| March 08, 2008 | Saturday | Safar 29, 1429 |
To send a letter to the Editor
Click here
Profit on National Savings schemes
A database for lost people
Voting problems
Mental illness
Promoting justice
Cooperative societies law
Govt property sale
Web booking
Justice delayed
A positive act
School fees
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
PAKISTANI cricket has hit rock bottom in recent years due to the unnecessary emphasis on foreign coaches. Although there was nothing wrong with the late Bob Woolmer or the current coach Jeff Lawson and they may have been sincere in their efforts but the effort and emphasis of the cricket authorities has been to tout and portray these coaches as Aladdin’s magic lamp which may somehow turn the Pakistani cricketers into world beaters.
Sadly the results are there for all to see, the only teams they are now capable of beating comfortably are the lower ranks of the cricket-playing countries.
This fascination with foreigners and coaches must end now, as the Indian cricket team has been performing brilliantly after they rid themselves of foreign coach Greg Chappell who was overlording them with a catastrophic mindset. They don’t have a foreign coach to date and they just comprehensively beat the Aussies, the champions of cricket, the other day.
Pakistani patrons of cricket should come out of the spell of the colonial masters and start relying on the local talent rather than imported stuff.
Second, the treatment being meted out to Shoaib Akhter and Danish Kaneria is pathetic. Such senior and gifted players are being punished for speaking up for their rights by a jaundiced outlook and a pompous mindset. Further, the Pakistani captain is an individual of dubious personal character involved in throwing away matches and making false promises of marriage.
How can the team perform under a leader of such controversial personality? Please spare the players of bureaucratic wrangling and let them play whilst they are at the peak of their short productive careers. Too many players have been destroyed by this ‘Tweedledum and Tweedledee’ attitude of the officials. Please spare the team of your high-handed pompousness, the nation will be thankful.
SYED NAJAM UDDIN
Multan
THIS is with reference to the report, ‘Law to set up savings corporations delayed’ (March 6), according to which promulgation of the presidential ordinance converting Central Directorate of National Savings into the proposed ‘Pakistan Savings Corporation’ has been further delayed due to internal differences of ministries.
The scope of Central Directorate of National Savings which, prior to December 1971 functioned as a publicity organisation and its activities were merely promotional in nature, was expanded in early 1972 as the Central Directorate.
It started selling Prize Bonds and, subsequently, engaged in the operations of other savings schemes. Thereafter, various schemes were introduced such as DSCs, SSCs, RICs, BSCs and savings, special and pensioner’s accounts and rates of interest given up to the year 1999 were around 18 per cent.
These were the only financial schemes in the country (otherwise there are swindlers and charlatans like Samad Dadabhi and Alliance Motors who looted thousands of innocent people) where re-run was adequate and investment guaranteed. Therefore, senior citizens, pensioners, widows and those who could not afford the luxury market of risks deposited their entire life-time savings to pass residual life comfortably.
Out of blue came Shaukat Aziz, a banker by profession, first as finance minister and then elevated as prime minister of the country. After assuming the rein, he gradually reduced the interest rate of different NSC from 18 per cent (1999) to seven per cent (2004) and subjected its profit at 10 per cent withholding tax, which earlier was tax-free.
As if it was not enough, some compulsory deductions were also imposed in case investment is withdrawn before the maturity period. The entire scheme was obviously done to encourage investment in the banking sector.
As a result, this mindless decision caused millions of white-collared families, who were groaning under the ever rising prices of goods and utilities and whose only source of livelihood was the NSCs profit, to become pauper. Nevertheless, there was a fabulous increase in the profit of banks which utilised this windfall liquidity charging stupendous interest on consumer loans.
This also provided a fillip to foreign banks, many of whom have established branches overnight all over the country and are now transferring billions of profit to their head offices, denuding the treasury of its hard-earned foreign currency reserves.
Although on public pressure, some upward revision in the interest rates was made in 2007 but the increase is so minuscule and prices of goods and utilities during the period have gone so high that it will have no impact on the life of poor investors.
I urge the future government to consider the misery of millions of households, which have suffered at the hands of the previous government’s lopsided policies in favour of banks and business cartels (oil, sugar and wheat) which has created an enormous divide between the rich and the poor, to increase the rates of interest on NSCs to pre-1999 period, i.e. 18 per cent.
The deduction/levy of income-tax should also be done away with on profits earned by the senior citizens, widows and orphans. There is a vast difference in bank rates; interest paid on investment and charged on loans, that also needs to be rationalised at the earliest.
S. HUSSAIN QURESHI
Hyderabad
I APPRECIATE Beena Sarwar’s article, ‘Kashmir liberated, others languish’ (March 6) in which she beautifully handled the personal miseries of people languishing in prisons outside their homelands. She mentions a few military personnel, fishermen and some trespassers who happened to get to the other side of border. Ms Sarwar seems to be well up on data of such persons. She is requested to share it with others who might like to help.
Dawn should develop a data base of lost people, especially those belonging to India and Pakistan. Well-meaning people in the two countries may be able to find ways of helping the miserable ones.
