| March 07, 2008 | Friday | Safar 28, 1429 |
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Woes of casual teachers
Rigging tactics
Private schools’ accountability
Security issue
Missing man
Foundations for living and being
Expecting trouble
Lack of care
Musharraf’sgood points
First retaliation, then ceasefire
Blocked websites
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
ONE wonders why ulema in Pakistan are particularly silent over suicide blasts across the country. No one speaks against it. No one dare say that suicide bombing is ‘haraam’ in Islam, it is against the text of Quran and teachings of the Holy Prophet.
The ulema have in their access the most effective medium of communication – the mosque. They can tell the people that:
(1) Surah Al Maeda, Ayah No. 32, says: “He who kills a human being (whether Muslim or non-Muslim), has killed the whole humanity. He who saves one life, it is but equal to saving the whole humanity.”
(2) In Surah Al Nisaa, Ayah 29, it is clearly said that suicide is ‘haraam’: “Don’t kill yourself, there is no doubt that Allah is Merciful to you.” Committing suicide is equal to interfering in the functions of Allah. It is equal to rejecting the blessings of Allah the man is bestowed with.
(3) Man is not allowed to kill himself even in the heights of unbearable pains of disease, despondency and any other circumstances.
(4) When a Muslim valiant fighter in one of the ‘ghazwas’ got unbearable wounds and stabbed himself to death, Hazrat Jundub (RA) heard the Holy Prophet saying: “The man has shut the doors of Jannah in a bid to rush to Jannah.” His bravery, his jihad and all deeds of righteousness which he did in the past all went down the drain because he took the decision of his life and death in his hands.
(5) The Holy Prophet used to give instructions to the faithful before going on a ‘ghazwa’, forbidding: “No one will attack the unarmed, the women, the children, the patients, the elders, who offer no resistance, who surrenders, who is given amnesty by anyone from the Muslims.”
(6) Surah Al Baqrah’s Ayah 193 says: “Don’t pick up arms against other than aggressors.”
(7) There is a famous hadith of the Prophet, which says: “He who kills himself by iron shrapnel, will be beaten by the same iron shrapnel in the Hell.”
It is the duty of our ulema not to stay calm and speak against the menace of suicide blasts. Luckily, the prestigious Jamia Al Azhar’s Mufti-i-Azam Sheikh-ul-Azam Qarat Muhammad Abdul Hameed Al Bashar has come out with the latest fatwa that suicide attacks, in Pakistan, are against the Shariah. He said Muslims are on both sides and there is no reason to fight against each other. He urged the Islamic scholars to preach the teachings of the Quran and the Holy Prophet.
Probably we at the labyrinth of our moral decay are not even ready to pay heed to such fatwas. A fatwa by Mufti Azam of Islam had held the status of decree for all Muslims of the world.
If the masterminds, the Taliban, Al Qaeda men, pro-Taliban militants of tribal areas are true Muslims, they would pay heed to my words.
ALYA ALVI
Rawalpindi
I WOULD like to bring to the notice of the authorities concerned the plight of the so-called casual teachers (locally hired) of the Pakistan International School (PIS), Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia. They are treated in a manner that is highly unjust and discriminatory. Their working conditions are pathetic.
The honorarium that is bestowed upon them as salary is pittance. The workload is immense, and that too in strange ways.
The number of students in the classes is usually 40 plus. If a staff member leaves, there are no replacements. The students are conveniently divided among other sections of the same class.
The senior section staff, after giving lectures in Grades 11 and 12 has to go and assist in the KG section. Even a day’s leave is not allowed in the whole academic year. There is no casual leave for the casual staff.
I have a few questions to ask: why is it that the staff of PIS, Jeddah, and PIS, Riyadh, most of whom are locally hired, enjoy all the benefits while we are deprived of these?
Why is it that perks and facilities are given to a few who constitute not even 20 per cent of the workforce but happen to be on school visa while the casual staff, who is the financial and administrative backbone of the school, is exploited in all ways possible?
Why is it that some people are getting extensions after extensions and strange kinds of allowances while many others cannot afford to report sick?
Why is it that the PIS staff in Jeddah and Riyadh can meet the link officers of the Pakistan embassy whenever they want and vent their grievances but for the Al Khobar staff even the principal never bothers to be available and listen to what they have to say?
Instead, if anyone tries to raise their voice, they are threatened that their status is illegal and they have no rights to ask for. Where are the custodians of Saudi labour law?
Is there anyone sitting on Federal Board of Education, Islamabad, who will read this and take some kind of action against this exploitation?
A CASUAL TEACHER
Dammam,
Saudi Arabia
NOW that the dust has settled on the election activities, Free and Fair Elections Network (FAFEN) must be in the process of finalising its report, based upon its polling station observers and mobile polling observers.
I would like to draw the attention of FAFEN and the Election Commission to some ‘irregularities’ which could not possibly be observed by any ‘monitors’, may it be PSOs or polling agents.
