| February 09, 2008 | Saturday | Safar 01, 1429 |
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Childcare centres
Proxy war for the USA
Redeeming our past
American gratitude
Killing the innocent
Sensational news
Hats off to PCB
Postponement of exam
Not a failed state
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
SECP’s recent brief to the news media is mind boggling. It wants all private companies, even companies with a petty paid up capital of Rs7.50 million, to engage the services of the panel of SECP’s chosen or selected auditors to audit these companies. Is SECP living in isolation? As it is obvious to all and the SECP, the paltry paid up capital of Rs7.50 million worth of companies obviously does not require any audit, as at present, even a small apartment or shop in any urban area now costs more than Rs15-25 million.
It seems that soon SECP would want every business in Pakistan to get audited by SECP’s select panel of audit firms as it is evident that SECP does not appear to be doing a respectable task of being a sound regulator. It seems that SECP is trying to widen its monopoly as it is reaching out to club even small companies of tiny paid up capital of Rs7.50 million.
However, noting the recent concern of SECP, it would be advisable to SECP to consider the following.
• For audit of companies, the paid up capital of Rs25.00 million should be set as a minimum threshold for requirement of audit of companies, below Rs25.00 million paid up capital, there should be no audit at all, but for companies above Rs25.00 million paid up capital, the following criterion should be considered for selection of audit firms.
a) For audit of companies with paid up capital of Rs.25.00 million and above, there should be at least five categories of audit firms say, Class-A audit firms to audit companies with paid up capital of Rs500.00 million or above, Category-B to audit Rs300-499 million, Category–C to audit Rs200-299 million, Category-D, to audit companies with paid up of Rs100-199 million, while category-E, to audit companies with paid up capital of Rs25 million – Rs99.00 million. There should be no audit requirement for companies below Rs25.00 million paid up capital.
b) In each category, there should be at least 30-40 audit firms.
c) In selection of auditors, no permission except from shareholders/certificate holders should be required, as SECP and ICAP already monitors performance of audit firms, so it is a pointless exercise to seek permission from any agency for the engaging of audit firms, if any auditor is not up to the mark, the said audit firm be de-listed.
d) To change an audit firm, no NOC should be required from previous and existing audit firms or anyone. It would put pressure on audit firms to avoid/stop black mailing of their clients.
e) Audit fees should be realistic, as small paid up capital companies and loss making companies be allowed to negotiate audit fees with concerned audit firms, and under no circumstances, ICAP fees structure be shoved down the throats of small paid up capital companies and companies in loss.
• SECP should avoid being seen as a party taking side in categorizing of audit firms, and SECP must allow clients to negotiate audit fees, as ICAP yardstick of fees is used by auditors for even small paid up capital companies and loss making companies. The classy example is SECP instructing the use of Class A auditors for small paid up capital. This is an outrageous act of SECP, as there is, of course, a world of difference between the operations of Habib Bank Ltd. where category-A audit firms must audit but for SECP to insist on the induction of category-A audit firms to audit tiny mutual funds, Modaraba, leasing companies etc., is senseless, as there are only 12-13 audit firms in category-A, and knowing the position of SECP, category-A audit firms, suck the blood out of small paid up capital companies and other companies in loss. This is very unfair on the part of the SECP. This practice must be stopped and avoided in future.
SECP should act fairly in creating categories of panel of auditors and if SECP selects a small number of audit firms in each category, it would give an impression of unfair linkage of SECP brass with audit firms, not to mention, SECP may even face uncalled for legal hassles from business quarters and from upcoming audit professionals who would assume being deprived of even thinking about their own practices in future.
GHAZALA KHAN
Peshawar
This is in reference to the article written by Ms Meera Jamal (Feb 5) on lack of childcare centres for working mothers. It was indeed a pleasure reading about the subject and to see that many of us are now realizing the dire need for quality childcare centres in Pakistan, a means to support working women. The issue does not lay simply with the lack of daycare centers but the lack of quality daycare centers that operate on international standards. With a majority of women now joining the workforce, the biggest issue is providing a safe and hygienic environment that has trained professionals to look after their children.
I am in total agreement with all the facts mentioned in the article. However, I would like to take this opportunity to state here that our organization is working on this issue in Pakistan since 2003. We are a USA-based company that establishes quality childcare centers for anyone who is interested in setting up this facility like corporate sectors, factories, banks, etc, together with implementation of quality mechanisms for home-based daycare centers and capacity building of trained professionals in childcare.
We have been successful in setting up daycare centers in Karachi and Lahore so far. One of our community centers is situated in the outskirts of Karachi for women living in rural areas.
I would also like to cite here that we are faced with grave challenges in rolling out the effort to reach the entire country. The biggest challenge is lack of awareness at all levels; including parents, employers and legislators. At the employer’s level, quality daycare center is not seen as an important facility for employees and hence, is not a priority for the organization. Secondly, as mentioned by Ms Meera, the legislature does exist but lacks enforcement by the employers. We have also proposed a Ministry for Childcare in Pakistan to regulate the quality standards maintained by all the centers as well as provide a childcare subsidy for all working women but that is still pending in the assembly for approval.
