| April 07, 2008 | Monday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 29, 1429 |
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A misconception
Violence against women
Stoning the infant democracy
A plea to PTA
PIA flight engineers
Unfair airport tax
Fuel-efficient cars
Satan’s trap – a university rule
A political career
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
PAKISTAN is facing the dragon of overpopulation. This problem has given rise to multidimensional problems in our country. At present we are scarce in resources and it has become difficult for the government to meet the rapidly growing needs of the huge population.
Our population growth rate is almost 1.82 per cent, and every year almost four million people are added to the already overburdened economy.
A weak economy faces energy scarcity and inflation. And almost 24 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line. If the afore-mentioned situation prevailed in Pakistan for the coming years, it will be quite difficult for the country to sustain a GDP growth rate which is about 7.5 per cent.
As the burden of overpopulation is already having a telling effect on the scarce resources, our government should take some remedial measures. The point to ponder is the rapid increase in population that has narrowed down the supply and demand gap, insufficient health facilities, substandard education and a decline in living standards.
The genesis of the population reflects some obvious reasons. A major reason is that the majority of the population of our country lives in rural areas. In these regions agriculture is the only profession and in agricultural practices children are considered very helpful for the parents. This factor encourages the parents to have more children.
Second, the want for a male child in our society is a crucial problem. The male child is welcomed more warmly than a baby girl.
In addition, early-age marriages in rural areas lead to potentially large families. Widows are allowed to marry again and again and thus continue to act as procreation agents. Along with this, polygamy is allowed, which gives rise to an obvious result of multiple issues.
Family planning programmes are not followed as they are considered against the sprit of religion
The hot and pleasant climatic conditions of Pakistan are also a contributing factor to a rise in population. Girls and boys reach puberty quite early and are married to raise families at an early stage.
So, abject poverty, unemployment, energy crisis, low per capita income, scarcity of resources, dense traffic on roads, overcrowded classrooms, corruption are the result of overpopulation and obstacle on way to progress.
If our newly-elected government controls the rapid increase in population, it will greatly help in reducing the afore-mentioned problems.
It can only be achieved by means of services of ulema, which should be utilised in order to sensitise people that family planning is not contrary to Islamic values. In rural areas people are highly under the influence of religious leaders, so their words spoken in the favour of family planning may yield the desired results.
Women must also be educated. The electronic media must be utilised to bring awareness.
A ‘national population day’ should be observed on the pattern of the “World Population Day” every year. Such activities play an important role in creating awareness about the subject matter.
We should do our utmost to reduce the population growth rate. This will help provide all basic necessities of life to everyone.
HOSH MUHAMMAD SHAR
Jamshoro
THIS is to clear a misconception perpetrated by Mr Kasuri about my grandfather, Justice Waheeduddin, on the show ‘Capital Talk’ on April 4.
In the show, the host was discussing the Bhutto case and the fact that the verdict of the then Supreme Court was equitable to judicial murder, to which Mr Kasuri replied he didn’t think so. Mr Kasuri went on to explain the abhorring manipulations in the Supreme Court bench such as the forced retirement of Justice Waheeduddin as nothing but an act of nature, he stated that Justice Waheeduddin suffered from brain haemorrhage and thus had to leave the bench. Once again Mr Kasuri chose to manipulate the facts to suit him.
I would like to set the record straight. I categorically state my grandfather did not suffer from brain haemorrhage. Instead he suffered from a treatable condition called paresis.
As they say in Urdu and to the extreme disappointment of the martial law establishment and their masters (Whoever God favours, no one can touch), my grandfather recovered from this condition within a short while of just a couple of months.
So much so that I still remember him going to play bridge with his friends after his forced retirement from the court and his recovery. An act which any logical person would agree would have been quite impossible had he suffered from brain haemorrhage and had been disabled.
The Macbethian tragedy is that my grandfather specifically asked and pleaded the Bhutto bench to wait for him just a little while in the interest of justice, as he was recovering very quickly. And other judges on that bench such as Justice Patel and Justice Shah with whom he conferred and spoke with have further verified this.
But this was of no avail, simply because the beholden chief justice Anwarul Haq and the usurper Ziaul Haq wanted nothing less than a dead Bhutto and that is what they made sure happened. If Justice Waheeduddin had been allowed to return to hear the case and make a decision with his fellow honest judges, history would have been different and at least Mr Bhutto would not have been a victim of judicial murder.
As for the likes of Mr Kasuri and others such as him who time and again play in the hands of our establishment, they are nothing but mere pawns, they should know that they will be remembered in the history of our nation as nothing but footnotes (and equated as accomplices to the likes of Mir Jafars), but a titan like Mr Bhutto will always be remembered by generations of our nation as a hero and martyr loved and admired by millions of his fellowmen.
KASHIF AFTABUDDIN
Houston
VIOLENCE against women is one of the most urgent agenda items and concerns of our times. Women are castigated in all ways and at all places, be it the bedroom, boardroom or battlefield. They are abused by the uninstructed as well as by the well-taught with the same vehemence but in different manners.
