| June 04, 2008 | Wednesday | Jamadi-ul-Awwal 29, 1429 |
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Saudis eying investment in farming
A matter of shame
Never again
Dehumanisation of society
Fate of old rickshaws
Who’s responsible?
Cricket woes
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 faces the worst energy crisis today, mainly due to wrong policies and inaction by the government to the common man’s loss.
At a seminar held recently, a number of articles were read presenting concrete proposals, the main focus being coal power.
It was suggested that in order to harness various other available sources of energy, in addition to coal, such as wind and solar, a policy document (PD) should be announced by the government.
The PD should give incentives to the private sector for the development of infrastructure required to facilitate setting-up of coal-, wind- and solar-based power plants. Such document should also contain advisory dossiers.
Moreover, regarding coal-based power, a clear-cut investor-friendly policy is needed. As pointed out at the seminar, coal mining should be separated from coal power generation. For coal mining activity, private parties should be given preference over a government-based setup.
The major incentive for the private sector may be the price tariff per ton of coal mined from the Thar area. This also calls for special environmental laws for mining as well as for coal-fired power.
All related environmental concerns, therefore, have to be addressed in the PD. A workable network of roads in the Thar area and also provision of water supply by the provincial government should be arranged to demonstrate government seriousness.
An alternative energy source is wind power turbines (WPTs). These can be installed in coastal areas, on hills, on vacant purchased lands and also in existing agriculture farms.
WPTs, however, require technology transfer for the construction of wind towers, turbines, generators, batteries and grid systems, including various operational and safety controls, to operate WPTs.
The construction of wind towers requires a special alloy steel, now not available in the country. Again, the PD should encourage the private sector to enter into joint ventures in the above-mentioned areas with leading international companies originating from India, China, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, Germany, the UK, Ireland, the US, etc.
India ranks fourth in the world in WPTs power production (8,000 MW, in 2007). Many companies in the private sector have come up in India which offer local expertise for the construction, installation and operation of WPTs.
The government, like other European countries, should frame policies and operating directives to encourage community and/or individual-based WPTs of five to 100 KW or more rating by giving soft loans for embarking upon such projects.
This policy shall enable the government to reduce fossil fuels bill and also help to curtail greenhouse gases emitted by power plants. Community-based WPTs can be installed on highrise buildings, plazas and multistoreyed flats similar to towers which have been installed by cellphone companies.
Once infrastructure for WPTs is made available, their cost shall reduce to a reasonable limit.
Solar-based power may be a new concept for Pakistan but solar source has been used in other countries for producing hot water, including power units.
The government should immediately set up a committee to devise ways and means to harness solar energy for producing power. A reputed consultant could be hired from Australia where, reportedly, solar-based power plant has been functioning. Consultants should be given task of:
a. Formulation of recommendations for setting up of silicon development centre and
b. Setting up the first solar-based power plant of low capacity on an experimental basis.
The stakes of the above-mentioned jobs for solar-based power, no matter how high, have to be taken to develop carbon dioxide-free power grids. Sunlight is available in this country for 10 months of the year, we, therefore, should utilise this immense energy.It is time we acted fast to increase power production and thus saved the ever-escalating energy bill to provide relief to the people.
MAHMOOD AKBAR
Karachi
AS reported in Dawn’s Econominc and Business Review (May 26), the Saudis have shown keen interest to invest substantially in the agriculture sector of Pakistan during a three-day session of international conference of the World Economic Forum (WEF) held from May 18 to 20 at the gorgeous resort of Sharm El Sheikh, which was attended by various heads of governments, including Prime Minster Gilani.
The offer of huge investment on the face of it is very enticing, especially when it comes from the oil-rich Saudis who also intend to take land on lease. A most pertinent question that arises is: how will the leased land be utilised or what type of agriculture-based industries will be established?
This can only be determined when money brought is invested in the projects, creating opportunities in the rural sector; farming as well as agro industry and not in extravaganza.
