| July 16, 2008 | Wednesday | Rajab 12, 1429 |
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Pollution through aquaculture
Pollution through aquaculture
Dangerous prescription
It’s difficult getting a phone line
Ending subsidies
Regulating bodies
Wapda losses
Neuron sciences plan
Trachoma-related blindness
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
LATER this month Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani is visiting Washington to have discussions with the US government, especially with President Bush. It is assumed that since a new democratic government is in place in Pakistan a substantive exchange of views will take place in regard to Pakistan-US relations.
It is further assumed that the US side will focus on the issue of war on terror. I feel the Pakistani side should veer away from this tunnel approach and must insist on broadening the scope to cover the entire gamut of future Pakistan-US relations.
All should agree that the past relationship between us has been far from satisfactory and inherently lopsided. In the course of the long-drawn- out Cold War, we have served as a surrogate state, a war which was waged solely to achieve the US global objective of becoming the sole superpower. In this conflict Pakistan bore the brunt of damage and losses while the US was its sole beneficiary.
Surely the other side would mention the giving of financial aid to Pakistan as quid pro quo. Let us make it very clear that when the stake is as high as that, the cost is pittance and must not even be brought under discussion.
The sad aspect of the matter is that Pakistan’s national and regional interests have been ignored and, in fact, throughout it has been at the receiving end. After achieving its vital objectives, the US has moved away from the area leaving surrogate Pakistan high and dry in the lurch. Bluntly put, we have been treated like military contractors (a term which has gained currency during the Iraq War).
Broadly speaking, this has been the pattern of relationship. It is in the long-term interest of both the countries to break this chain and focus on laying the foundation for a long-term mutually beneficial relationship free from the irritants caused by ad hoc knee-jerk actions.
If Pakistan has to play a decisive role in the war against terror, this kind of relationship is sine qua non and to lay solid foundation of it, the two countries must enter into a long-term treaty relationship.
This treaty has to be fair to both the countries, must specially take into consideration the interest of the weaker partner which incidentally has to carry the main brunt in an area which is the region of conflict. Also this treaty must be placed before and approved by the US Congress and Pakistan’s parliament.
A relationship based on this kind of treaty of security and friendship would be beneficial in many ways. It would clearly lay down the goals, respective roles and expectations. It will not be subject to day-to-day irritants and frequent misunderstandings. It will enjoy wider support of the people of the two countries. The media of respective countries will know basic guidelines and the parameters within which the events will unfold and, therefore, the scope for tendentious reporting, motivated analysing and unfounded innuendos will be substantially reduced.
AQEEL AHMAD
Karachi
THIS is apropos of Sindh Fisheries Minister Zahid Ali Bhurgari’s statement (July 9) in which he stated that the Sindh government would allot 20,000 acres for the development of aquaculture in the province on modern lines.
The ministry would extend its full support to a project of the federal ministry for food, agriculture and livestock (Minfal) through which model fish and shrimps farms will be set up and the cage system will be introduced in the province. Initially the project would be commenced in Thatta and Badin districts.
In fact, aquaculture or underwater factories or fish farming is the fastest growing food production sector in the world but the notable minister, perhaps, is quite unaware of the dangers of aquaculture. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, the underwater factories have grown three times faster than the land - based animal agriculture.
In the aquafarms, in the ocean, close to shorelines, fish is packed into nets or mesh cages. Packed into cages, the fish remains subject to diseases and pollution. It becomes difficult to manage the pollution and disease issues in the factories.
The FAO says that “conditions on aquafarms are so horrendous that on some farms 40 per cent of fish may die before farmers can kill and package them for food”. The aquafarms require more money than the wild-caught fish in the sea, rivers and ponds.
Fish lives in the filthy areas. Besides, it pollutes the environment with the fish excrement, chemical-laden fish feed and diseased fish dead bodies. This type of fish production not only leads to sufferings for the fish and fishers but also to ecological damage.
By promoting the underwater factories, a fisherman feels threatened because by doing this the price of the fish will come down and the traditional territories where a common fisherman does his job will be occupied by the new factories. That will not merely take away the jobs from the fishermen but possibly will have huge impact on the wild stocks.
Through this letter and in the light of the issues mentioned, I would ask the minister to peep into the matter before heading for the aquaculture industry. To me, for a sustainable fishing industry, the minister should prepare a fisheries policy that must ensure the livelihood of a common fisherman and protection of ecology and wild fish stock.
If a poor fisherman and his family are economically content and the environment is protected from pollution, then the country can grow and flourish. The aquaculture will, otherwise, destroy everything.
