| May 29, 2008 | Thursday | Jamadi-ul-Awwal 23, 1429 |
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Is feudalism dead?
Friends of trees
Moving the clock
OPS — a source of nepotism
Why the judges should be restored
Financial fiasco?
Renaming NWFP
A huge hit, but is it cricket?
South Africa’s shame
Plea to Jordan to review decision
Rebuilding public trust in police
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
THIS is to commend your editorial, ‘Justice of the mob’ (May 20), and a number of letters regarding mob justice. Sadly, the trend of mob justice is picking up fast, which needs to be controlled. All this is happening because people in our country lack trust in the police.
People generally lose trust in the police when they are kept in the dark and do not come to know about the fate of criminals apprehended by the police. For example, the fate of the accused who kept a girl in captivity at the Quaid’s mausoleum for 36 hours and subjected her to sexual assault (March 19) is still not known to the people.
Similarly, the fate of the robbers who were rescued by the police from the clutches of the enraged mobs on four occasions in Karachi between May 15 and May 20 and in Lahore on May 18 is still not made public.
In such a scenario the people are prone to think that the police must have released the criminals after taking bribe. The report, ‘Six constables held for robbing citizens’ (May 25), in which six policemen of the Diplomatic Protection Department, Islamabad, have been arrested for their alleged involvement in robberies. All of them were in plainclothes while doing the crime.
This incident must have led people to think that most of these street robbers might be off-duty policemen. Another factor that makes the police a suspect in the eyes of the people is when the former act quickly in order to take control of the criminals who fall into the hands of the people/mob. The people regard the police as sympathisers or sponsors of the criminals involved.
On the other hand, when people fall victim and seek help from the police, the latter do not respond at all or appear at the scene much after the crime has been committed and criminals have fled the scene.
A time was when the police were worth their salt, true to their calling. Their mere presence was a matter of consolation to the people. But over the years, with the decay of the administration and society, the police force too changed from good to bad, then to worse and now to the worst.
Modernising the police force, providing latest equipment to them and increasing their pay package are good, but these things will not make much difference. The need is to keep the police away from political pressure and influence of powerful criminals to enable them to carry out their duties without any fear or favour.
They should be given an exemplary punishment if found involved in an act of negligence of duty, inept corrupt practices, dishonesty and inefficiency. The police should be motivated to be sincere, sympathetic and helpful to the public to gain their confidence. Only then, will people start feeling secure with their presence and will have trust in them.
To achieve this, we need political will. Our leaders may wrangle among themselves to prove their points of view, but must not employ or manipulate any of the members of the law-enforcement agencies, specially the police, to play their games at the cost of people. They should build a clean police force to serve the people — only then will the latter begin having faith in the police.
SQN LDR (r) S. AUSAF HUSAIN
Karachi
APROPOS of Dr Mahnaz Fatima’s question: ‘Is feudalism dead?’ (May 19), she needs to be told: No lady, we the mortal can die – the immortal feudalism cannot. Don’t get upset. You being an economist have dealt with the economic aspect of feudalism; it remains a social evil of our country all the same. It is centuries-old tradition of ‘master-slave’ or ‘oppressor-victim’ relationship.
After the subcontinent’s division into Pakistan and India in 1947, both countries’ people thought that their colonial masters have gone and they were free; actually, they were not. India immediately chose the last Viceroy Louis Mountbatten as its first governor general. The Indian nation became free slaves. But Mountbatten thought better of it and quit after June 30, 1948.
Pakistan, though politically free, remained even to this day a slave to another kind of masters – feudalism, jagirdari, sardari, zamindari, or nawabi system which in rural areas is the ownership of farmers – especially when the jagirdar, zamindar, wadera, sardar or nawab is the chief of the tribe also.
Unfortunately it is in the Muslims’ blood. Their historical background tells that they can only be ruled with a cane. If there is no king or a despot to rule over them, they are happily hostage to feudal lords. For this very reason of being stamped under the foot by stronger, they sustained or even welcomed martial laws.
All right, I ask you a question. Why and how Indian parliament abolished zamindari system in 1952; and the second question: why and how Pakistani parliament or cabinet could not do it. The answer to the first is that they took a bold step and stood by it. In Pakistan the government was composed of zamindars, jagirdars, sardars, waderas and nawabs — how could they abolish their cherished lordship over the poor?
M. K. NAQVI
Karachi
THIS refers to the letter by Katherine Abbasi, chairperson, Friends of Trees (May 17). I fully agree with her valued opinion.
She is right in saying that the senseless destruction of our natural world was uncalled-for, and that all that was required was a little more vision, imagination and care.
It is a fact that thousands of trees have been destroyed in Islamabad, Lahore and Bahawalpur, some of them were quite rare species and almost all of them over a century old. This mass destruction of trees is a matter of great concern for environmentalists, conservationists and tree lovers.
As Muslims, it is our national, moral and religious duty to plant and protect trees. In my opinion, a committee consisting of environmentalists, government functionaries and citizens should be formed with powers to act swiftly and prevent any further unnecessary destruction of trees.