Otherwise, there is no dearth of wealthy Arabs with huge palaces and hunting grounds (shikargahs). In winter season they, together with local influentials, who cater for their all types of needs, roam around in fully loaded luxury land cruisers violating law of the land with impunity by annihilating our already extinct wildlife.
Although in the agriculture sector the Saudis have done wonders. In wheat alone, production of which stood at 3,000 tons in 1970, they have reached in 2004 the target of 2.8 million tons. Today Saudi Arabia, mostly desert, now is a wheat exporting country.
Credit for this achievement should go to the oil money and the immigrants, mostly Pakistanis working as farmers. What it proves is that with good investment in agriculture, even our farmer can also make things work in a much better way.
Keeping in view our privatisation experience, particularly in the KESC, offer of investment in agriculture, mainly in farming, requires deep introspection. For instance, wheat and rice are not only staple food of Pakistanis and subsidised by the government but wheat also goes even beyond Afghanistan.
Obviously the investor will not sell its product on government support price when in the international market rates are more than double. It is, therefore, feasible that instead of investing in agriculture they should go for agriculture-based industries like sugar mills, milk plants, fertiliser plants, textiles, animal farming.
The farming community always follow an old-age maxim: “Lease the land to someone who is less powerful than the owner”, whereas before such investors we do not matter much. For instance, recently a youth was forced to commit suicide as he was unable return the small loan of Rs80,000 to a bank in time.
May I implore our rulers to please don’t put everything on sale or on lease? After the Steel Mill episode, thanks to the Supreme Court intervention, we must think thrice before inviting foreign investment, especially in the farm sector which is already on the brink of extinction.
DR ZAHID HUSSAIN JATOI
Mehar, Dadu
THIS is apropos of Khalid Gohar’s letter, ‘A matter of shame’ (April 30), wherein he discloses that water supplied to 50 per cent Lahore is mixed with sewerage. On the same day a colorful and gorgeous picture of a banquet, arranged by the president in honour of Lt-Gen Khalid Maqbool, the outgoing governor of Punjab, appeared on the front page of Dawn.
The luminaries who attended the sumptuous feast include, besides the host of the evening and the chief guest, the prime minister, some ministers, COAC, and governors of the provinces, all impeccably dressed, mostly in designer’s suits. The eminent participants are seen enjoying the evening festivities held in the well-illuminated banquet hall of the presidency.
From the picture of the presidential dinner it is evident that the participants, who happen to be the guardian of our society being the representatives elected by the masses, are totally oblivious of the people’s misery.
Apparently they are not affected by power outage, nor do they suffer form rise in the prices of day-to-day consumer goods and since they drink mineral water, they do not know that even in the big cities like Karachi and Lahore most of the people are drinking water mixed with faecal, what to say about those living in abject poverty in rural areas.
As rightly pointed out in the editorial, ‘The subsidy issue’ (May 31), when it is officially admitted that 71.2 million, which come to 44.4 per cent of the country’s population, are living below the poverty line at 1$ per day, such extravaganza carries a wrong signal.
A nation carrying the burden of $58 billion of foreign debt and passing through the worst economic crisis since its existence -- an outcome of mainly eight years of systematic mismanagement and misrule, coupled, and whose citizens are reeling under the pressure of skyhigh price of consumer goods — such celebrations work as salt on the wound.
The prime minister on the floor of the lower house had announced to cut wasteful expenditure, reducing in the first instance the Prime Minister’s House expenditure by 40 per cent etc, created high hopes in the masses. However, reports later on can only dampen morale of the already depressed masses.
MANSOOR UL HAQUE SOLANGI
Karachi
THIS is apropos of Prof Khalid Hassan Mahmood’s letter, ‘Never again’(May 26). The professor says he does not believe that “the operational commander could be so insane as to see his armoured brigade butchered and then take on the enemy with an infantry battalion”.
