| February 05, 2008 | Tuesday | Muharram 26, 1429 |
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Exploitation of ecosystem
Second-hand smoke
Mouse head
Dream on
Ex-servicemen’s statement
Paris is not Gujrat
US should apologise
Two questions
Who will rot in hell?
Where are we headed?
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
OUR Election Commission has a long record and tradition of performing magic. It can convert four per cent votes into 96 per cent with a magical touch. It can conduct a presidential election without the fresh mandate of 160 million people. While the US may hold long and prolonged open presidential debates, in Pakistan they are considered a waste of time. Elections have been held with speed of light. When lawyers, journalists and members of civil society protested, they were given a severe thrashing.
Now the Election Commission is busy in stamping the ballot papers as usual which amount to be about 1.5 million if you count civilian and men in uniform, as well as their family members and prisoners’ votes. The candidates’ representatives are not present in this entire process, reflecting superb fairness and absolute ‘transparency’.
Although postal ballots are only a small percentage of the total votes, its impact could be increased a thousand times by spreading these over many areas. These can be used to change the results of over a 100 National Assembly seats and hence totally defeat the mandate of the people. In the past, the Election Commission had been using these votes piecemeal in numerous constituencies to nullify the lead of winning candidates.
For each constituency, they may need 10,000 to 20,000 votes which can be taken out from a pool of 1.5 million votes easily.
The king’s party had secured many seats by this ‘gracious’ help of the Election Commission in the past. The former prime minister, while remaining the finance minister, contested the election of the prime minister and, thanks to the staff of the Election Commission, got elected with a leading majority. Without their support and help, he could not have mustered even 10 votes. He parted with the government with gifts of many crises that we are all experiencing on a regular basis.
The role of the Election Commission in all these frauds cannot be underestimated. It is time the chief election commissioner, Election Commission secretary and other staff of the Election Commission were held responsible at least partially for playing big frauds with the nation and reducing the people to face dire and disastrous consequences. These must be brought to justice.
Through these columns I request all fair observers of Pakistan Election 2008 to look at the transparency of the postal ballots of all, including government servants in uniform and without uniform.
If these are not transparent and fair, then these votes must not be included in the final results. Nobody has given the authority to the Election Commission to carry out fraud and deceit with people.
ANWARUL HAQUE
Islamabad
MAN’s exploitation of the ecosystem — a result of his own intelligence — is today an ecological crisis, which, if not inhibited by a joint collaborative effort, both national and international, will become a threat to man’s existence on this planet. Rising awareness of the problem has led to a surge of research around the world.
Basically, environment is man’s surroundings, which include all the circumstances, influences of events that he encounters in his lifetime. Therefore, the environment affects life and development of an organism, human behaviour and society. Man is part of his environment physically, biologically, socially and commercially.
There is a strong interrelationship and bonding between a common man’s health and his environment. The following factors can give a stroke on this bond: inadequacy of clean water supply; lack of proper collection and disposal of garbage; heavy migration of rural population to large cities; and lack of control on preventive measures.
Pollution can be of so many types, of which the major ones are as follows: Air pollution, water pollution, soil contamination, radioactive contamination, pollution from other factors like noise, heat and light.
The relationship of air and water pollution, as well as noise pollution, in cities is striking for people’s health. Man himself creates this strange problem on earth and the preservation of earth also depends upon man specifically for controlling such types of problems.
Principal sources of atmospheric pollution include factors like domestic fuel, motor vehicle exhaust fumes, industry, and cigarette smoke and to some extent nuclear experimentation.
Adverse air quality can kill many organisms, including humans; ozone pollution can lead to many diseases of cardiovascular and respiratory systems. Water pollution and motor vehicle fumes can also damage many human systems. Also, tobacco smoking can result in hazardous effects, not only on smokers’ but on the health of non-smokers also.
Amidst a gloomy picture of the effects of pollution, it is hoped that the serious problems of environmental pollution may bridge the differences of the countries, which currently have a tense climate.
We should try to finish this ‘ugly dragon’, so that our next generations have a shiny, healthy and crystal clear environment to breathe.
DR ATIQA BATOOL NAQVI
Karachi
THE World Cancer Day, Feb 4, organised by the International Union Against Cancer (UICC) in collaboration with WHO, is just over. Its purpose is to educate the public on various preventive measures to control the rising incidence of cancers globally. This year’s theme is ‘Protect our children from second-hand smoke’.
This year the UICC is also launching the “I love my smoke-free childhood” campaign. This is a direct and simple message to parents: “Second-hand smoke is a health hazard for you and your family.
There is no safe level of exposure to second-hand smoke. Give your child a smoke-free childhood.”
Around 700 million children worldwide — almost half the global number — breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke, particularly at home. Tobacco use is the single most important preventable cause of cancer in Pakistan where research shows that the number one cause of cancer deaths in males is lung cancer, followed by mouth cancer.
