| March 06, 2008 | Thursday | Safar 27, 1429 |
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Music in TV news
Vacating the Army House
The soldier comes home
Alto instead of a Land Cruiser
Poor plastic bag
Hospital waste management
Prudent action needed
Iran-Iraq ties renewed
Right man, wrong place
Foreign envoys
Tax deduction
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
AFTER the polling day humiliation suffered by President Musharraf and the PML (Q), not a day goes by when the former ruling party and members of the ‘caretaker’ regime do not indulge in self-praise for holding a ‘free and fair’ election in the country.
However, what is conveniently overlooked is the large-scale transfers of the Election Commission staff, bureaucrats and police officials and the purge of the higher judiciary before the election, which are all examples of pre-poll ‘system’ rigging with the aim of minimising the need for actual ‘poll day’ rigging.
Keeping this in mind, we witnessed massive pre-poll rigging by the PML(Q) all over the country and the MQM in certain constituencies of Karachi complains to the hapless Election Commission of no tangible use.
It would be wrong, however, to say that the polling day was fair as selective poll-day rigging of varying intensity did take place on the election day.
To share a personal experience, I am in possession of a ballot paper (given to me by someone) for PP 152, Lahore XVI, pre-stamped with Chaudhry Moonis Elahi’s name [PML (Q) candidate and the son of former Punjab chief minister Pervaiz Elahi] with the official Election Commission of Pakistan seal: this was one of many such ballots handed out to people in this particular constituency before the election, in many cases accompanied with cash payments; obviously all the ‘development work’ conducted over the past five years or the billions of rupees in taxpayers’ money spent on advertising were not enough to win a provincial assembly seat from the city.
As per the election results, Moonis Elahi got 23,537 votes as against 25,281 of Saeed Ilahi of the PML(N); just how many of Moonis Elahi’s ‘votes’ were real is not difficult to fathom for the people of Lahore. Nor was this phenomenon something limited to Punjab; down south in Karachi, video footage of armed men storming polling stations and stamping ballot papers was shown on a private TV channel and is available on the video sharing website, YouTube.
So make no mistake, the script was written by President Musharraf and his allies with the odds heavily stacked against the opposition parties. That it did not work according to plan was due to the courage shown by the Pakistani people who came out to vote, refusing to be cowed down by the existing security situation, and the decision by the new Army chief to rein in the army’s meddling in the election process, correctly realising that the army is no longer in a position to face a public backlash.
That the opposition parties won despite the aforementioned challenges shows the extent of the failures of the Musharraf regime. On February 18, the people of Pakistan gave a clear mandate to the PPP, PML(N) and the ANP. I urge the PPP, for whom I voted, to resist efforts originating from the presidency to forge artificial alliances and instead form a stable coalition government with the PML(N) and the ANP in order to face the complex, multi-faceted economic, political, social and security challenges faced by the country.
TAIMUR MASUD KHAN
Lahore
FOR the last several years TV transmissions of most of our country’s channels are badly in grip of music in their newscasting and other events and noisy music and unwanted dances in commercials. The beginning of the news is heralded by a big bang and music like ancient warriors used to beat their drums in battlefields to show their arrival.
Each news headline is followed by a rhythmical music whether the news relates to the death of a VIP, a bomb blast, a suicide attack at a public meeting, a religious congregation, a natural catastrophe, so on and so forth.
Instead of being announced with seriousness, sorrow and sympathy, they are announced with music and drum-beating. What a joke! The sensational programmes/events are presented with dreadful music, sounds of shootings and sirens of fast running ambulances which adversely affect the nerves and hearts of the viewers who are already tension-ridden due to unheard of incidents taking place daily almost in all the cities. The younger generation gets trained as to how crimes are planned and committed. It has been observed that even the tales of tyranny let loose on their kith and kin, narrated by the members of their family and relatives during interviews, are not free from music, which is nothing but a mockery of the aggrieved.
TV men while presenting such incidents/events must keep human sentiments in mind and try to soften their inflictions.
Nowadays commercial advertisements of almost all mobile companies, manufacturers of biscuits, milk, cold drinks and many others are full of cruel music and vulgar dances perhaps without which these items cannot be marketed. The families and friends are shown eating biscuits, drinking milk, taking cold drinks and holding in hand mobile phones of their choice chanting and dancing as if they had never eaten biscuits, drank milk or cold drinks or seen mobile phones in their lifetime.
The sound of these commercials are so high that one has to keep remote control always ready in hand to reduce the noise to the minimum. Commercial advertisement in my opinion should be dignified, meaningful, interesting and relevant to the product to be marketed.
Will TV men review their policy to get rid of music in news items, and will advertisers make their commercials sobre, interesting and relevant?
J. A. CHOHAN
Karachi
The Army House in Rawalpindi happens to be the official residence of the Chief of Army Staff. President Pervez Musharraf has, however, been using the same as his presidential camp office ever since he overthrew the elected government in 1999. Even though he is no more the Chief of Army Staff now, he has not vacated the house.