As a student of military history, he is clearly not aware of one of the most tragic episodes of Pakistan’s military history. It is recommended that he read The Pakistan Army 1966-71 (pp 194-197) by Maj Gen Shaukat Riza, and A History of the Pakistan Army (pp 234-235) by Brian Cloughly.
On the night of Dec 13/14, 1971 the enemy breached the main minefield in eight division area and established a lodgment that included the villages of Jarpal and Barapind, and poured into it a force consisting of an infantry brigade and two tank regiments (Poona Horse and Four Horse). Eight Armoured Brigade was ordered to destroy the enemy penetration. On Dec 14 the brigade commander was told that the enemy strength in Jarpal is about a troop of tanks (three tanks) and one infantry company (four companies in a battalion). At 0630 hours on Dec 16, the brigade commander told the commanding officer, 13 Lancers, that the enemy strength in the lodgment is approximately a squadron of tanks (four troops) and an infantry battalion, and that the Barapind area is held by a company of own troops. Around 0800 hours on Dec 16, as 13 Lancers was moving towards Barapind, it was targeted by tanks/ anti-tank guns and suffered heavy casualties – it was left with six to eight tanks only.
Thereafter, 31 Cavalry was told to attack from another direction – it too met with the same fate.
At 2300 hours on Dec 16, 35 FF was ordered to capture Jarpal. It was told that there was an infantry company of the enemy in Jarpal. At 0530 hours on Dec 17, 35 FF attacked. Within half an hour it was decimated. Lt Col Akram Raja and most of his officers were killed. Jarpal was held by an enemy infantry battalion and a tank regiment – as was Barapind – both villages were mutually supporting.
Although the corps artillery was present in the area, due to lack of coordination it remained silent throughout the attacks of the armoured brigade and 35 FF. The professor might like to remember that ‘facts do not cease to exist just because they are ignored.
MAJ (R ) SHAMSHAD ALI KHAN
Karachi
I AGREE with your editorial, ‘Justice of mob’ (May 20), that reasons for mob violence are not just because of police inefficiency and lack of faith in law enforcement but wide-ranging: starting from joblessness and underemployment, crippling food inflation, acute shortage of power, inadequate water and sanitation, as well as the air noise pollution.
However, there’s another factor, brutalisation of society over a period of time, that has dehumanised the people at large. The dehumanisation process started with Ziaul Haq’s era when capital punishment was awarded openly, inviting crowds to watch the ghastly show. In most of the cases it was adversaries of the martial law regime who were flogged in the market places, irrespective of their social status and age.
To create sensation, the tormentor, a well-built man wearing only a loincloth, was shown rubbing oil all over his body. Then he did some pushups to demonstrate his muscles and afterwards picked up a big stick, soaked in oil, and whip with full force on the hip of the accused. A microphone was specially fixed near where the victim’s mouth was to be, so that everybody could hear him scream. So much so that criminals punished with life sentence were hanged in the open public places. The rationale was to create dread and deterrence.
This act of barbarity changed the century’s established cultural values of patience, forbearance, and respect for the dignity of human being, deference and regard for the aged and feminine, moreover repugnance of bloodshed.
The involvement in Russian-Afghan war and depoliticising of society over a period of time took the people back to the cocoons of mediaeval ‘beradri’ and tribal system, adverse effects of which are now rooted deep in the mind of people.
The affected most by this abominable transformation were the young age groups, especially those born during the early 1970s; now at the age of reason. From the late ’70s onwards there is no respite in blood-letting. Carnage, bomb blasts, kidnappings, murders on petty matters, ‘honour killings’, and now bomb blasts and suicide bombings unknown to this society have become ordinary occurrences.
Unfortunately the younger lot completely desensitised to blood and mayhem now enjoys violence and even prefers movies where there is more aggression. Even their heroes are different. They adore an egoist with wrestler’s physique, armed to the teeth with various lethal weapons, unkempt and shabbily dressed, slaughtering people, not necessarily for some just cause but even on small provocations. The heroes of the yore were well dressed and descent men always respectful, reconciliatory, just, helpful, scarifying personal interest for the larger cause of community.