In females, mouth cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality after breast cancer. Tobacco use is also associated with stomach, bladder, food pipe, pancreas, skin, and liver cancers. Research conducted by the Cancer Society shows almost 50 per cent of cancer cases in Pakistan is preventable by avoiding tobacco use.
Close to 70 per cent of children in Pakistan are exposed to second-hand smoke toxins, in public places and transport, in spite of a legal ban on smoking. Breathing clean air is a fundamental right, and no one has the right to damage others’ health.
Most western countries now have very strict laws on smoking at public places including shopping centres and restaurants.
Promotion of clear air policies at educational institutions, public places, restaurants, offices, etc, has been shown to be an effective tobacco control measure. In Pakistan, the anti-smoking law banning smoking in public places is hardly implemented.
Well-known fast food chains which have smoke-free restaurants, in the developed world, are not implementing the clear air policies in the developing countries.
Avoiding tobacco use in every form is the single most important step one can take to reduce the risk of developing cancer. The electronic and print media should educate the public on the hazards of active and passive smoking and the dangers regarding other forms of tobacco use.
DR JAVAID KHAN
Karachi
A HOSPITAL patient in Finland found a mouse head among the steamed vegetables on his plate. “Understandably, he lost his appetite,” said the hospital administrator (Jan 27).
While most people in the world would probably have reacted similarly, things can be different, depending on one’s culture. A South Korean colleague of a Pakistani friend had once innocently served him a sandwich made from dog meat, which is considered a delicacy in Korea, under the mistaken notion that only pork is forbidden to the Muslims. I don’t remember if my buddy found it out beforehand or after taking one bite.
The way eatables have been getting scarce or exorbitantly priced in Pakistan, the time seems very near when we may be compelled to look for alternative foods. Just as we hear of ‘Parha Likha (educated) Punjab’ or ‘Parha Likha Pakistan’, the government may have to start a project of ‘Tawana (healthy) Pakistan’ by promoting the use of things like mice and rats.
The people can be told that if some other Asians can relish dogs and frogs, why can’t we eat mice – considerations of appetite being an unaffordable luxury for an undernourished citizenry – because they would be cheaper here than anywhere else, like wheat flour.
Besides, we can ask Finland and other western countries to export all their rodents to us because their animals would be secular-minded and liberal, which should also help curb extremism.
Some of the other advantages that can be touted will be the provision of the much-needed protein, easy availability, little or no cost and the elimination of pests that cause huge losses. And, if flour isn’t available, people can cook ‘chooha (mouse) biryani (a favourite meat and rice dish)’.
Now, some may ask if I intend trying it. Well, somewhere along the line I had decided to become a vegetarian. The only problem that I can foresee is this: after becoming rodent-eaters we may start fearing the cats….
A VEGETARIAN
Karachi
PRESIDENT Musharraf will resign after realising that 70 per cent of Pakistanis believe that he is the root cause of all of their current ills. We shall have fair elections. The government shall share facts with its people without giving any spin to its perpetual incompetence and corruption.
Justice shall prevail in the land of the pure. All citizens shall have access to clean drinking water, food, security, health services and basic education.
Dream on!
Zain I. Syed
USA
K. MURAD Bey has criticised the statement by ex servicemen asking President Pervez Musharraf to resign from his post (Jan 29). While many other responsible and very respectable members of our society have also been calling for that, it shouldn’t take a genius to understand why the servicemen’s statement carries the greatest weight.
The list includes many former services chiefs, including perhaps the seniormost among them, viz Air Marshal Asghar Khan, besides Air Marshal Nur Khan, Gen Mirza Aslam Beg, Admiral Sirohey and others. Such stalwarts understand defence matters more than others, besides which they have never attempted to stage military coups or grab power, like Gen Aslam Beg could easily have done after Gen Zia’s crash. In addition, people like Asghar Khan and Nur Khan had opposed the military ruler of their time by supporting some elected politicians. This makes their opinion much more credible than the incumbent who is clearly wanting to prolong his rule.
Another thing is that Mr Musharraf keeps stressing that he is following Mr Jinnah’s vision and, by implication, policies. Would the founder of Pakistan ever have put not just the CJP of the time under arrest but also his family members and other judges, regardless of what the charges would have been against the top judge? Would he have got the judge manhandled? Who is he trying to fool?
To take another example, after several years of efforts to get Israel recognised by the country, he has now met the Israeli defence minister in Paris, which the spin masters in Islamabad had to reluctantly admit was “a chance meeting.” But Israeli and western press had already spilled the beans that the two men had a proper meeting of about an hour.
In contrast, let’s look at what Mr Jinnah’s approach was towards the Jewish state and its western supporters. In a speech at a public meeting in Bombay on Nov 8, 1945 even before Israel’s creation, he had said:
“We, the Mussalmans of India, are one with the Arab world... on this issue.... It is a question of Jews reconquering Palestine, which they had lost 2,000 years ago, with the help of British bayonets and American money.
