| January 15, 2008 | Tuesday | Muharram 05, 1429 |
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National cohesion
Steve Bucknor
Energy alternatives
Democratic norms
Indo-Malaysian pacts
Oldest democracy?
Edmund Hillary
Punjab police
Antibacterial soaps
The homeless
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
TH Higher Education Commission (HEC) has, as expected, responded to my expose (Jan 2 ) of its unconscionable squandering of public funds by trotting out its usual list of claimed achievements (Jan 10).
But this spiritless reply does not address the issues I raised, except distantly and peripherally.
Instead, it takes refuge in a 2006 World Bank report, issued by a WB team led by Benoit Millot, that lavishes praise upon the HEC for having effected "quality improvement of the higher education sub-sector", and for having revolutionised Pakistan’s universities.
I find this fascinating and disturbing. This is a perfect example where two institutions are driven by shared needs — the WB to lend and the HEC to spend.
While the WB report is printed on glossy paper, is written in fine English, and has beautiful graphics, it is fundamentally flawed because it contains no meaningful data on the quality of education in Pakistani universities.
Browsing though WB publications, I simply did not see any report that purports to be a scientifically performed survey on this specific matter.
When and how, may I ask, did the WB check the quality of faculty or that of the student body across Pakistani universities?
Has it surveyed library and laboratory facilities, the content of university courses, the standard of examination papers, the presence (or lack thereof) of academic and seminars on campuses, etc?
Was any assessment made of the number of days in a year that the universities actually functioned, the suitability of those appointed as vice-chancellors, employer satisfaction with university graduates, etc? These are crucial quality indicators.
Unless one has reasonably reliable data on such matters, the opinions expressed in the quoted WB report are simply vacuous.
If the WB has indeed carried out a relevant survey, I would be most grateful to know the reference to such work and apologise in advance for any hurt caused.
On the other hand, if there is no such work, then I would like to know what the WB’s $1,500 a day education consultants do in a Third World country beyond cutting and pasting from official reports. If other sections of the World Bank operate similarly, then one fears for Pakistan.
The HEC has picked many numbers that suit its purposes but has not attempted to see if they are meaningful.
It is unfortunate that the HEC spokesperson accuses me of trivialising all 1,600 research papers published in recent times. I did not. Instead, I merely showed that the interested reader — using the free Google. Scholar data base mentioned in my article — can judge each one of these papers to see if anyone in the world has found them useful or interesting. Unfortunately, all but a tiny fraction have zero citations.
To my mind, publishing even two dozen papers yearly — provided they are highly original and well-cited — would have a far healthier impact on our universities than the hundreds of junk papers generated by the government's per-paper reward scheme.
While the spokesperson lamely claims that "it is the HEC which has taken firm steps to control and eliminate plagiarism by laying down a clear policy against it", no such thing is evident.
On the contrary, newspapers in Pakistan and abroad are full of stories about Pakistani academics who freely plagiarise materials across the globe as they rush to grab the rewards.
Finally, I do believe that there is an alternative direction in which to improve and expand higher education, and which could gainfully use the huge sums now allocated to the HEC. For this, the interested reader is referred to part-II of my article (Jan 12).
PERVEZ HOODBHOY
Islamabad
DEMOCRACY and cohesion anticipated by Saifuddin E. Contractor to cohere (Jan 3), in the interest of democratic processes, seems potentially to be incompatible and unsustainable.
Democracy tends to divide a nation rather than unite. The essence of democracy in other words is pluralistically to partition a nation into quarrelling political parties with their own ideologies and their own manifestoes that after election keep crying out for their fulfilment.
Confrontation between parties rarely ever leads to enhancement of national integrity and progress. Western countries, nevertheless, do manage to achieve progress if only due to abundance of resources, technological and economic and social excellence, not democracy as such.
Democracy came to be evolved as the end-product of struggle between kings claiming divine rights to rule and the people struggling for their basic rights.
After centuries of brutal confrontations, the people succeeded in attaining these rights as enshrined in Magna Carta and Bill of Rights minimising dominance of kings.
Parliamentary legislations and case laws further dealt blows after blows to the king's supremacy and reduced him to the state of titular head. Western countries are thus rooted in their democratic processes and institutions while in other countries trying to mimic western countries democracy is rootlessly imposed from the top.
The very rights and corresponding duties Islam conferred gratuitously upon its followers centuries before democracy came to be evolved.
Muslims cannot keep defying them and yet expecting cohesion. On the contrary, divine wrath is upon us for betraying what has been so fortuitously granted to us out of His Benevolence.
AKBAR KHAN
Karachi
THIS refers to a Dawn report (Jan 9) regarding removal of well-known West Indian international umpire Steve Bucknor from officiating as an umpire in the Perth Test.
Although Bucknor made a number of serious errors in his judgment during the second Test, the decision to have him removed unceremoniously will most certainly have a negative effect on the moral of the rest of the umpires’ fraternity.
