| July 27, 2008 | Sunday | Rajab 23, 1429 |
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Blaming the ISI
Learning from others
‘Khaab’
Pollution through aquaculture
Fuel prices
Showing Leadership ability
Appeal to PM
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
‘ENERGY efficiency and conservation’ (letter, July 7) must really be the last and final call to sanity if we really want energy security. How can we not prioritise efficiency and conservation in our existing installations to be essential part of our energy policy so that we can buy time for efficient coal based energy (coal bed methane) to be available both for power generation and industrial use?
The latest gas tariff is an obvious attempt to discredit this government which is yet to respond adequately to the energy challenge due to preoccupation with other ‘political’ issues. Whoever has advised this government to treat efficient and inefficient utilisation of our precious gas with the same ‘stick’ must be deliberately creating hurdles for Pakistan industries and should be exposed.
How can you punish our entrepreneurs for investing in efficient technologies in the interest of the country? Those industries which invested in efficient cogeneration technology to save gas (as well as to reduce pollution) must always be recognised as pioneers and the offered gas tariff must be the most attractive to encourage others to do the same.
Let us identify the inefficient users of our scarce gas who should actually pay the highest tariff:
1. In house inefficient power generation: Hundreds of industries and large commercial buildings (including SSGC head office which should really be example of high efficiency and conservation) generate power with gas engines and waste energy! These installations must be penalised as not only they are causing enormous waste but also creating serious pollution. No exception should be made including those residential units using inefficient gas power generation and the highest gas tariff should be charged from them.
2. Central airconditioning: Next in line, and just as inefficient, the central airconditioning system based on our precious gas, using the lowest efficiency absorption chillers, must also be fully penalised by charging the highest tariff for this most inefficient technology. Actually, there is no technology which matches the very low thermal efficiency in such systems (coeff. of performance 1.0 vs 4 for even window aircondition units) and yet these get deferential gas supply and lower tariff!
3. Industrial steam/hot water production: Again, using our precious gas in production of steam or hot water in conventional boilers is really the most inefficient utilisation. Such installations must be discouraged and charged the highest gas tariff so that efficient technologies are encouraged.
So what is the answer to all three inefficient categories mentioned above? Enforcement of efficient cogeneration/combined heat and power systems are adopted the world over to reduce energy costs (as well as environmental pollution) for all above applications. We are not following the minimum requirement of energy efficiency and conservation though we have given lip-service for many years.
The 1994 energy policy had specially encouraged cogeneration. Both SSGC and SNGPL have had many directives from the government encouraging gas supply to cogeneration facilities. Even the Ecnec directive of November 2006 covered preference and encouragement to such efficient installations but the real manipulators always manage to ‘kill’ such directives and go merrily in their wasteful ways.
*As repeatedly being covered in the press, our inefficient steam power plants should be urgently ‘repowered’ to combined cycle design and not encourage inefficient, wasteful, polluting ‘rental’ units. All combined cycle power plants must be encouraged to install latest technologies to enhance efficiency and capacity.
If we follow the above two options, we can definitely do away with ad hoc decisions like ‘rental’ units which will be very shortsighted approach since this will increase our fuel bill (and serious pollution) to totally unacceptable levels.
The present times are very critical since only the efficient installations will survive the high cost of fossil fuels. If we take the above options seriously, we can sustain our economic system for the next two to three years till we can install efficient coal-bed methane technology to provide many years of sustainable growth based on our own Thar coal.
We urgently need to call on our friends in Scandinavian countries and Australia to help us in coal gasification projects. This is really the last and final call and we must not fail.
AINUL ABEDIN
Karachi
IN his rejoinder (July 24) to my letter, Khalid A. has completely ignored the acknowledgment by the former Indian legislator Kuldip Nayar that (a) India had been working on the breaking up of Pakistan much before East Pakistan got severed from us and, (b) the Indian agencies IB and RAW engage in dirty political games and are devoid of any moral principles.
Also, that the former Mukti Bahini guerilla, M. Zainul Abedin, has written a whole book about how he was trained in guerilla warfare by the Indians inside India and how RAW had been trying to hurt Bangladesh after its creation.
It is very regrettable that in spite of all this, the writer, who is presumably of Pakistani origin, has tried to dilute the impact of my arguments based on these independent sources and deflected that blame away from India.
He has also ignored the other irrefutable examples given by me, which substantiate the dirty games that India has been playing all along to defame Pakistan with the objective of shifting the international community’s focus from the horrifying brutalities it keeps committing in Kashmir, in order to avoid giving the Kashmiris the right to self-determination.
Mr Khalid’s attention is also drawn to the fact that the noted Indian writer and human rights activist Arundhati Roy has shown in a book how the Kashmiri gentleman Afzal Guru has been framed by the Indian police and agencies in the case of the attack on their parliament several years ago, after which India deceptively massed half a million troops on its western borders. He has also neglected the statement of an Indian spy upon reaching India after his release from a Pakistani prison that he had indeed been spying for his country.