The Islamic Republic of Pakistan is no exception. It would be too naïve to reject any practice of violence against human beings of lesser fortune, in general, and women, in particular, in our homeland.
Contarary to the obvious forms of gender-based violence like rape, gang-rape, custodial rape, acid throwing, karo-kari (honuor killing), trafficking, forced prostitution, child sexual abuse, etc., dowry as a form of violence has yet to be accepted and understood by social activists, researchers and policymakers in Pakistan.
The reasons behind this collective forgetfulness include more focused attention by mainstream NGOs and media on donor-funded campaigns and programmes for eliminating barefaced forms of violence, lack of courage in civil society to challenge the elitist consensus, conventional and conformist mindset of the public sectors, vested interests of the corporate sectors and inability of the development donor agencies to understand the inclusive premise of marriage and dowry in Pakistan.
I hope the decision makers would ensure the inclusion of spectrum of dowry violence in the final version (the existing draft does not mention dowry) of the bill, ‘Domestic Violence Against Women and Children (Prevention and Protection) Act, 2007’, that obliges the state to take action for the persecution of women and children from gender-based violence.
Needless to emphasise that most of the times dowry violence remains hidden in the ‘holy’ domestic violence.
DR RAKHSHINDA PERVEEN
Founder, Fight Against Dowry Advocacy Network,
Pakistan
IN legitimate democracy, parliament decides and the prime minister implements that decision. In pseudo-democracies, the prime minister decides and parliament rubber-stamps its endorsement of that decision.
Where a prime minister gets his decisions ‘blessed’ by a compliant parliament, it yields a governance no less dictatorial than a military dictator getting decisions of his ‘pleasure and discretion’ okayed by parliament.
Old habits die hard. Our new prime minister has cast the second stone on our infant democracy after the first cast by the NWFP Assembly that sustained the dictatorial tradition of holding uncontested elections – he did not appoint an experts committee to prepare a proposal for the repeal of the notorious FCR law and submit that to parliament for debate and approval. Instead he decided to repeal it at his own ‘pleasure and discretion’ in a dictatorial fashion as a personal ‘favour’ that every dictator bestows on the nation he exploits.
Has anyone ever heard a chief executive going over the head of the board of directors of a company and reshuffling the company rules at his own discretion? Legitimate democracy bestows ‘decision-making power’ only on the board of directors of the people – parliament, and not on the prime minister – the chief executive.
Would our media and press ever care to address the issue of differentiating between legitimate and pseudo-democracy and educate the masses?
KHALED AHMED
Islamabad
A MIDDLE East-based mobile phone company in Pakistan recently started its wireless broadband service with much hype and fanfare. To attract customers, it offered various packages, one of them being a 512 kbs connectivity at Rs1,350 a month. I’m one of the thousands who was carried away by the offer and signed a one-year contract with the company and made full payment through an initial deposit and advance cheques.
Later, after using the service for a while, it transpired that the company provides a shared 512 kbs connectivity each to four customers, which means each of them will have a browsing speed of around 128 kbs in theory but an actual speed worse than that obtained through a 56 kbs dial-up modem.
It is surprising that the company has resorted to misleading advertisements and promotion material and has been deliberately keeping people unaware of its policy of providing shared connectivity.
Apart from being shocked at the company’s gall to secure business by subterfuge, I have experienced constant agony due to its sloppy service characterised by the very weak or totally missing signals for hours and, lately, for days.
After making several unredressed complaints at the company’s customers’ service during the last two months, I would, through these columns, like to bring the matter to the knowledge of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority. Will the PTA devise some mechanism to know the public grievances and chastise such service providers?
IMTIAZ BHATTI
Hyderabad
A LETTER in these columns (April 1) criticising Sherry Rehman’s statement regarding unjustified retrenchment of PIA flight engineers is an example of the many minefields being planted to embarrass the new democratic government which has a people’s welfare-based agenda of providing jobs and reducing prices.
Following on the heels of the raid on Justice Ramday’s house, the establishment wants to indirectly embarrass the new government by creating problems for Umrah and Haj pilgrims so that the government gets the blame.
The PIA management has forgotten that the Umrah season is about to commence. Because of the importance of Haj, the government has created a special Haj ministry to manage Haj operations during which large aircraft like 747s are utilised to airlift pilgrims as the Saudi government wants Haj operations to finish in 25 days.
Indonesia, Iran, Turkey and Pakistan all use big aircraft as they are most suitable and can carry 500 passengers in all economy configuration. The current PIA management, minus the new MD, has bankrupted the airline while remaining virtually unchanged for the last eight years barring changes at the top.
During this period associations and trade unions were suspended by the martial law government, yet PIA sustained losses worth Rs55 billion for which the management now bears the entire blame. During Tariq Kirmani’s disastrous tenure PIA leased eight aircraft costing $40 million in 2007 and suffered losses during Haj.
However, as admitted by the PIA chairman at its AGM on March 31, the latest Haj operation ending in January was successfully completed by PIA’s own 747s, saving $40 million which it would have incurred as leasing cost otherwise.