Although the incidents are related to Karachi, the tactics would be similar for any party wielding power at a given polling station. At one polling station in not so elite an area, a group of five or six young men stormed into the premises in the middle of the night and demanded six books each of NA and PS ( each book contains 100 ballot papers) from the presiding officer.
Obviously the PO feared for his life. He did not give the books at that time, citing his responsibility to break the seal in front of the polling agents but promised to comply later. During the day he had to part with two books each along with the required seals and specimen signatures of the APOs. In that polling station ‘their candidates’ won by fewer than 200 votes. It is anybody’s guess who really lost.
In another case ‘they’ were much more resourceful. All the presiding officers at a certain RO’s disbursement centre were treated to high tea and instructed to hand over election material to ‘them’, while the polling staff was constrained to stay put or rather made hostage. Polling was conducted by ‘fakes’.
Results were handed over to the ‘real ones’ for proper submission. Could any type of ‘monitoring’ avoid this ‘unfairness’? Let us hope that the Election Commission will devise better strategies to combat this ‘rigging’ and let FAFEN think of new methods of monitoring.
AQUILA ISLAM
Karachi
PRIVATE schools have become ‘prophesies/island of perfection and dreams’ beyond and above the rules of accountability and transparency. Private schools instead of generating learning and knowledge are generating nodes that are aimed at distorting the educational aims of society. One of the aims is to educate people for a just, fair and knowledgeable society.
The rules of accountability and transparency seem to be enforced in the public sector more while the private sector goes free, specially the private schools. In order to emphasise accountability and regulation in the private sector,this is missing from the private school. It only starts and ends on registration.
Pakistan’s future generation needs to learn through innovative educational approaches. According to Polak’s thesis that without strong, positive guiding images of the future a society loses its directions. Private schools are teaching children without education for future. They are building a case of distorted ‘utopia’ through poor quality of teaching and learning.
Our children need futuristic education, they need learning to resist, quest for meaning and need education for action. With these kinds of private school we will confine ourselves to producing English-talking kids, not future citizens who are critical and ethical.
I would like to urge the government to focus on the quality of education, starting from both the private and public sectors alike. Setting standards for achievement, teacher qualifications and training should be essential for getting into the teaching profession. Private schools need to show more professionalism in the field of education.
SADAF HUSSAINY
Lahore
THE refusal of the Australian cricket security team to visit Pakistan came as a shock to many Pakistanis. Without their security team advance visit, the Australian cricket tour is virtually off. But should it be a shock?
A cricket tour, or for that matter any sporting tour, is not only playing the sport among the shadows of guns and security personnel, it is about enjoying your stay, making friends and acting as one’s country’s goodwill ambassadors.
Is the prevailing condition in Pakistan conducive to a tour by a foreign country? When we can’t protect our twice-elected prime minister, when daily our armed forces personnel and establishments are being targeted, how can we assure our foreign guests of their safety?
The first world countries place a very great value on its citizens unlike our unfortunate country. Any untoward incidence during the tour will bring a very bad name to the already maligned name of Pakistan.
It will be better if the tour is cancelled and arrangements made to play the matches at some neutral venue.
JAFFAR NAQVI
Lahore
UNDER the caption, ‘Missing man’, the Washington Post pointed out that the name of President Musharraf was distinctly missing from a prepared testimony presented by Negroponte before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Feb 28.
A similar testimony in November mentioned him 11 times. This time around, his name was replaced with the word ‘democratic forces’.
I wonder how would the former general feel finding his name in (the list of) ‘missing persons’ from official documents of the State Department, in a different context though. While in a comparable context, Reza Pehlavi of Iran, Gen Ramos of the Philippines and Gen Panache of Chile were also put on such lists before they packed their bags and said goodbye to power.
DR GHAYUR AYUB
Via email
IT is said that a person planning for 10 years hence nurtures trees, but that a person preparing for 100 years hence nurtures people.
One doomsday scenario involving science and technology involves a scenario where out-of-control nanobots convert all matter to nondescript grey goo.
Over the last several years, perhaps in part due to comparatively comfortable times financially, the adult population has indulged in a degree of moral relativism and vagueness that can be perplexing for the very young seeking to make ethical sense of the adult world.
While on the one hand too much nationalism can lead to unnecessary conflict, too little makes for countries with no cohesive identity or pride of purpose. While a sense of competitiveness that is too keen, of rewarding true merit and of reproaching failure too strongly, may not be productive, a sensibility that means we do not acknowledge true talent and merit or that we falsely attribute merit to something of lesser worth, all in order to make people feel more equal or at ease, to nurture a false sense of sameness, makes for a system of double standards, contradictions, and inconsistencies, a culture of mediocrity, ignominy, and hypocrisy.
While too much ambition can be dangerous, too little ambition can be deadly. While too much rigidity can be stifling and meretricious, too many choices, too much freedom and liberty with ethics and protocol make for societies that are insecure, communities that are dangerous and undependable.
