| June 21, 2008 | Saturday | Jamadi-us-Sani 16, 1429 |
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Appeal for organ donation
Regularising NIP internees
Really, sirs
Flour, Wapda and inflation
Liberty and security debate
Respecting Sindh
Attack on Afghanistan
IMF gives D-day of Dec 31
Mare and mule
Need for constructive criticism
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
WE pay rich tribute to Benazir Bhutto, the twice elected prime minister and chairperson of the PPP whose 55th birth anniversary is being observed in the country. She had dedicated her life to the service of the nation and never bowed before any military or anti-democratic power. Her death was tragic. Except her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, we have no one so far to match her wisdom, vision, commitment and achievement.
As a leader of the downtrodden, she struggled for the rights of the people of all our provinces. Although the assassin(s) cut short her life at a time when people needed her guidance most, one still feels her presence around.
Her voice that was heard around the globe on all important forums and was recognised as the voice of the oppressed still rings in our ears. She eventually proved to be not only a conqueror in politics but a conqueror of the people’s hearts.
She gave missile technology to Pakistan, Agosta submarine to our Navy; she was the creator of women’s banks, women’s police stations. The women’s affairs ministry was formed during her first tenure in 1988; she appointed women judges, as well as thousands of lady health visitors to minimise infant mortality; started a campaign to make the country polio-free.
On the socio-economic front, Ms Bhutto expanded Port Qasim, Steel Mills and launched the Keti Bunder Project; gave jobs to a large number of the unemployed; lifted ban on student and labour unions and doubled the wages and salaries of the employees; made land reforms and provided lands to the landless; gave freedom to the media; raised for first time in our history allocations for education and health, etc.
Her many achievements included a strong foreign-cum-defence policy.
She believed in a life of honour, dignity, equality, prosperity and power for Pakistan. She would often say: “I want to see a prosperous, progressive and developed Pakistan.”
She believed in reconciliation, in forgiving and forgetting, far from the politics of seeking any revenge. Tolerance was the hallmark of her political, moral and religious ethos.
History will always remember her as the first Muslim woman leader who stood against the tides of dictatorship. Her name remains engraved on the hearts of the downtrodden of Pakistan.
The need of the time is to implement the democratic philosophy of ZAB and Benazir Bhutto to solve the existing problems. Benazir Bhutto is gone but her legacy will continue for ever. Today we miss her because she was a great leader, mother and daughter too.
In the end we demand an inquiry by a UN commission into the assassination of Ms Bhutto. Our National Assembly and four provincial assemblies have already unanimously passed a resolution to approach the UN to get Ms Bhutto’s assassination investigated by an international commission, to be known as Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Commission, on the pattern of a probe into former prime minister of Lebanon Rafiq Hariri’s death.
HUMERA ALWANI
Member, Provincial Assembly of Sindh
Thatta
THE decision of blood donation by Asif Ali Zardari, co-chairman of the PPP, and his party leaders and workers in memory of Benazir Bhutto on June 21 is highly appreciated. This shows a great love, respect and affection for their leader. This is an honourable way to pay tribute to a great leader who sacrificed her life for the cause of the people.
One can feel the helplessness of patients who are in renal failure, dependent on machine, having no kidney donor in the family. The patients of liver and cardiac failure have no chance to live and the only hope is organs from the deceased. They die day and night when they think of their families and children.
According to an estimate, 50,000 patients of end-stage organ failure die every year due to non-availability of organs. They are young people: male and female who suffer fro end-stage kidney, liver , heart failure and people with blindness.
The law for cadaver organ donation, promulgated last year, has paved the way for organ donation after death. Now it is the responsibility of society to make it a reality so that these needy people can benefit from it.
I know our people are responsive, helping and sympathetic to their fellow citizens. It now needs attention of civil society, politicians, lawyers, jury, artists and medical community that an organ donation programme should take pace so that helpless patients of end-stage organ failure may be benefited.
I must appreciate the decision of Asif Ali Zardari and his party of donating blood in memory of their great leader and should make an appeal to him and his party to make an announcement for donation of their organs after death.
This will give new life to thousands of patients. This will enhance the image of the party among the people.
Sacrifice is appreciated everywhere.
DR MURLI LAL
Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation,
Civil Hospital,
Karachi
THE National Internship Programme (NIP), which was initiated by the president in March 2007, has been very beneficial in terms of providing enough office-life experience to those who are under 25 years of age and have completed 16 years of education. It is still going on in places with the help of the federal government.
I am among those internees who have completed one year internship period in the Sindh government. As most of the internees were placed in diversified environments, we really got good work experience and learned many things.
During this period, we tried our best to deliver the best possible results to our respective departments for whatever assignments given to us and our departments have been quite satisfied by our performance.
In fact, during this period, majority of the internees were placed on very crucial and top positions and we are grateful to our departments for showing their confidence in us.
The Sindh government should not hesitate in accommodating all those internees who have completed their internship period along with good reputation. As have been mentioned in newspapers many times, about 50,000 positions have to be filled by the current provincial government.