We truly hope and aspire that efforts and advocacy from different levels will help curtail this issue and our women and children will soon receive the best of services that they are entitled to.
ZAHRA SHAHEEN
Karachi
In January, two US emissaries visited Musharraf in Islamabad and discussed the possibility of expanding presence of US Special Forces in Pakistan. Although, apparently Musharraf has rejected the possibility of such an operation but the question is “how can a person who is patronized by the US rejects the demands of US? So came up another solution in the name of Kunar base”.
In past, US Special Forces have carried out clandestine operations and Pakistan was not even aware of it. We saw this when 80 innocent people in a religious seminary were killed in Bajaur tribal area in October 2006 by US predator drones which was claimed by Pakistani authorities that they carried out the attack whereas when the attack was carried out, Pakistani authorities weren’t even aware of it. Similar contradictory statements of the authorities in the killing of Al Libi also suggest that US forces may have carried out the attack without Pakistan’s consent.
Now an American base in Kunar (which is few kilometers from Pakistan’s tribal areas) will allow US Special Forces to carry out such clandestine operations without Pakistan’s consent. This would certainly give rise to unrest inside Pakistan and would only increase terror operations inside Pakistan as a warning from the militants that they should be left alone.
We recently saw militants use improvised explosive devices near Peshawar to blow up a military convoy. This is the first of its kind in our cities. Previously, such events only happened in the tribal areas.
Recent unearthing of a militant cell in Rawalpindi suggests that militants were planning devastating attacks on military installations and terror operations in the federal capital of Islamabad.
Suicide attack on the 4th of February in Rawalpindi on Armed Forces that killed 8 and injured more than 40 people, firing on the rally of PPP leader Nabeel Gabol and the killing of ANP leader Fazal ur Rehman Atakhel in Karachi shows that Musharraf has stretched Pakistan to its limit in fighting proxy war for the US and has destabilized the whole country leaving us fatally exposed to the militants.
ASIM H AKHUND
Karachi
Karen Armstrong is right in suggesting that we Muslims should look beyond dogmas as we face new challenges. If we are to overcome the fog of enmity from the so-called ‘clash of cilivizations’, we need to at least know our own history. Her lecture touched on so many historical points of pride for Muslims that reflect the great influence Islam and Muslims have had, of which ordinary Pakistani Muslims are barely aware of. These days even educated Muslim Pakistanis have been made to feel ashamed of their past. The loss of our history is indeed not only a tragedy but a treachery, for without it we cannot understand the present and step into the future.
Above all, we need to rediscover our history in the context of world history. History cannot be left to dogma and theology. For example, how credible can a university Islamic history department be if, depending on the sect you belong to, you are either enrolled in the Sunni version or the Shi’ite version?
And how can we help each other to learn in a meaningful and dynamic way when so little is spent on education? Is raising the education budget from 0.5 per cent to 2 per cent going to make any difference? Such an increase is laughable (though at least a tiny first step).
We should be spending upwards of 20 per cent to educate our people. Our populace is arguably Pakistan’s largest and most promising resource. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with our potential and talents. But without a well funded, visionary, muscular and broad-ranging state education programme, there is no way that private education can meet the needs of Pakistan’s future.
MUNA H BILGRAMI
Via email
In his letter, ‘Time for redressel’, (Feb 6), Paul A Peters from USA has reflected the feelings of the common people of America. I have had occasion to visit America thrice. This is based on how nicely I was made to feel at home by the Americans.
Washington’s administration differs from the nature of its people. In the name of ‘self interests’ of America – which are really selfish interests of certain elite groups – that Washington deserts Pakistan after using it as a cat’s paw to pull its nuts out of fire. The good turns Pakistan has done for America are qualitatively worth more than trillions of dollars. Mr Peters seems to understand that now is time for redressel. I appreciate his voice with ernest gratitude on the part of Pakistanis.
I agree with all his considerations except on Kashmir. India is a big country. It does not deserve a permanent seat in the UN Security Council even without the powers of veto until it lets go of the contiguous Muslim-majority territory of Kashmir. The question of Kashmir should not be left to India and Pakistan because India is intransigent by nature in dealing with a smaller country, Pakistan.
To pay off a part of its huge debt to Pakistan, it is incumbent that the USA should use its good offices to persuade India to agree on something like retaining non-Muslim parts of Jammu and Laddakh and let the rest go its way, as Nehru had promised but avoided.
America could tell India, “We will make it easy for you to sit in the UNSC permanently if you settle the Kashmir issue in a year.”
JALAL AHMED
Muscat
Rahimullah Wazir’s heart rending letter (Feb 06) should open the eyes of likes of Zoha Sirhindi (Feb 6) who have been brainwashed by the western media into believing that bombing and killing of innocent and unarmed civilians by the soldiers is heroic.