It will further seek to establish that countries that carry financial clout, as India does, will always be in a position to impose terms which may contravene the established rules and cricketing conventions.
At the same time the on-field behaviour of the Australian team leaves much to be desired.
They have historically been an intimidating side and their aggressive body language plays on the psychology of both the umpires and the opposition.
At times the exuberance of dismissing a batsman brings so much enthusiasm to the Aussies side that it appears that they are playing rugby and not cricket.
Also, the decision to impose a three Test-match ban on spinner Harbajan Singh was a very harsh one.
Even the complainant Andrew Symond was surprised. It was most certainly immature on the part of Ricky Ponting to report this matter to the match referee and equally unwise on the part of the referee to impose a three Test-match ban.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) needs to reassess and re-evaluate the quality of personnel they depute as any sports these days is a serious business involving millions of dollars.
SHIRAZ SACHEDINA
Karachi
BILQEES Anwer in her letter, ‘Energy crisis in Pakistan’ (Jan 11), says that our energy resources have depleted.
She has, however, failed to realise that facts are contrary as nature has endowed us with enormous sources of energy such as coal, wind, thermal and solar which are yet to be tapped and harnessed.
For instance, in 1992 the Geological Survey of Pakistan, assisted by US Geological Survey, discovered in the deserts of Sindh the world’s largest coal deposits.
These deposits are spread over an area of more than 9,100 square kilometres, containing 175.506 billion tons of coal. This is enough to generate about 100,000 MW of electricity, which alone is sufficient to meet fuel requirements of the country for centuries.
Unfortunately, with the world’s largest deposits lying in the backyard, only one per cent coal is being used for power generation in Pakistan.
As against this, 55 per cent electricity in neighbouring India is based on coal, 58 per cent in Germany, 90 per cent in Poland, 50 per cent in Australia and 38 per cent in Russia.
Just two per cent of its use for power production can ensure more than 20,000 megawatt of electricity for more than 40 years.
Why is the use of these reserves, discovered in 1992, still not made while the country has been facing an energy crisis for the last two decades?
This leaves a big question mark on the vision, planning and professional capacity of those concerned with energy management in the country.
In view of the bleak energy scenario, the only answer is exploitation of the available coal reserves straightaway. The government must face the challenge?
DR ALI AKBAR M. DHAKAN
Karachi
I AM surprised that on the lifting of emergency-cum-martial law, President Musharraf has stated that “upon the accomplishment of certain objectives the emergency was declared and this he has stated that that the law and order situation has now become calm and peaceful”.
The statement is not true. Terrorism, in all its forms and manifestation, is at the peak, as well as legal indemnity to all acts has been given from Nov 3 till Dec 15, which is not only illegal but also unconstitutional.
No one has the power to override, vary, mould, or amend or repeal or add any law which is inconsistent with the supreme law of the land, i.e. Articles 231 and 232 of the Constitution of Pakistan, 1973.
Furthermore, the president has promised to restore the Constitution but the same was not complied with.
The Constitution’s basic structure has been amended and changed which is not allowed in any civilised state. I would also like to state that the amendment at the lifting of emergency is more dangerous than the PCO of Nov 3.
Last but not the least, there is still the ban on the media which has hampered the very right of information and independence of the judiciary has come to the lowest ebb.
The entire system has come to the level of collapse, am sure lawyers, civil societies and other organisations struggling for the rights and liberties will never come to an end and it will continue till the revival of the Constitution and democratic norms and rule of law..
NASIR KAMAL YOUSAFZAI
Mardan
According to a report, India is training Malaysian pilots to fly Russian fighter jets as part of a pact to upgrade defence cooperation.
The defence ministers of the two countries also agreed to hold joint military exercises and strengthen efforts to combat regional terrorism (Jan 8).
In addition, Malaysia is also looking at having India help train its naval personnel to operate its two new French submarines.
While the training of the Malaysian pilots must be related to its newly acquired Russian-built SU-30 fighters that the Indian Air Force already has in service for some years, the matter of French submarines may be different.
Pakistan has already built the French submarine of the Agosta series under licence and is due to have a couple of others, while India had ordered French subs – probably of the Scorpene class – later on.
Therefore, it is important for the interests of the two Muslim nations if Malaysia gets its navy personnel trained over here instead and Pakistan should urgently contact them to provide the same free of cost.
Besides, it may also be emphasised upon our Malaysian brethren that Pakistan will soon be producing the high - performance JF-17 fighters developed jointly with China having a Russian engine that would be available for sale to friendly countries at a much lower cost than other platforms of equivalent capabilities.
There could be several benefits from such an arrangement. Malaysia is already having trouble due to the strike by its ethnic Indian community and, according to conflicting reports, has banned the hiring of workers from India (and Bangladesh).
This happened after it was revealed that priests hired from India had been inciting the local Hindu community in their uprising.