There should be no problem in regularising the internees. After all, they are qualified, under 25 years of age, have a proven one year experience and are familiar with the functioning of the departments.
It is my request to the authorities concerned to accommodate all the NIP internees of the first batch as they will be a real asset to their departments and can be very useful if given an opportunity to work.
ABDUL KHALIQUE
Karachi
THIS is apropos of Kamran Shafi’s column, ‘Really, sirs!’ (June 17). The writer’s sentiments are indeed noble and, so, I would believe are his intentions, but in his one-sided harangue against the Pakistan Army, the writer completely forgets that he is talking about the very men who lay down their lives so that we, the people, can live ours in peace.
Certainly no one would deny that military interventions are undesirable but to put this in language so vitriolic does great harm to even the writer’s own cause.
Statements like “the last vestiges of respect that some Pakistanis still have for the Army” and the contorted argument that how this respect would somehow evaporate, speak of the writer’s utter disregard for the damage that comments like these do to the morale of those who lay down their lives for people like myself and the writer.
My advice to the writer would be to say what he might about those in the Army who are truly responsible for the country’s misfortune, but spare the ordinary men and women of the armed forces from his misconceived diatribe.
But may be objective criticism is not what is sought in the article.
MUHAMMAD SHAN UL HAQ
Lahore
WAPDA is yet again our national pied noir providing much pain, as well as the necessary cathartic comfort. As always, it is ‘excruciating’, ‘cruel’ and ‘unbearable’ loadshedding. The common consumer prepares to brace himself for the summer inferno.
Flour mills complain of excessive outages resulting in huge drop in flour supplies, with the result that flour sells at Rs 25 to 30 per kilo. We are not sure but it seems that Wapda is also responsible for some other minor sins.
Dam pondages are at all time low and silting high. Major loser is industry.
There is decline in economic activity; shortfalls in revenues; excessive liquidity coming on heels of a short period of large foreign military and civilian transfers and notable spike in expatriate forex repatriation; a liberal consumption loaning binge sparking massive inflation. And down cometh Madam Shamshad’s deflatory hatchet.
You will say, but all these are varied and unconnected fowls. Fiscal policy’s tea does not hold in monetary’s cup. But where your hunch may be rightly shared with rusties and the read is that, somehow, underlying this total malaise is Wapda. Some method there always is in madness!
So where, from here? What should the rules do to unravel this problem? If it is only Wapda causing all these national problems, why not do away with it. After all how many poor countries in the world have public sector behemoth of an organisation like Wapda which has no much power to take decisions affecting the lives of common persons, their studying children, the industrialists, agriculturists, the flour mills owners, flour buyers and others. There is even a (wild) story that line losses are being smuggled across Durand!
But after Wapda, What? I have no answer. Or at least a reasonable and plausible reply.
There is at present, heading Wapda, they claim, one of the best from the erstwhile CSP (now called DMG). He faces great challenges. But men of mettle convert them into unthought-of opportunities. How about this taser? Wapda’s best years have always been those during which civil servants like Ghulam Farooq and Ghulam Ishaq Khan have headed it. With the present chairman, can we say: “There is hope yet”.
ESAREN
Peshawar
THIS is apropos of your report on Guantanamo prisoners’ right to appeal (June 13), quoting Justice Anthony Kennedy, ‘liberty and security can be reconciled’ .
Quite contrary to what Alexander Hamilton, commerce secretary to George Washington, had said long time back: “The safety from external danger is the most powerful director of national conduct, even liberty must, if necessary, give way to the dictates of security because to be more safe, men are willing to run the risk of being less free”.
The American people are reminded of a quote from Thomas Jefferson: Those who sacrifice their liberty on security, in the end, neither have liberty nor security”.
SEEMA ATHAR
Rawalpindi
THIS is apropos of Bina Shah’s article, ‘Respecting Sindh’ (June 2). The writer is right in her views about the glimpses of rural Sindh shown in a documentary. Her article makes me feel proud as well as sad at a time.
Mysticism, common inherited culture of handicraft, architecture and hospitality of rural Sindh make me proud of it. However, its constant exploitation by its shortsighted Sindhi politicians makes me feel dejected.
Today’s Sindh needs a great deal of change. If we sincerely want our motherland to flourish and to regain its lost glory, we have to take practical steps to do so, individually and collectively. We have to set the goals clearly and then to strive hard to attain them.
Our main objective ought to have an educated, peaceful and prosperous Sindh.
The attainment of this aim will be possible only when we combat obscurantism and extremism. We have to increase our literacy ratio, especially among our womenfolk. In order to do so, our Harvard-educated urban sisters like Ms Shah should spend a part of their vacations in teaching our girls from rural areas.
There should be more health centres in rural Sindh where vaccinations for the cure of snake-bite and dog-bite should be made available all the times. We need a good network of link roads connecting our villages with the market towns. We need electricity for our homes and tube-wells. Let us encourage our farmers to use manure instead of fertilisers.