To prepare for this, PIA had refurbished 22 engines and PIA engineering recently submitted to the PIAC board that it is beneficial for the airline to retain 747s as no major expenditure is needed till 2011.
The letter (April 1) is an attempt to confuse the matter as the issue is about fundamental rights and principles of natural justice and not about stopping technology and its march. Aping the Musharraf government’s suppression of civil liberties and Supreme Court judges, the PIA management has also became used to getting away with draconian measures during the last eight years. Thus PIA’s decision was discriminatory, mala fide and irrational as:
1. The PIAC board has not approved any decision to ground 747 aircraft.
2. These aircraft will fly again for Umrah and Haj operation as retired pilots have been rehired on contract on 747 aircraft. They have been retained while flight engineers have been retrenched.
3. The management by arbitrarily retiring flight engineers wants to deny our service benefits and later re-hire people of their choice.
4. A regular employee can either be retired or dismissed if any disciplinary action is warranted after an inquiry. There is no clause for ‘termination’ in PIAC rules and it is the right of a regular employee to continue till the age of 60.Also, compared to the 777 aircraft, 747 aircraft are fully owned, carry greater cargo and accommodate 100 passengers more. When you add the cost of repayment of loans and interest on 777, the fuel cost difference is narrowed down specially when the 747 can carry 200 passengers extra in all economy configuration.
That is the reason that even with eight 777’s PIA is still losing money on US and European routes. A group of PIA engineers is ready to fly 747s on lease with 515 economy seats at less fare if PIA allows us to prove that they are more economical. Is PIA management ready to lease them instead of parking them at the airport?
PIA FLIGHT ENGINEER
Karachi
I HAVE made a comparison of the airport taxes which are charged at different airports in our region: India $17, Sri Lanka $22, Bangladesh $44, Iran $22, Turkey $25, Egypt $36, Thailand $30 and Malaysia $25.
While Mr Musharraf was emphatically declaring the year 2007 as ‘Visit Pakistan 2007’, his deputy, Shaukat Aziz, was apparently busy making sure Pakistan doesn’t receive even its expat population that wants to visit their loved ones as often as they could.
In the last budget, which was again a gift to the people of Pakistan by Mr Aziz, the airport taxes were increased more than 100 per cent, taking the airport tax for travel outside of Pakistan to $75 for travelling to the Middle East and $100 for any travel to Europe and beyond.
This amount of tax is comparable to only some of the most expensive airports in the world which include Hong Kong, London, New York. I would like to ask our CAA as to what added benefits have been provided to its traveller to increase the taxes to this extent.I would also request the new government to kindly look into this. The overseas population has been most affected by such taxes as sure have caused people to stop
travelling to Pakistan as often as they did.
ABDUL REHMAN NASIR
Dubai
TATA Motors, India, has launched the cheapest car in the world valuing at Rs100,000 with a great fuel efficiency of 20km per litre. Cannot our car industries go to manufacture such small cars? Our smallest car in Pakistan costs Rs400,000 to Rs500,000. We hope our auto industries would also look for introducing such cars as can be quite useful for saving energy.
A.E. MOTIWALA
Karachi
YOU will agree that the university syndicate should meet once a month, as per rules, and not once in seven months (as it did on March 29), where the issues of the external candidates for masters, like the rule called ‘the Satan’s trap”, should have been on top of their agenda.
The University of Karachi voids all the passed papers with scores less than 45 per cent, if you failed in one paper. You will have to reappear and clear the ‘cleared papers’ again and again until you cleared the one failed paper.
This is documented as the “devil’s trap by the university itself in its rules” as the papers already passed with 44 per cent or less marks will be considered ‘void’.
My question to the university syndicate: why should not all such cases be declared passed to encourage education? We must be enlightened enough to void this devil’s trap, that is not acceptable to ‘common sense’. This will involve no extra budget – and will produce more MAs before more PhDs.
Before we complain that we have financial constraints, shall we have a vision to remove hurdles in our way to higher education, specially when plans were to produce 1500 PhDs a year.
Please remove this hurdle immediately as the students are already lined up for MA examinations. If not, will someone raise this question in the assembly?
SYED ABDUL QUDDUS
Karachi
I AM all for the independence of judiciary and for the restoration of judges sent home on Nov 3. I respected Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry but my respect for him began to wane after he politicised his person by letting political parties hoist their flags on his car driven by Aitzaz Ahsan during the long procession he led from Islamabad to Lahore.
It waned to a fairly low point when I saw him on TV visiting Asif Ali Zardari. Even if this visit was, as reported, only for condoling Benazir Bhutto’s death, it was unseemly for a chief justice who is regarded by a majority of Pakistanis as the legitimate chief justice, and who rightly regards himself as the chief justice of the apex court. I hold Aitzaz Ahsan responsible for this.
However, if Iftikhar Chaudhry is by any chance preparing himself for a political career (which I think he should pursue), he is most welcome. By moving towards that goal, he will save Pakistan from a potential destabilising outcome, that is, his restoration and Musharraf’s use of 58(2)-b to dismiss a government that will remain after his blood.
ALI SHAMEEM
Karachi
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