“I have no enmity against Jews, I know they were badly treated in some parts of civilised Europe. But why should Palestine be dumped with such a large number (one million) of Jews? ....
“Here comes the president of a great country thinking entirely of Jewry and the interest of Jews. President Truman had the effrontery to put pressure on the British government to allow 1,000,000 Jews into Palestine, while he has agreed after a long period of vacillation to allow only 100 Indians to migrate (to the US) ....
“Why does not President Truman take 1,000,000 Jews in the United States... why not send these Jews to Canada or Australia, if they want to treat them with charity and generosity?” (Jinnah on World Affairs, by Mehrunnisa Ali.)
Looking at the disapproval with which Mr Musharraf has treated the former chiefs, I am quite sure that if the Quaid had been alive today and advised him to step down, Musharraf would in all probability have told him off. This can also be inferred from the treatment meted out to Allama Iqbal’s daughterlaw, Justice (r) Nasira Iqbal, during last year’s protests.
R. REHMAN
Karachi
CHAUDHRY Shujaat Husain says his brother Wajahat Husain who, with his nephew and son, was deported from London, had gone, or was sent, to Paris to arrange for President Musharraf’s reception there by the Pakistanis (Feb 2).
This is strange for the overseas Pakistanis have never had to be ‘organised’ to receive a visiting dignitary from home. On the contrary, in their enthusiasm they welcomed the dignitary so fulsomely he had problems sticking to the heavy official commitments.
This time it seems it was different. The official commitments were less than heavy, the enthusiasm of the Pakistanis in Paris less than fulsome. Wajahat Husain was, therefore, dispatched. On Chaudhry Shujaat Husain discovering, however, that Paris was not Gujrat where his brother can probably collect a crowd, he was directed to Barcelona and then on to London.
Maybe it was after all a good thing Wajahat Husain was not allowed entry in London. For when the president blew his fuse at a Pakistani journalist at the press conference and suggested a treatment, Wajahat Husain, if he was there, may have well have delivered the prescribed dose.
SKH
Via email
AS a Pakistani, I demand that the US should apologise for the treatment meted out to Maulana Abdus Sattar Edhi.
He is a man fit to be a saint. His work is not less than Mother Teresa’s. She worked in the slums of Calcutta, Mr Edhi has been working not only in every nook and cranny of Pakistan, but also in other parts of the world where disasters have befallen innocent people or where people have been victim of disease and poverty.
His credentials are faultless and every diplomat visiting this country is aware of his contribution. In view of his ‘image’, this aspect should be notified by the diplomatic corps to their respective country prior to his travelling, so that no ugly scene is ever repeated.
TALATH NAQVI
Via email
AUSTIN O’Malley had said: “The statesman shears the sheep, the politician skins them.” One wonders what he would have had to say about a dictator? Perhaps: “He sacrifices the sheep and wears the skin.”
Another person had asked: “As long as I count the votes what are you going to do about it?” A probable answer: You can protest and get baton-charged or imprisoned; otherwise, you join the party for the sake of ‘national interest’ and pretend to be working for democracy.
A. HAQ
Karachi
THIS is apropos of Shehzad Roy’s article, ‘If not you, then who?’ (Feb 3).
He rightly pointed out and I whole-heartedly agree with his observations that a lot of people have the habit of proving themselves as doing the right deeds by being either on the board of a community organisation or being a member of a non-government organisation.
I agree with Roy’s that by just being ‘associated’ with a non-government organisation (whether on a local or international level) does not mean that you have done your part in curbing the social injustices meted out to the poor of our world.
I also salute Roy who, being my age, has done and is still doing as much as he can to increase literacy among the poorer sections of our society.
On the almost humorous anecdote which he stated in the beginning of his piece about the small girl who said whether he stops for Azaan or not, he is destined for Hell anyway just on account of him being a singer.
Well, as a Muslim, I believe that it is entirely up to God to decide whether it will be people like Shehzad Roy who will rot in hell, come Judgment Day, or armchair activists like ourselves, who irrespective of being fully aware of others’ good work, condemn them just because their activities or even beliefs don’t comply with our own set of beliefs.
ARSALAAN HALEEM
Karachi
AFTER reading your editorials (Jan 24), the only thought that came to my mind was: where are we headed?
The country of 160 million people, equipped with nuclear deterrence, has failed to provide adequate healthcare to its children, who constitute 44 per dent of the populace.
The country with a strong agriculture base, having ample foodstuff to feed its people, is forced to adopt, due to lopsided socio-economic policies and dishonest business class, a rationing system, which was started during World War II and discontinued 22 years back due to widespread corruption.
The country where the citizens are being fed with poisonous poultry and meat, its government is absolutely unmindful of this most dreadful situation. What a more disturbing state is that this inhuman act of preparing poultry and cow feed from highly polluted and toxic materials is being done openly.
I consider that these horribly disappointing revelations made by your editorials are sufficient to bring uprising in any developed civil society.
Dr Ali Akbar M. Dhakan
Karachi
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