Here I would like to quote Verse 75, Chapter Al Nissa (the women) of the Holy Quran: Allah questions the believers why do they not respond to the call of those miserable men, women and children who languish in custody of cruel ones. They call out to their Lord to send for them help from His Self (not a literary translation).
Will we never be able to understand the Book and respond to its demands from us?
At the same time, we may mention the thousands of ‘Pakistanis’ languishing in former East Pakistan. They refuse to accept Bangladesh citizenship offered to them and wish to migrate to the land for which they initially migrated from India.
We may also have feelings for the large number of Pakistani/ Muslim women who had been captured by Indians in East Punjab, Kashmir and East Pakistan. Though a long time has since elapsed, they may still be alive and aspiring to return.
Many nations do a lot more for members of their community in such circumstances. Will Ansar Burney pay attention to this issue?
TARIQ MAHMOOD
Peshawar
HAVING voted for the first time, I had a few observations that I would like to share, and some suggestions that can be made for future elections to make voting much easier for the ordinary person.
First, people had to be registered to vote and even if they were registered, they had to be given a slip which stated they were registered. Then on the election day, first the person had to search their name at the polling booth and if it was not found, they had to search at another polling booth. Searching for name on the voters’ list was being done manually which meant a waste of time and room for error. Finally, placing the vote was also done on paper.
My father, being a registered voter, had to visit four polling stations and still was unable to vote, because his name was not on the voters’ list. He is an educated man willing to vote but was unable to do so because the process was difficult and tedious. And he is not the only one, my sister and friends faced the same problem.
The people on the booth had to check manually for the names of the registered voters. Also we had to manually vote on paper.
I believe that if a citizen has a copy of their NIC, they should be eligible to vote. The NIC number should be fed into the computer to check whether the NIC is valid, and voter eligible to vote. It will not only save time, but make it much easier for many people to vote.
Also, vote electronically, where the voter can only place their vote once after their NIC number has been fed in the system.
Since many people are illiterate and cannot use the computer, it could be made much simpler if the screens were touch screen where the voter just had to place their finger on the symbol of vote of their choice.
I feel that if only the system could be made a little easy, many more people would cast their vote. This would not only save time for the people, but also make the system more efficient and fool-proof.
SANA HAIDER
Karachi
I WAS reading Ardeshir Cowasjee’s column, ‘No shaming the shameless’ (March 2), which effectively highlighted the magnitude of psychiatric problems in Pakistan.
Mr Cowasjee has quoted suicide rate of 2.86 in 100,000 in Pakistan which I think even after controlling for under-reporting is very modest.
The rate for suicide in the UK in 2003 was 18 deaths per 100,000 population which was lowest since 1978.
As we know that suicide is related to psycho-social stressors, poverty, unemployment, mental illnesses, lethality of methods available, etc, its prevalence, therefore, is bound to be more than this figure in Pakistan.
The rate of epilepsy in the UK population is 3.4 per cent in men and 2.8 per cent in women. Epilepsy has a good prognosis as 76 per cent of patients who are compliant with their medication enter long-term remission. The prevalence figure in Pakistan is bound to be higher than this as the prevalence of epilepsy increases with head injury, birth complications, medical conditions, etc. Twenty-five to 50 per cent of people suffering from learning disability suffer from epilepsy, depending on the severity of the condition.
The generally agreed prevalence in the developed world for some of the mental illnesses is as follows:
Generalised anxiety disorder five per cent; social phobia 13 per cent; simple phobia (such as spider phobia) 11 per cent; obsessive compulsive disorder two per cent; eating disorder 2.5 per cent; post-traumatic stress disorder eight per cent; anti-social personality disorder (which interestingly is rarely presented in the psychiatry clinics in Pakistan) four per cent, and dementia four per cent
DR K. SHAKIR
UK
YOUR editorial, ‘How to treat a swindler’ (March 3), perhaps needs to be stronger in your appeal to the NAB powers for justice to be seen to be done. Many powerful and influential people have managed to get away by settling for amounts much smaller than the amount they stole or swindled. It is not uncommon knowledge that people who made such deals now live in luxury in foreign lands. All such people must be made to cough up all of the looted money and what they cannot should be compensated by strict jail sentences that teach a lesson to the rest of the community and make people think twice before committing similar acts heretofore.
A letter in these columns (March 3) speaks of ‘Value of judiciary’ and makes good points that must be pondered over by the authorities that be and the ones now coming into power after their recent election victories. Joseph Addison’s words quoted are a good reminder but more importantly in a Muslim country we must all know that one of the attributes of our Creator is ‘adl’ (justice) and the Holy Quran’s emphasis on justice is repetitive.
President Musharraf’s criticism of Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry sending officers of civil and law-enforcement agencies to jails obviously did not take into consideration that justice demanded the rights of families of missing persons to know the welfare and whereabouts of their loved ones and these people had failed to perform their jobs, either because of their own ineptitude or were made to do so by the powers that controlled their appointments. Such failings in pursuit and maintenance of power are not new but it is time for acountability on matters of justice.