ABDULLAH KHOSO
Karachi
THIS is apropos of Sindh Fisheries Minister Zahid Ali Bhurgari’s statement (July 9) in which he stated that the Sindh government would allot 20,000 acres for the development of aquaculture in the province on modern lines.
The ministry would extend its full support to a project of the federal ministry for food, agriculture and livestock (Minfal) through which model fish and shrimps farms will be set up and the cage system will be introduced in the province. Initially the project would be commenced in Thatta and Badin districts.
In fact, aquaculture or underwater factories or fish farming is the fastest growing food production sector in the world but the notable minister, perhaps, is quite unaware of the dangers of aquaculture. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, the underwater factories have grown three times faster than the land - based animal agriculture.
In the aquafarms, in the ocean, close to shorelines, fish is packed into nets or mesh cages. Packed into cages, the fish remains subject to diseases and pollution. It becomes difficult to manage the pollution and disease issues in the factories.
The FAO says that “conditions on aquafarms are so horrendous that on some farms 40 per cent of fish may die before farmers can kill and package them for food”. The aquafarms require more money than the wild-caught fish in the sea, rivers and ponds.
Fish lives in the filthy areas. Besides, it pollutes the environment with the fish excrement, chemical-laden fish feed and diseased fish dead bodies. This type of fish production not only leads to sufferings for the fish and fishers but also to ecological damage.
By promoting the underwater factories, a fisherman feels threatened because by doing this the price of the fish will come down and the traditional territories where a common fisherman does his job will be occupied by the new factories. That will not merely take away the jobs from the fishermen but possibly will have huge impact on the wild stocks.
Through this letter and in the light of the issues mentioned, I would ask the minister to peep into the matter before heading for the aquaculture industry. To me, for a sustainable fishing industry, the minister should prepare a fisheries policy that must ensure the livelihood of a common fisherman and protection of ecology and wild fish stock.
If a poor fisherman and his family are economically content and the environment is protected from pollution, then the country can grow and flourish. The aquaculture will, otherwise, destroy everything.
ABDULLAH KHOSO
Karachi
IN his article, ‘Clinging to survival’, Cyril Almeida has made the case that the Americans should pound the militants in Fata and elsewhere to “put a new kind of fear of God” into them (July 2).
This is a very dangerous prescription and can only embolden American and other forces to take matters into their own hands and violate Pakistan’s sovereignty with impunity. The gentleman is apparently an avid supporter of Washington’s war on terror, as was also evident from his earlier piece, ‘The supremacy myth’ of April 8.
If we consider how the US attack on Iraq opened the floodgates of terrorism and sectarianism, whereas previously these were virtually non-existent and how the invasion of Afghanistan has brought the majority of Pakhtuns on both sides of the Durand Line into the opposing camp, the consequences of widening the operations by bombing the Pakistani Taliban can be easily guessed. Similarly, the intervention in Somalia, through Ethiopia, as well as direct attacks, has made a mini Iraq out of it.
The game plan of Washington’s neocon imperialists and the situation in the northern region should become very clear from the article, ‘US and insurgency in Swat’ by Zeenia Satt (July 3). Instead of getting sucked deeper and deeper into the quagmire of Bush’s failed policies, Pakistan must do all it can to keep itself from getting hurt irreparably.
IBNE RAHIM
Karachi
ONE would have thought that with the ‘new and improved’ PTCL, it would be easy to attain a simple landline connection. People told me that it only took 10 days now. I did not quite realise the meaning of that until after I applied for a PTCL connection in June 2007.
Upon application I was promised it would take 10 days to get a landline for my house.
Consistent visits to the PTCL office resulted in the employees telling me that I have to get my receipt registered on a computer because the system was now computerised. Once that was done it would take 10 days to get installed. The rains last year delayed matters further.
Then I was told that my area did not have a telephone pole which had to be installed by the DHA, the area I live in. The PTCL could only install the wires after this. It was strange as everyone on the street had a landline. Yet I waited patiently.
A few weeks later a pole appeared right outside my front gate and I rushed over to the PTCL. The man shot back: “Yes, but do you have the box number that’s on the pole? I could send a lineman to get the number but that could take another 10 days”. I rushed over to the revered pole to jot down the number — only to be told that the PTCL was out of telephone wire but my phone would be installed within the next 10 days.
Ten days passed. Infuriated I demanded to see the person in charge but he was absent. His assistant carefully lodged my complaint and promised to look into the matter. All I had to do was to wait for another 10 days!