Heinous offences like murders were a rare phenomenon in the pre-seventies, so much so that a single shot fired in neighbourhood was discussed in the town for days together. After the Afghan war, life of an ordinary citizen has become extremely miserable, mainly for proliferation of arms and drugs in cities.
For even small theft of a cellphone, people do not hesitate shooting the innocent person. The most latest despicable incidents of May 12, 2007 and April 9, 2008 in the financial capital of the country and inaction on the part of civil society and the law-enforcers are the worst examples of dehumanisation.
To get rid of this serious psychic disorder, serious thinking and Herculean efforts are required involving all stakeholders of society.
MANZOOR H. KURESHI
Karachi
THE government eventually arrived at a decision on the two-stroke rickshaws’ fate. According to recent news reports in Dawn, all two-stroke rickshaws will be phased out by 2009. Two-stroke rickshaws are a menace in big cities causing enormous air pollution with a disrupting noise and have been plying on the roads in Lahore and Karachi for more than 50 years.
The decision made by the government has been a longstanding demand of the people to remove all two-stroke rickshaws. It is a welcome step towards the improvement of the cities and making them pollution-free and environment-friendly. These old rickshaws are not only creating traffic problems but are also creating respiratory and mental problems due to their enormous smoke and massive noise.
Such outdated rickshaws bear a shabby look and the ridiculous and unnecessary artwork on them is also quite bad. In fact, most people prefer to hire the newly-designed four-stroke CNG rickshaws.
This is commendable that the new government is taking a keen interest in the improvement of the living standard and health problems of the people. It is time for old rickshaw owners to make up their mind for a change but this can only be possible if the government will facilitate them in buying new four-stroke CNG rickshaws on easy installments.
Another good decision made by the government is that all public vehicles are now required by law to remain free of artwork and other adornments and are liable to be fined in case of non-compliance. Every sensible person will really appreciate such steps for enhancing beauty and improvement of city environment.
IBADAT KHAN
Gilgit
THIS refers to the letter, ‘Blind trust’ (May 31). The writer responded to my earlier letter, ‘No cavemen’ (May 27), on the subject of who’s responsible for 9/11 attacks.
I agree that the veracity of all videotapes/audiotapes that allegedly feature Osama bin Laden (OBL) as confessing to be the master planner of 9/11 attacks has been questioned. But he and his fellow comrades in Al Qaeda/Taliban could have come out from their caves and faced these extraordinary charges against them.
The Afghan government could have asked for UN/independent tribunal to investigate along with handing over suspects to such a body instead of maintaining complete denial and defiance. To our misfortune, OBL chose to remain in hiding along with scores of other leaders of Al Qaeda.
Did he consider his life more precious than that of thousands of other Muslims? Was his reputation more honourable than that of Islam? This fact weakens the argument held by many ‘conspiracy’ theorists. Absconders may not be presumed guilty but it immensely weakens their defence.
DR OWAIS A. FAROOQI
United States
KEEPING in mind the current situation of the Pakistan cricket team, I must speak my heart out on some issues.
First, would somebody care to tell me why was Naumanullah brought in to bat at the eighth position against Bangladesh?
Second, Geoff Lawson wanted the Australians to come to Pakistan because he thought they were beatable. They were beaten by India and Sri Lanka.
India, with their youngsters like RP Singh and Sreesanth, with spinners like Harbhajan Singh are a very strong team, and thinking that our cricket team, with bowlers who cannot manage to bowl out even the minnows in some games, will be able to beat Australia is a laughable statement.
Here I strongly urge someone from the selection committee to tell me and many other curious people as to why talented bowlers like Anwar Ali and Jamshaid are not being brought in the national team. Why is not Waqar Younis being brought in as the bowling coach? Why was Geoff Lawson preferred over the more experienced Dav Whitmore?
What are the pros and cons if Imran Khan is given the post of the PCB chairman?
SIMRAN JATOI
Karachi
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