DR RAHIM YAR ABBASI
Chairman,
Bahawalpur Heritage Research Society International,
Islamabad
APROPOS of the letter, ‘Moving the clock’ (May 22), the basic argument itself is in dispute. The fact is that no incontrovertible evidence exists which proves that daylight saving time really results in energy savings.
We challenge the writer to quote one solid scientific study that shows this evidence.
Yes, there are many countries that regularly follow the daylight saving time system but the reasons are different.
They want to increase their leisure hours during the summer days because they are deprived of outdoor enjoyment for the rest of the year when the weather is simply too cold and there are only a few hours of daylight.
There is another mistake in the said letter. Clocks in Pakistan were advanced not once but twice in the past and both efforts ended up in disaster.
The reasons mainly pertain to our lifestyles being hinged on our five daily prayer timings, which we have been practising for the past 14 centuries.
Who doesn’t want to save fuel and energy expenses, but advancing the clock is not the way to accomplish this objective.
BARRISTER SAQIB KHAN
Rawalpindi
Basically ‘own pay and scale’ (OPS) promotions were meant for filling higher posts amongst the eligible candidates subject to formal promotions but unfortunately it was used as a tool to dish out senior positions to favourites, legally not entitled being very junior.
The present regime which came through popular vote with a firm commitment to undo wrongs perpetrated by the predecessor administration after assuming the charge reversed many OPS officers to their rightful places. But alas this happiness was short-lived as within a few weeks the government, which claimed to be upholder of merit, has started giving senior charges to the most junior officers having right connection on OPS although senior eligible officers are awaiting postings.
The posting orders on OPS are being issued regularly from the service department bestowing top positions on the most juniors, bypassing the eligible higher-ranking officers. This has not only become a source of heart-burning amongst the senior bureaucracy but will in the long run defame the government as promoting nepotism and make it suffer from incompetence and inefficiency of those ineligible lot.
May I ask the chief minister of Sindh, what distinguishes the present dispensation from the previous one if the policies of favouritism and partiality have not only remained unchanged but are being institutionalised as the decision taken by a government which came through ballot will be taken as justifiable.
The present regime is requested that in the larger interest of the people it should avoid serving petty interests of those time-seekers who, when fortune fluctuates, will change the loyalties at the blink of an eye. It is thus in the interest of the nation that the scheme of OPS, a relic of the past which is proved detrimental to merit, must be buried once and for all at federal as well as at provincial level.
SHAFQAT HUSSAIN QURESHI
Hyderabad
NAWAZ Sharif finally stated categorically what he should have stated a long time back, i.e. that the restoration of judges is critical to the survival of Pakistan. However, he has not elaborated on this point. Why is the restoration of the judiciary critical to the survival of Pakistan? Why is the issue of restoring the judiciary more important than addressing the issue of the power shortage and food shortage?
Do we really understand why we want the judiciary to be restored? I have pondered over this question for a while now and it was only when I aired the question out aloud did I get the answer from Mr Tahir, an architect. “We are not asking for the restoration of the judiciary i) because it’s the right thing to do, ii) because what Musharraf did was wrong and we need to correct this great injustice, iii) because Iftikhar Chaudhry is our messiah.”
We need to restore the judiciary as unless there is a supervisory mechanism of checks and balances, we will always be destined to be doomed. We need a system which can question Wapda on the power shortage. We need a system which can summon the secretary in charge of the ministry of food and agriculture and question him on the shortfall of wheat.
We need a system, the fear of which will cause any government that comes in power, any businessman, any athlete to never let even the thought of doing any wrong to this country come to their mind. The restored deposed judges will start the ball rolling. Judges to come will be empowered because of this action which will have started. A system will have been put in place, a system which will only need to be maintained in the years to come.
A fundamental aspect of training of all judges to come will be to be well versed in this system of checks and balances. They will from an early start keep a vigil on the welfare of their country so that when they reach the superior judiciary, a constitutional empowerment to keep a check and balance will come naturally to them. This in essence is why the judiciary should be restored to their pre-Nov 3 position.
YOUSAF AMANAT
Islamabad
According to the news report, ‘AJK finance dept refuses to write off Rs53m loans’ (May 21), the poor taxpayers whose money is being devoured by those who do not pay any taxes would be happy that some of hard-earned taxes (deposited by those tear-shedding middle class) are being saved. Bravo.
This news item reminds us of the audit report for 2005 06 presented to the National Assembly by the auditor-general of Pakistan which disclosed that the financial irregularities of the federal government’s ministries and departments stood at Rs158 billion; and the bank loans of Rs53 billion were written off.
Do the money guzzlers of Azad Jammu and Kashmir want to take advantage of the precedence of Rs53 billion bank loans written off by the State Bank of Pakistan? This loan of Rs53 million lent by the Small Industries Corporation may be a thousand times less, still it is a lot of money for a poor country.
When a bank can nag, pester and harass Tufail Shah so much for the recovery of measly Rs80,000 loan that he committed suicide, the general public, the middle class and the poor cannot allow anybody’s loan to be written off.