Zoha writes “Newspapers should pay their tribute by publishing the pictures of fallen soldiers after every milestone in the war like the New York Times does for the fallen American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.” The writer forgets that the American soldiers are foreign forces occupying the lands of Iraq and Afghanistan engaged in promoting the strategic objectives of their home country.
Would New York Times publish pictures of fallen American soldiers if they were engaged in maiming and killing innocent civilians of their own nation in California and Texas?
Foreign media and Think Tanks are engaged in creating a new generation of brainwashed Pakistanis who, working from within, could hasten the disintegration of the country, God forbid.
Waziris, Sindhis and Balochis are our brothers and compatriots. Their land must be governed through political insight aimed at achieving mutual safety, progress and prosperity for all co-habitants. Allowing the Americans to bomb houses in the the FATA area and then sending troops and tanks accompanied with aerial bombing of villages cannot be called an act of patriotism by the government in power. It is an act of terrorism against the local population.
Terrorists, if identified, must be separated from the local population and arrested without shedding the blood of innocent civilians. The cycle of increasing violence between military and civilians of certain areas can only be arrested when our rulers stop working on foreign agenda that has been bleeding our nation and the army.
Pakistanis must acquire greater dexterity at differentiating between the strategic objectives of their own nation vis-a-vis foreign powers and be able to see through the global game of power. That will enable them to avoid this suicidal trend on both sides - the civilians well as the military.
HUMAYUN ZAFAR
Canada
TWO articles, ‘Selective inefficiency’(Jan 15) and ‘Absurdly strange’ (Jan 22) certainly go to prove, in no uncertain terms, that there is today a complete and unprecedented freedom of the press which has seldom existed before.
As an old - timer I feel comfortable in saying that in the heyday of the ZAB government the writer would almost certainly have been made to perform the ‘disappearing’ trick. Both these articles give selective quotes from an article by Fareed Zakaria, which appeared in Newsweek’s issue of Jan 21, and in both selective quotations have been resorted to in order to create sensationalism.
For instance, President Musharraf is quoted as having said: “Because I know for sure there in no bullet wound other than on the right side”. But what has been deliberately withheld is the very next sentence which is: “Whether it was a bullet or a strike, I do not want to comment, I do not know.”
This puts a very different meaning to what the sensationalist wishes to convey to his readers. The writer of the articles obviously implies that the army and the present government are somehow involved in the dastardly assassination of Benazir Bhutto. He has even gone on to tar Britain’s famous Scotland Yard with a brush of complaisant infamy.
S. ASIF MAJEED
Karachi
It was heartening to watch the live pictures of the 2nd One Day International Match between Pakistan and Zimbabwe from Niaz Stadium, Hyderabad, after a long gap of 24 years.
One must appreciate the bold initiatives taken by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) of fostering cricketing activities in smaller cities such as Hyderabad and Sheikhupura. Placement of colourful banners inviting people to come and watch the matches increased public interest.
The revival of international cricket especially in Hyderabad portrays the vision of PCB and its commitment towards the development of cricket in Pakistan. The joy and excitement was evident on the faces of the people who have waited patiently for more than two decades to enjoy some quality cricket. Hats off to PCB for bringing a positive change in Hyderabad.
S. NAVEED AHMED
Karachi
This is with reference to letters of CSS candidates regarding the postponement of CSS 2008 examination.
CSS, an examination of nerves and strategies, is only possible when external factors and other situations allow one to prepare without any disturbance.
CSS 2008 is a matter of great importance for many aspirants but a few candidates need special attention in this context i.e. those who are making their last attempt to appear and for few those who would benefit from the announcement on the curtailment in the cut-off date announced in May, 2007 by the FPSC.
Everyone knows that the assassination of Ms Benazir Bhutto has left chaos in the country. Many efforts have been taken by the administration to control the situation but in vain. Besides, government offices, libraries have also become victim of mass violence. Further, electricity outages have made the situation even worse and added fuel to fire. The ongoing election campaign is also a hurdle to focused preparation of the examination.
We, in interior Sindh as well as from Karachi, are facing all the above stated circumstances, especially power breakdown for weeks. All these facts are not hidden from the purview of the authorities.
I request the Chairman (FPCS) to consider the matter favorably and postpone the examination for at least one month. It would be an admirable step.
IMTIAZ ALI
Karachi
As a Pakistani-Canadian, I am greatly disturbed at the deteriorating political situation of Pakistan and fully agree with the views of Mr Khalid Asmi.
Thinker and political pragmatist, like Dr Mubashir Hasan, should constitute a Think Tank, to discuss the various aliments, which the country is suffering from and suggest practical remedies.
Pakistan is definitely not a failed state, as many outside powers would have us believe. However, we still need to completely overhaul our present political, social, economic and educational systems. It might take some time but we should start at the grassroots level anyway.
The 50-plus recently dismissed judges of the Supreme and lower courts, should be reinstated and the planned February 18 election held, in a relatively free, fair and transparent manner.
I am proud to say that Pakistan, of more than 160 million inhabitants, is in much better shape than many of the more than 190 member countries of the United Nations.
JALAL HUSSAIN
Canada
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