and electronic media would do well to get the retired army officers out of this matrix by simply turning them into ‘misters’ after retirement.
ASLAM MINHAS
Karachi
I AM afraid Imran Ahmed of Lincolnshire, UK, in his letter, ‘General (retd)’ is mistaken in his pronouncement that in the UK people do not use their retired military ranks in civilian life.
They most certainly do use same, and have earned that right there, as elsewhere in the world, for having put their lives at risk both for their nations and for a safer society for the world at large.
Mr Imran Ahmed should be advised that here in the USA we honour all ranks by title of our retired military personnel, be they NCOs or officers. A good friend of mine in Texas is still known as ‘Chief’ having been a chief master sergeant in the USAF over a 30-year military career.
We who are retired from the military service, be it in the US, the UK, Pakistan, or elsewhere, served for much less pay than would have been the case in equivalent civilian jobs, with frequent family and personal dislocations due to involuntary assignments throughout our military lives.
Having served two years of USAF active duty at the old US embassy in Karachi, I think I have earned the right to reply to Mr Imran Ahmed’s remarks as published in Dawn.
COLONEL (retd) GEORGE L. SINGLETON, USAF
Birmingham, Alabama
AS if causing injury to the Pakistani polity by staunchly supporting the military dictator wasn’t enough, President Bush has now added injury to it by phoning Musharraf to congratulate him over his assumption of the president’s office once again.
Mr Bush would know very well how the incumbent engineered his return by brutalising the judiciary, lawyers, journalists, political workers and civil society members, apart from suspending the Constitution.
How would George Bush feel if he gets overthrown by his own army chief and the Americans have to face all the other inhuman actions suffered by the Pakistanis, on top of which the world leaders start telephoning the new president to offer felicitations?
I must also remind our people of a saying: “The way to procure insults is to submit to them. A man meets with no more respect than he exacts.” Bush’s war isn’t our war and we must let him indulge his paranoia alone.
N. AHMED
Karachi
THERE is a Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) signed between Pakistan and Iran. The PTA offers discount in custom duty for import of many products. Trade between the two countries increased after the PTA.
Recently, however, the commercial banks are not opening letters of credit, though there is no such notification from any relevant authority to forbid trade with Iran. Indistinct and ambiguous notifications only tend to cause unnecessary hurdles to bilateral trade.
It is requested that a clear-cut notification to commercial banks be issued by authorities concerned, otherwise the PTA between the two neighbourly countries does not justify its use.
N.H. SHARIFF
Via email
EVERY year before Eidul Azha, it is common that we hear of the prices of sacrificial animals terribly going up. The cost of a goat ranges from Rs12,000 to 15,000. A healthier animal costs slightly more than that.
Although prices return to normal one day before Eid, the unexpected hike in the price is surprising. Poor and even the middle class people have a hard time arranging money for such a holy purpose though the rich class has no problem buying even a camel.
The event of Eidul Azha comes once a year and so the government should adopt some rules and regulations to control the prices of sacrificial animals or if there are some regulations already applied, the authorities concerned should look into the matter seriously.
ZIAUR REHMAN RAZWY
Karachi
IT took Pakistan 26 years to have a constitution of its own. But soon after it was amended, which led to a series of amendments.
The latest being on Dec 14. An analysis of the need for these amendments is required to educate Pakistan’s public who are its ultimate owners.
To a common man’s understanding, this is to protect the rights of people living in Pakistan irrespective of religion, caste and colour.
But apparently all these amendments seem to protect rulers rather than the rule of law in the country.
One wonders why the rulers need constitutional amendments to validate their unconstitutional steps whereas they violate the basic principles in broad daylight and get away with it.
MOHAMMAD IMRAN KHAN
Baltimore, MD
I DISAGREE with Saneela Altaf’s viewpoint (Dec 11) on the futility of the book fair held at the Expo Centre, Karachi.
I was told by a friend of mine who had visited the book fair that some publishers were offering 35 per cent discount to customers on their books.
The great rush of people also proved that people of Karachi love books in spite of their high prices.
It is also wrong to say that “it (book fair) only caters to the elite, and not to the masses” because people belonging to low-income groups also visited the book fair in large numbers.
I should say that such book fairs should be held on a regular basis throughout Pakistan to inculcate the reading habits among people.
PROF ASHER SAEED ALAM
Karachi
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