Not only do our MNAs- and MPAs-elect need to take cognisance of this important matter but our people in general -- and mostly businessmen of all shades and sizes — must practise justice, whether it be in quality or pricing of their products, use of titles and payments thereof and giving consideration to their fellow countrymen, particularly those with meagre means to make ends meet. The common man also needs to practise justice in doing his assigned task in office, streets or wherever and show courtesy to the next person by following rules rather than flouting rules. We have to rid ourselves of the civic chaos prevalent in the streets of our cities and towns to reduce the tensions we all live with every day of our lives.
People have somehow adopted the habit of being ‘late Lateefs’ attending offices, workplaces, functions, etc, causing so much strain to our fellow countrymen. Our shopkeepers do not open business until after half the day has gone wasted. Then they waste so much electricity and fuel to stay open until late in the night. This is crazy.
This city of lights once used to open for all business at 9am and shut down at 7pm so that people could spend time with their families. We are doing the opposite and then expect to reap benefits. Let us stop being selfish and think in terms of benefits for all Pakistanis. Let us make justice our watchword in every walk of life.
MOHAMMED HASAN
Karachi
THE Supreme Court’s shocking decision to allow formation of cooperative societies by people of same religion/caste and the decision to uphold their right to refuse entry to people from different religion does not augur well for communal harmony, which is required if peace is to be maintained and if a multi-religious country like India has to prosper. In the volatile times we are living in, what is required is a unity among people of all religions and not segregation of housing societies on religious grounds.
In a multi-cultural society one can learn so much from other religions, customs, rituals, etc. People will respect other religions if they live together, which will not be the case in single-religion societies because formation of such societies itself suggests that these people dislike other religions.
More importantly, such same religion/caste societies can be easy targets during riots. Considering all these aspects it has become imperative that amendments are made to Cooperative Societies Act to disallow purchase and sale of houses on a religious basis.
AMJAD K. MARUF
Thane, India
IT pains me to learn about sale of government lands and buildings allocated by the British colonial rulers to armed forces and various departments to cater for defence, administrative and public welfare projects for future generations to come. But our rulers have not been able to think beyond their tenure of rule and, therefore, continue to sell the government property for short, quick gains.
In fact, a government property not required by a public sector organisation can be utilised by some other organisation for administrative or public welfare projects such as hospitals, educational institutions, welfare homes for orphans, widows, destitutes. Incidentally, most valuable property is located in populated areas which, once sold, will never be available for national projects.
I hope the next elected government will be wise enough to stop sale of government property, through conversion into housing schemes, and pool the property considered surplus for future generations to utilise for projects of national interest.
GHULAM MUHAMMAD
Rawalpindi
PIA is strongly advertising web booking but has anyone in PIA bothered to check whether this feature is functional or not. Since Feb 29 there is an error while retrieving the calendar to define the date of travel.
The new management, with the head of customer service, needs to wake up.
AHMED KHAN
Lahore
WE have been owning a piece land measuring about 200 acres at Goth Dehlo Mal Kolhi, Tando Mohammad Khan district, for the last many decades.
A few months back a person forcibly occupied our land by severely beating poor peasants, disgracing their womenfolk and looted all the crop yield along with machinery worth lakhs of rupees, depriving our children of bread and butter and making many families homeless.
We not only registered an FIR but also ran from pillar to post in pursuit of justice but to no avail. The person is being supported by influentials of the area and police officials.
We are poor people, belonging to the scheduled caste minorities and nobody is coming to our help despite our peaceful hunger strikes and demonstrations and law suits.
We again plead through these columns to the government to intervene in the matter.
THANWER DAS KOLHI,
SHANKER DAS KOLHI,
MOTI RAM KOLHI & QEEMAT RAI KOLHI
Tando Mohammad Khan
THIS is with reference to your editorial, ‘Apologising to Balochistan’ (Feb 26), in which you mentioned that it is never too late to make amends for past mistakes or misdeeds.
I agree with your thoughts. However, history witnessed four military operations in Balochistan. The Baloch, who are open-hearted, accept their apologies.
The Baloch expect the new government to halt the ongoing military operation in their province.
Consequently, the PPP may change the landscape of the province to meet the Baloch expectations.
BAQIR ALI NOOR
Turbat
I WOULD like to endorse the views expressed in the letter, ‘Undue late fees charge’ (Feb 26).
It is a pity that private schools are taking fees for June and July from students appearing for Class X examinations. This is not justified.
I strongly feel it is time a parents’ association was established to defend against these private schools’ unjustified demands for which parents are suffering.
Will the Sindh education department clarify whether any instructions or directives have been issued to private schools for charging late fees, as well as fees for June and July, from Class X students?
M. A. SIDDIQUI
Karachi
You can also send letters to the Editor
Just send your message to the following address: letters@dawn.com
Make sure you include your full name, postal address, e-mail address, and in the case of Pakistan your day-time telephone number.