The Indian PM, too, had criticised Kuala Lumpur on the issue. It may be recalled that after the revolt in Fiji by the army several years ago in which their prime minister of Indian ethnicity had been ousted, New Delhi had been considering an intervention to restore his power.
We have also seen how India had stabbed Iran in the back by voting for the US-sponsored resolution in the UNSC against Tehran’s nuclear programme about a year ago.
On the other hand, Pakistan always stood by Iran and our army had helped secure Saudi Arabia from a possible attack by Saddam Hussein’s forces during the first Gulf War.
As I had noted in my letter of Oct 25, 2007, Malaysia had also got an astronaut sent into space by Russia by very wisely getting Moscow to include it in the billion-dollar deal for the Russian SU-30 fighter aeroplanes.
In contrast, Pakistan had not thought of similarly asking Washington to send our man in space despite the order of F-16s worth over $2 billion.
All the Muslim countries must work closely together because when it comes to a crunch, non-Muslim states like the US or India cannot be expected to uphold their interests.
A very regrettable fact is that for the past year or so our government’s energies have been increasingly tied down by its efforts at self-preservation.
Therefore, the government must take pains to resolve the present confrontation with the opposition amicably and quickly because not doing so is hurting Pakistan in many ways.
K. NAQSHBANDI
Karachi
MAIN ingredient of democracy is “informed, engaged citizen”. So being oldest democracy in this world, we must be all that and probably more.
Does that manifest in our:
1. Mounting debt, personal and governmental, result of living beyond our means.
2. Overeating ourselves to bad health, in the world where majority goes hungry?
3. Creating largest and deadliest ammunition dump without the guaranteed safeguard of a responsible government, every four years?
4. Being informed about celebrity gossips and indoctrination through 24 hours media monopoly marketing corporate goods?
5. Being 139th of 172 nations that held elections, having per cent of eligible voters casting a ballot in their nation’s election? (David Wallechinsky, Parade Magazine).
Do you still believe we are informed, engaged, responsible citizens?
Do you still believe what we have is democracy?
If not, shouldn’t we be concerned? In our situation, being ‘oldest means decaying’ rather than mature and responsible.
A CONCERNED PERSON
Via email
SIR Edmund Hillary will be a hero to mankind, all over the world, forever. He embodies the human spirit to succeed, to win at all costs.
Everywhere in the world, when we are confronted with indomitable tasks or goals, in sports or management, we will take inspiration from his conquest of the Everest.
In 1953, technology was not advanced and his skill and endurance were tested to the limit. Condolences to his family and friends.
He taught us to defy, defeat and never give up.
Rajendra K. Aneja
Dubai, UAE
MY heart goes out to the families of the Punjab police who were killed in a suicide bombing in Lahore.
I would also like to ask the people of Pakistan from Khyber to Karachi to unite and fight this cancer of terrorism.
The government should do its utmost to bring these criminals to justice and make such an example out of them that it’s remembered for many generations.
Long live Pakistan. Death to all terrorists
YUSAF KHAN
London, UK
HYSTERIA has been created for the use of antibacterial soaps by showing germs on the skin in TV commercials.
School visits are made by companies to advise students for the use of medicated soaps for prevention against the diseases.
As a dermatologist, I recommend against such an aggressive approach for daily cleansing routine is not recommended because it can be a cause of skin allergy in sensitive individuals.
School managements should discourage any promotional activities for any such products in schools.
The main function of the skin is protection from infections, chemicals, harmful effects of UV radiation beside other functions like temperature regulation.
It has its own cleansing system and skin’s surface is renewed in every 30 days by a cell cycle, sebum secretion by sebaceous glands has both moisturising and antibacterial properties.
Normally, the cleansing routine should be gentle although the routine differs in different occupations and skin conditions, for example a cleansing routine followed by a surgeon by antibacterial before an operation is not required in normal routine cleansing.
Specific medicated soaps for different diseases and skin types are available but they should be used on the advice of a doctor, preferably a dermatologist. I don’t mean doctors appearing in advertisements since any statement in commercials should be viewed as commercial.
DR ASAD KAZIM
Karachi
THERE is a report in Dawn about a rally held by the World Minorities Alliance to highlight the plight of the homeless people of Islamabad and Rawalpindi (Jan 10).
The rally was held outside the camp office of the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Press Club.
The protestors were holding dozens of posters with photographs and sayings of the new army chief.
While there is nothing wrong with protesting against homelessness but as noted below a picture accompanying the news, it is a dangerous game (to drag in the COAS into such matters).
Furthermore, if it had to be done, then perhaps Gen Kayani should also have been invited to join, along with a placard asking the president to vacate the official residence meant for the Chief of Army Staff, which Mr Musharraf continues to occupy on a long-term basis.
The army chief is himself homeless, in a way, so how can he help the others?
I. INAYAT
Karachi
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