Our economy in the interior is agrarian, and we need water to quench our thirsty lands. Moreover, we need to bridge the gap between rural and urban parts, which are indisputably inseparable from each other.
Paulo Coelho quotes Christ as saying: “Even if we have faith of the size of a seed of maize and ask the mountain to move, it will move”. God has given us enough potential to utilise and once we start believing in our potential and work for the betterment of Sindh, we can compete anybody in the world.
KIRAN SHIRAZI
Jamshoro
The letter, ‘Attack on Afghanistan’ (June 13), by Mr K. Hussain Zia is short on fact analysis and then misses the point. One can quote several statements made from either side or even ‘neutral sources’. Several books, op-eds and letters have already been written and published.
The fact remains that Osama bin Laden (OBL) and the Taliban or their representatives continue to spread the word to kill and maim in the name of religion. Not just against the US but anyone who is, according to them, an ally of ‘infidels’.
The testimonies on record are far weightier than any statements or personal observations. The Taliban government did not disown Al Qaeda or OBL. Al Qaeda has not disowned Shaikh Khalid Muhammad (SKM). SKM calls himself a Muslim and has confessed to masterminding 9/11 attacks, beheading Wall Street journalist Daniel Pearl, with other terrorist attacks. (http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/15/guantanamo.mohammed/index.html). This should be the moot point of this discussion.
OWAIS A. FAROOQI
United States
WE, the people of Pakistan, were of the view that the dreaded IMF and its stringent policy enforcement was done and over with. Sadly the news that the IMF wishes to force the government into removing all subsidies with a ‘deadline’ of Dec 31 is both alarming and disturbing.
Apart from dictating this most recent ‘threat’, will the IMF also provide the people of Pakistan with free wheat, electricity, petrol, transportation, roads and railways? If not, then I believe that the people of Pakistan should force their chosen representatives for ‘reprieves’ and stand firm on not acceding to the wishes of the IMF.
We are a poor country undergoing colossal economic, social and political problems. The common man is already under the burden of ever-increasing inflation and lack of the basic necessities of life. If the subsidies were to be removed and say petrol was to touch Rs100 per litre, the common man will have no option but to resort to heightened corruption and resort to violent methods such as robberies, thefts and much worse to feed his empty stomach and that of his family.
This is a time of brainstorming, where it is advised that all able and thinking Pakistanis should think of their future and come up with ways to tackle the plethora of problems, but more increase in prices will only mean more grief, more lament and more destruction of the moral, ethical and societal fibre of the nation.
SADIA BUTT
Peshawar
AN old mare and a young mule are not good runners. The old horse is still better for its experience. A mule can only take loads but not steer. A horse has intelligence, memory and sharp instincts.
Congratulation Democrats for tiring out each other and bruised. For world peace and American well-being, both Republicans and Democrats will have to walk on a thorny, bushy road left by Bush, the tragedy of America. The world would be worse off.
A. JAMAL KHAN
Jhelum
IT is a pity to see how disorientated our priorities have become. Rather than facing and tackling the core and burning issues, we have been smokescreened by slogans. I feel no hesitancy in saying that the present crisis in our country is media-made and that a part of electronic media is promoting suicidal politics.
While it should enjoy every right to criticise the government and the people in power, it must be wary of the fine line between freedom of speech and madness. It should exercise freedom of speech within the confinements of constructive criticism and accountability. This is not only the right of the media but its solemn duty. However, this is not happening.
Today, Pakistan faces five core issues: poverty, healthcare, education, law and order and self-sufficiency based on indigenous resources; and two burning issues: food and energy. While the government has taken steps to tackle the energy crisis, the food situation is bound to severely worsen. Maybe we can learn a lesson from our neighbour India. When Shastri took over as prime minister from the illustrious Jawaharlal Nehru, India was faced with a famine in 1960.
Leaving everything aside, he made harvesting, supply and availability of food his topmost priority and as a result of his ‘common sense’ policy, today Punjab alone is feeding more than 400 million people.
The long march is another event that has lowered us even further in the eyes of the world. The population along the route from Multan to Islamabad is approximately 50 million. Out of that, some 300,000 people, as claimed, came out on to the streets.
That represents less than one per cent of the people from Multan to Islamabad. What about the other 99 per cent? It just goes to emphasise that in Pakistan the silent majority has always been ignored and we are suffering dearly.
It is these issues that should be the top priority of the government and the people of Pakistan and it is the media that should play a crucial role in gearing the people to work towards this common objective. It should make a conscious effort of inculcating a feeling of belonging to this country and ensure that every citizen of this country feels proud to be a Pakistani.
Pakistan has been blessed with all the natural resources of the world with the exception of oil. Its irrigation network is one of the finest on earth. Sindh, in particular, has one of the finest soils on the planet. It has Thar — with coal worth seven trillion dollars.
However, we are unfortunately hostage to vested interests. The oil mafia through its commission agents is dictating terms to the government. With the potential for being the richest country in South Asia, we are being rightly labelled as the sick man of South Asia.
CH. MUHAMMAD NAVEED
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