As a result, it has become the centre of all the post-election palace intrigues. The PML(Q) politicians, rejected by the masses of the country in the recent election, are frequent visitors of the Army House.
Every other day, there is news of former chief minister of Punjab, Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, being flown in a special plane to meet the president. This brings an even worse name to the house which should have been a symbol of the Army’s prestige and professionalism.
The House already had more than its share of public ire and criticism and had become controversial in the eyes of common Pakistanis as during all these years, President Musharraf used it as his headquarters to play havoc with national institutions. Remember even the former chief justice was summoned there on March 9 last year and pressured to tender his resignation.
As long as President Musharraf is residing there, it would remain the focus of controversies and criticism. One hopes that the authorities concerned will realise the delicacy of the situation and request the president to immediately shift to some other place.
ADIL NAWAZ
Islamabad
RECENTLY news broke out that Prince Harry was to come home after his stint of duty in Afghanistan (March 1). If the British media were to be believed, he could be a victorious Caesar on his way back to Rome. His portrayal as a hero by a section of the press lends credence to the perception that the elite almost anywhere in the world are detached from the general population by a huge margin.
He is a prince of the same country in which hundreds of thousands marched against an illegal war. To think of him as some kind of a hero is insulting to the memory of those killed in Afghanistan from any side that they may have been. Furthermore, it is quite sickening to know that the prince is being lauded for his ‘bravery’.
It must have been in mediaeval times when princes were sent to the frontlines to ‘harden’ them in battle. Today’s prince went to the most impoverished and defenseless nation on earth to further bomb, kill and destroy.
Reportedly he is very pleased on achieving that and has even said that it was very nice to be a normal person. So should people from the Third World take up similar antics and bring them to developed nations in their quest for being normal?
HASAN BIN HAMZA
Australia
THE recent report about Mohammedmian Soomro’s dodgy purchase of two very expensive Land Cruisers during his short stint in the caretaker government just proves the point that government officials are wasting Pakistan’s money on cars that are not needed.
Can I please ask the relevant government officials, NAB, government prosecutors and the media personal to please request Mr Soomro to return the two Land Cruisers he has bought from the taxpayers’ money so that we can use that amount to buy wheat for the people of Pakistan.
I would also like to request the relevant government officials and leaders to please pass a law to stop the use of expensive and imported cars for all government duties and, instead, please use the cheapest locally-manufactured car available for these duties. The cheap, locally-manufactured cars would not only cost less but will also utilise less fuel, pollute the environment less and also help the local industry to flourish.
Also I cannot understand why government officials like Mr Soomro, who only needs to go to the Senate and his office in the official car, require a 4x4 high spec Jeep and then two of them. It’s not like the Senate building is located in the Amazon jungle or the Gobi Desert. Mr Soomro can easily go to the Senate building in a CNG-fitted Suzuki Alto.
S. KHAN BASEER
Peshawar
THE poor plastic bag which helped us carry our shopping burden for so many years now faces extinction.
Reason: It takes one thousand years to decompose and may cause floods when it gets stuck in a sewerage line and blocks the flow of water from the pipeline carrying stagnant water to stand in the street creating multiple problems for the civic agencies.
Its 1000-year-long life also makes a nuisance. The pipeline may be choked by it and many men, women and children may become victim of it causing human miseries.
Our age-old plastic bag, we now bid farewell to you in Bangladesh and several other countries and hope that something better than you may take your place to help men carry their shopping burden.
S. AZIZ AKHTAR
Karachi
I WENT through the report titled ‘Unregistered hospitals hinder waste management efforts’ (March 3) in which Mukhtar Alam is very right in pointing out that health care waste management is a neglected sector in Karachi.
The situation is even worse in other parts of the country. The writer relates it with the registration system as if registration of the hospitals will solve the problem. I would like to draw the attention of readers to another aspect of the scenario: incineration is the problem rather than solution.
There has been a paradigm shift in this sector. Developed countries and even India have managed to adopt alternative methods, including autoclaving and chemical disinfection. A lot of public money is still being spent on incinerators. We need to think about alternatives unless it is too late.
DR MUSARRAT UL HASNAIN
Jhang
APROPOS of the news item that appeared on March 3 titled ‘Unregistered hospitals hinder waste management efforts’, the reporter is appreciated for focusing such a topic of immense importance but has devolved around Karachi and its periphery ignoring the situation beyond.
In fact, the emerging sad state of affairs similar to Karachi’s miserable conditions are visible in the far-off areas of southern Punjab where the government-run Nishtar Medical Hospital has utterly failed to address the problem of hospital waste, especially metallic waste, which is proving to be a deadly weapon in the hands of addicts who reutilise these syringes and other waste material to inject drugs.
The incinerator plant of Nishtar Medical Hospital is lying idle for a long time and the management is dumping hospital waste in a corner of the hospital without observing the right and proper methods required under the environmental protection laws to dispose of the waste. Further, Multan’s municipal organisation remains a silent spectator to this dismal situation.