If we are too fearful of hurting people’s sensibilities in distinguishing true beauty from hollow superficiality, in distinguishing between truth and falsehood, in encouraging humanitarian goodness, we cannot hope to instil in the young a sense of justice and fair dealing.
People selecting a career, planning a future, naturally look for role models among those whose path they wish to follow. In choosing a pathway or destiny, people naturally consider who they can expect to count among their acquaintances in future, at prayer, at work, and at play.
Sometimes, in embarking on a role or mission we deem worthy, we forgo personal comforts, forsake family ties, distance ourselves from the culture or circumstances of our youth, and leave old friends and accomplices to make new ones.
People are who are establishing foundations for living and being need firm reliable bases upon which to plan a future, something worthy of their strivings and aspirations, a mission or destiny that may bring pride and self-respect in being.
Young people also need the shelter of sturdy, secure, and reliable spiritual, social, cultural, political, and economic institutions within which to develop and explore their potentials to the fullest extent possible, towards ends that are productive in heart and mind, body and soul.
Without establishing such realms of dreams and ideals, people who are capable of achieving true great works, true meritorious deeds, great acts of salvation, cannot be encouraged, sought out, or nurtured.
Diversionary programmes that do not deliver people from harmful or destructive tendencies, that do not lead people to fulfilling the highest of their potentials, that act to defraud people of what might have been, that mean genuine problems and wrongdoings go unquestioned and unchallenged, can mean that the hearts of people are increasingly hardened, poisoned, and corrupted.
BRUCE TERRY
Lenah Valley
Tasmania
THE Pakistan government has always given conflicting statements about Fata and Wana regions whenever there has been a missile attack in those areas. The Pakistani government owns up the attack which has been carried out by the US. This has been very openly written in the American media that these attacks were the handiwork of Americans and not Pakistan.
We have again been hearing some very worrisome news about providing air strips to the US air force as well as about the arrival of 100 commandos who will operate in Wana and tribal areas. Journalists have been barred from visiting those airstrips by the government. Why?
Owing to the sensitivity of the region, letting these cowboys in those areas will create more problems in Pakistan.
Our minister was right when he claimed that the US and the neighbours are causing trouble in Pakistan by using suicide bombing to spread terror and keeping Pakistani government on its toes. We should wake up and read the writing on the wall.
SHAH AFFAN
Canada
THROUGH these columns I would like to draw the attention of the authorities concerned to an ugly incident at a private high-profile and costly school where my little son is studying. On Feb 29, a Friday, when my husband went to pick our son from LGS, Islamabad campus, he was shocked to see six other children beating and kicking him on the ribs, stomach and legs. Of course he rescued him.
We took up the matter with the relevant teacher and the school administration and were told that they were not responsible for what happens after the ‘chutti’ time. We pleaded but to no avail and I am, therefore, writing this letter with the hope you would publish it and the high-ups of the school would pay heed and take some remedial steps.
People send their children to expensive schools at great cost and expect the management to take good care. A school should not be allowed to become a centre for brawls, violence and lawlessness.
IFFAT ALI
Islamabad
IT amazes me the amount of dislike Pakistanis have for their president. He is no saint, but he is also not that bad as he is thought to be.
For the first time in Pakistan’s history a free and fair election was held under his presidency. Is it not a great achievement? This man has steered his country exceptionally well, considering the circumstances of 9/11 and the previous baggage of history left over by rulers (including PPP/PML(N) leaders).
He has also improved relations with India and the common man in both the countries has to thank him for this gesture.
Credit should also go to A.B. Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh for improving the relations. Every ruler has his negatives. In spite of that, their rule would be remembered. Mr Musharraf would also be remembered as a good ruler, may be 10 years later.
My suggestion is: why not Musharraf cross over the Radcliffe line and come to Delhi, his home town. We do not mind a general like him heading a country where there is too much democracy!
The current Indian PM can be a consensus candidate in Pakistan. He hails from Rawalpindi and is not corrupt too!
SKANDAN
Bahrain
I STRONGLY agree with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that both Middle East rivals should cease fire. I suggest one condition: Before every ceasefire that seems ‘necessary’ after an Israeli massacre; retaliation should take place where equal harm, mental threat and physical torture may be experienced also by Israel. Only then would any sane person term it as just and balanced.
Second, I would appeal to the US puppet in the Middle East, Mehmud Abbas, to step down, give the government to those who won elections and deserve to be in power, and stop suggesting mindless ideas like ‘reciprocal ceasefire’.
The Hamas spokesman has very rightly said: “We consider the statements of the Palestinian president about the truce an unbalanced call because the problem lies in the occupation, not in the Palestinian people”
RAFAY
Karachi
Blocking the website cannot end the grievances of the Baloch against the government. Many a website that has been blocked by the federal government advocated Baloch rights.
We want the all blocked websites to be working again.
AJMAL LATIF
Kech, Turbat
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