Nothing materialised. I made another visit to the PTCL. I met with the main man who called in a lineman and demanded to know why my landline had not been installed. The lineman followed me home to assess the problem. I returned to the PTCL and was assured that the installation of my landline would be complete within 10 days.
To date I have not received a connection from the PTCL. Still not defeated, I will still make another trip to the PTCL office to face the impediment they will throw my way.
I do not understand the reason for this delay. I do not want to know anymore. All I want is a landline.
AYSHA SHEIKH
Karachi
NOT a day goes by without the PPP government taking two steps backward, and seldom even a step forward. The minister for commerce announces the termination of all subsidies by year-end. This is not only regrettable but also doublespeak.
Being an industrialist himself, Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar knows very well that support by the government comes and goes in many ways. When they are lucky, the poor get subsidies which will now be taken away. Always fortunate, the rich get subsidies when taxes are withdrawn or reduced, or just not levied at all.
Obvious examples are various tax reductions to benefit car buyers and manufacturers; postponing CVT on the market for (black?) capital; reducing margin on imports; minimising costs of capital outflows; tax free agriculture.
The minister knows personally of other concessions to the rich that directly hit the poor. Examples include non-enforcement of an already inadequate minimum wage; diluting enterprise obligations for social security, health and safety; permitting child labour, to keep adult wages low and women from seeking employment.
KARAMAT ALI and A. ERCELAN
Karachi
IN Pakistan it’s very common practice that anyone can do anyone’s job. The military and landlords can become politicians, and doctors can join the civil bureaucracy and be appointed as income tax officers. Further, the chiefs of parties can behave like prime ministers etc.
What about national regulatory bodies, which are supposed to regulate professions and professionals that behave in the same deprave manner?
The prestigious Pakistan Engineering Council, which has a say in all development and academic matters in the country, has constituted various committees. One of the committees is named Committee for Master Planning of Mega Cities with Engr. Sohail Wajaht H. Siddqui as its convener.
Master planning of cities and specially mega cities is a very professional job that can only be handled by a multi-disciplinary team of professionals headed by a town planner. I wonder why an electrical engineer and head of a multinational engineering organisation considers himself competent to handle such a job and why the PEC is taking over the functions belonging to the PCATP. No wonder our cities are in a total mess.
I would like to hear from the chairman of the Pakistan Engineering Council and the Pakistan Council of Architects and Town planners on their role of regulating professionals, when right under their nose such an anomaly is taking place. Also the ministries concerned are requested to look into this if they have the time to.
ENGR. SHAHAB AFROZ
Karachi
THIS refers to a recent statement by the water and power minister regarding losses faced by Wapda.
It is a pity that the minister does not know that the 45 per cent losses are not the technical losses (transmission and distribution losses), rather than the major part of the losses is attributable to theft.
It is said that now this is a political issue and can only be resolved if there is a will at the political level.
A.L.PURI
Canada
THIS is apropos of a news item, ‘Bahawalpur loses neuron sciences plan’ (May 30). According to this news, the Institute of Neuron Sciences, which was planned to be set up in Bahawalpur and affiliated with the Quaid-i-Azam Medical College, has been shifted to Lahore.If it is correct, it is highly alarming and regrettable. This is no doubt depriving the people of south Punjab of the latest and basic medical facilities. The Institute of Neuron Sciences at Bahawalpur will cater to the needs of not only Bahawalpur but Multan and D.G. Khan as well.
The decision to shift the institute to Lahore should be withdrawn and Rs100 million grant, according to PC-1, be released. It is hoped that present democratic elected government of Punjab would reconsider the case.
Learning lessons from history, we must take notice that feeling of deprivation harms national harmony.
DR RAHIM YAR ABBASI
Chairman, Bahawalpur Heritage Research Society International
CHITRAL is a northwestern district in the NWFP with a population of 0.34 million, according to the 1997 census. Trachoma is a major cause of blindness in the Chitral valley. The World Health Organisation has devised a safe strategy for the control of trachoma.
According to a survey conducted in Chitral in 2004, the prevalence of active trachoma is above 20 per cent, according to the World Health Organisa-tion which mandates community treatment in this region.
It is, therefore, requested of all eye care personnel and international agency for the prevention of blindness to take immediate steps to control this blinding disease, according to the initiatives of Vision 2020 and reduce the burden related to this disease among the people of Chitral district.
DR FAIZUL MULK JILANI
DHQ Hospital, Chitral
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