Being an environmentalist, I think that all these grey areas are sprouting their ugly tentacles through the connivance of the administration and improper implementation of the clauses of the environmental protection law by the department concerned.
Most of the employees of the environment departments are non-professional and have been appointed without gauging their specific degrees in this field. Once they were hired, they have not been imparted any training to enhance their professional skill to cope with the invidious situation. Due to this negligence, people are falling prey to various lethal diseases like Aids, and hepatitis.
It is time our future leaders gave this problem top priority in their agenda.
TAHIRA SALEEM
Multan
THIS is apropos of a news report,’Economy to be top priority’ (Feb 26), attributed to the PPP information secretary, Sherry Rehman, while lamenting over the massive economic mess and deficits her party inherited from the regime. She indicated that the coming months will test the patience of the public as her party was mulling some ‘tough decisions’ to fix the mess.
No doubt her grievances bear the contents and need harsh actions to put the house in order but it must be far from coercive, otherwise it will be tantamount to further hurting the interest of the people.
It is pertinent to note that half the battle can be won by merely controlling the flour price, a basic food item of indigent populace, followed by pulses etc.
Elusive steps like subsidised commodities’ availability at utility stores for the poor or the ration card scheme, which is prone to all sorts of manipulations, will be tantamount to hoodwinking the masses and, subsequently, can result in the downfall of the party. In such a precarious scenario, only a prudent and sincere action will mitigate the suffering of the downtrodden.
SIDDIK S. JAANGDA
Karachi
THE last week visit of the Iranian president to Iraq, first in about three decades and after an eight-year war between the two neighbours, is an event of great consequence.
We are reminded of the event when the South African president, Nelson Mandela, planned to visit Libya (which had not yet succumbed to a close embrace by the US), the American office of states tried to scare Mr Mandela by expressing their displeasure. Mr Mandela was not deterred. The two are quite different from the presidents of Pakistan and Turkey.
Ahmadenijad’s visit to Iraq is even more eventful than his visit to Saudi Arabia. This visit had aroused hopes of building bridges across the Gulf and inspired measures of confidence development between the Arabs and Iranians.
The feeling has not been influenced much after the a one-week whirlwind tour of Mr Bush to the Middle East when he wished to put a scare for Iran in the hearts of the GCC rulers.
The days are not far when Arabs of the peninsula and Iranians will know where their interests lie. When the mutual fear is eliminated, the need for having western forces placed on Arab lands will also go.
This becomes possible when the region is ruled in accordance with the wishes of the people of the region and in compliance with their interests.
TARIQ MAHMOOD
Peshawar
IT is unfortunate that Mushahid Hussain, an intellectual, political analyst and thinker, is still with the PML (Q), although he has ideas (which I consider positive) that are in conflict with those held by other leaders of the PML(Q), as have been displayed on different occasions and also recently reported in Dawn. On Feb 28, a report said that all PML(Q) frontline leaders had met the president and assured him that “any move to repeal Article 58(2)b, which gives the president powers to dissolve assemblies, would be opposed”.
On the other hand, Mushahid Hussain, secretary-general of the PML(Q), said in a TV talk show that the PML(Q) would support a move to repeal 58(2) b.
I suggest Mr Hussain to join another party at this stage, otherwise he might lose what he has gained in politics so far.
K.H.M JOHI
(Dadu)
IT is amazing to see foreign envoys’ blatant intervention in the political affairs of Pakistan. One has not seen or read about such a thing on such a scale anywhere else in the world. It is not limited only to US and British envoys. Ambassadors from some Middle Eastern countries, India and other countries are also seen trying to influence the forthcoming events in Pakistan.
While meetings between political leaders and foreign envoys may be normal in democracies, the blatant intervention of diplomats in the affairs a country is not and should not be a permissible thing.
(It also reaffirms the inherent weakness of a society).
It should be one of the priorities of the elected parliament to hold serious discussion on the foreign envoys’ blatant intervention in Pakistani politics, take measures to end it in future and if it deems fit may even declare some diplomats as persona non grata.
The parliament should also censure the foreign powers’ support to the present and the past military dictatorships in the country and develop a mechanism to stop it in future.
AZIZ NAREJO
USA
THE position of tax deduction on a widow’s Behbood certificate as stated in a letter (Feb 22) is based on some misconception and not quite correct. There is no question of recovery of withholding tax on widows’ Behbood certificates on an investment of Rs150,000.
The correct position is that up to an investment of Rs3 million in widows’ Behbood certificates, as well as in pensioners’ benefit account, no withholding tax is to be deducted. There is, therefore, no question of increasing this limit to Rs500,000 as stated by a widow: 10 per cent withholding tax is, however, recovered on investment exceeding Rs150,000 in Special Savings certificates.
Hence the public should note the difference in the two separate savings schemes.
A. RAZAK KHAN
Karachi
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