The quantum and size of the loan is not debatable. The ordinary people of this country are already under unbearable pressure from skyrocketing prices of essential items, power outages, killings, rape, loot, plunder, arson and other street crimes that they have begun to burn robbers alive! They say it is mob justice. See, where have you brought the nation to?
A CONCERNED CITIZEN
Karachi
After announcing the renaming of the NWFP in the proposed constitutional package revealed by Asif Ali Zardari, co-chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party, the issue of renaming the NWFP has once again come to the fore.
In the election on Feb 18, the Awami National Party emerged again as the largest party of the NWFP. Sharing power with the PPP at the centre and in the province, the ANP leadership has put forward a three-point agenda of priorities to the PPP. War on terror and enhancing the quantum of provincial autonomy are common to both parties’ programmes, while on the question of renaming NWFP, the PPP was reported to have indicated its readiness to back ‘Pakhtoonkhwa’ — the new name proposed by the ANP.
As a political activist, a student of social sciences and an inhabitant of this nameless province, I opined Pakhtoonkhwa (Pukhtoon Land), of course , is a purely Pashto name, so shall not only take precedence over the others but rather shall never be contested at all on any grounds whatsoever.
The NWFP was the name given to the province during the British Raj, which did not represent the true identity of its residents. With the name of Pakhtunkhwa, the people of the province will get their identity.
Take the province where the Baloch live; it is called Balochistan. The province where Punjabis live: it is called Punjab. Likewise Pakhtoons live in the province and so should be named Pakhtoonkhwa.
ZIA UR REHMAN
Slough, UK
THIS is with reference to the article, ‘A huge hit, but is it cricket?’ by Rahul Singh (May 15). Apart from describing, the various aspects of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the writer has rightly concluded that it’s simply not cricket.
I agree with him and am one of those who strongly believe that this shortest form of cricket will not serve the game of cricket at all. With the benefit of hindsight first it was one day cricket and now it is the Twenty-20 format that has deprived the game of its real beauty.
It is true that the shorter version of the game draws a capacity crowd, nevertheless there is a good number of cricket enthusiasts who still prefer to watch a Test match than a match of limited overs. They maintain that there is no other form of cricket but a Test match that really tests the true abilities of a cricketer.
On the other hand, while playing a game of limited overs, even an average cricketer with limited skills can carry the day.
Besides being a source of quick entertainment to the spectators, cricket like the IPL has certainly served some chosen cricketers and its organisers pretty well. But of course it does not serve the game of cricket as a whole. On the contrary, while adopting themselves unnaturally to the demands of an altogether different ball game the standard of cricketers would decline further.
It is a pity that what was left after the introduction of one-day cricket of 50 overs, it would now be destroyed with the emergence of Twenty-20, cricket.
RAFAT MAHMOOD ANSARI
Islamabad
It is reported that 56 people have been killed and around 25,000 displaced, due to violence against immigrants in South Africa. This is a moment of shame for South Africa, the land of Nelson Mandela.
How can South Africans treat their own people from less fortunate countries/circumstances in such a brutal manner? Many of these immigrants are poor Zimbabweans.
Such violence is unforgivable. Nelson Mandela must appeal to his people to end the bloodshed of their African brothers/sisters, for he is one of the few respected leaders in this world.
RAJENDRA K. ANEJA
UAE
PAKISTAN and Jordan have always enjoyed cordial relations. Thousands of Jordanian students who have studied in Pakistani professional institutions are now in various responsible positions in their country.
These men and women do not only speak of the high standards of Pakistani educational system but the homely treatment they have received while they were here, and similar treatment is been given to all those Pakistanis who have been living in Jordan.
Sad enough, in spite of such closeness, there has been no mark of significant progress in the economic front between the two countries.
The average two-way trade volume between the two is just above $25 million.
It was only a year ago we read in the press that a consortium of Pakistan, Jordanian and Chinese companies was awarded a major contract to build a light railway system between the two major cities of Jordan.
This certainly was a first major breakthrough and certainly the source of joy for millions of Pakistanis living in Pakistan as most of the Pakistani dailies made the headlines of this news.
However, this was too good to be true. It shattered all the hope when we learnt that after a year of negotiations the ministry of transport, at the 11th hour, terminated the contract, not even giving a notice to the investors, which is the normal form of the system.
On gathering a few facts, it was revealed that there was no significant mark of difference of opinion on legal issues on any of the major clauses and that most of the contracts were already signed and sealed except the financial close-up.
Could one guess what impact this could have on the people of Pakistan in general and investors in particular when they read in the press that Jordan has terminated the contract abruptly.
In the private circles in Amman it has been widely discussed that there was no reason for this termination and has kept many people guessing what could have been the reason. Some of the local legal experts believe that there was no reason for abruptly ending this contract.
I hope the decision-makers will review their decision without losing further time and come with the solution in the best interest of Jordan and for international investors in the country.
MUHAMMED MANSOOR KHAWAJA
Organiser, Pakistani Business Community
Jordan
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