It must be realised that our neighbour is playing a clever game by heaping as much blame on the ISI as possible and asking for its disbandment by winning over the international community’s support and has manipulated Kabul to go along with it.
Senior American columnist Eric Margolis, who has had a long association with Pakistan and is its great friend and well-wisher must be heeded when he expresses his huge regard for the capabilities of the ISI – at least until it got abused by the rulers in recent years.
Thus, the ISI, except for its domestic political operations under the former rulers’ order, which I certainly condemn, has been doing a magnificent job in protecting us from hostile powers and agencies and it should not be difficult to imagine the enormous risk constantly taken by its operatives for our sake.
We must do all we can to maintain this aspect of its work, while calling upon Islamabad to desist from misusing it for the leaders’ vested interests, who abuse the other agencies and the police service similarly.
Q. IQBAL
Karachi
I. A. REHMAN’s article, ‘Learning from others’ (July 24) is timely and to the point. Sending the civil servants to countries like the US and EU has, if any, a severely limited cosmetic utility at considerable cost of the poor taxpayer.
The socio-political and economic realities of these so-called advanced countries and the countries in the subcontinent, including Pakistan, being fundamentally different from each other, training in these countries becomes irrelevant.
Contrary to this, all countries of the subcontinent have not just a shared past, similar value system and social structure but also strikingly similar problems in the context of governance.
It is time, as rightly pointed out by Mr Rehman, that we shed the uncalled-for prejudices against each other and think of exchange programmes for civil servants during their training as well as during mid-career phase.
There is need for continuous exchange of ideas amongst the trainees and trainers of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and training spells by the civil servants to each other’s country. A pragmatic approach to training structures shall be in larger public interest than paid holidays in distant glamorous countries at the taxpayers’ cost.
N.N.OJHA
Kolkata
SHAIKH Fazal Jalil, the chairman of the Korangi Association of Trade and Industry, has one industrial unit in Karachi and one in Lahore.
He says: “I pay electricity bill in Lahore at the rate of Rs5.33 a unit and in Karachi I pay Rs9.10 to Rs9.60 per unit” (News report, ‘Prohibitive investment cost in Karachi, by Sabihuddin Ghausi, July 21).
The writer goes on to add that 100 per cent high cost is given by the Karachi Electric Supply Company for industry in Karachi as compared to Wapda-fed areas.
Land in the Karachi Textile City is being offered at Rs25 million per acre whereas it is offered at Rs4 million per acre in the Sundar Estate near Lahore with far better infrastructure.
I am sure that there has to be some logic behind the above-mentioned decisions? However, one wonders why?
Faraz sums up my condition beautifully:
Eik to khaab leay phirtay ho galyoon galyoon Us pay takrar bhi kartay ho khareedar kay saath.
S. NAYYAR IQBAL RAZA
Karachi
THIS is apropos of Abdullah Khoso’s letter, ‘Pollution through aquaculture’ (July 16), The writer has based his argument on a generalised insinuation without considering the latest aquaculture techniques, technology and methodology of environmental impact assessment (EIA) and its control.
EIA is considered a legal necessity for all aquaculture ventures and has been adopted by many countries to ensure environmentally friendly aquaculture ventures. Good aquaculture practices (GAP) and good management practices (GMP) have recently been developed in various countries in addition to the development of mechanism of quarantine, coupled with regular monitoring of stock, to ensure their health and sanitation.
In order to eliminate chances of pollution and spread of diseases in aquaculture commodities in cages, the cages are designed in such a way that water exchange within cages and the environment remain uninterrupted, which is possible by using a reasonable mesh size for the net of the cage.
In some cases, double nets are used in cages. The inner one has smaller mesh size for fish retention and the outer one has a larger mesh and serves as the predator net. Water current forces play a key role in this phenomenon.
Artificial feed is fed to the stock in cages through feeding trays which minimise or eliminate the loss of feed and thereby pose no chance of pollution through fish feed. After completion of culture period/harvest of cultured commodities, the cages are disinfected by washing, exposure to sunlight, and treatment with bleaching powder.With the above preventive measures and methodology, aquaculture in cages are successfully undertaken in Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China, India, America, Europe and Africa.
Criticism about the installation of cages for aquaculture purposes merely on the plea of their nominal pollution and potential source of diseases, which is confined to a few cases, is akin to closing down the automobile industry because of excess emission of smoke from a few vehicles.
Cage farming or aquaculture does not involve the services of a few persons. The fact is that this bio-industry provides direct or indirect employment opportunities to hundreds of people in activities like bamboo production, manufacture of netting, construction of cages, fish cage caretakers, labour for fish harvesting, transport and vending and ice-making.
The decision of Sindh Fisheries Minister Zahid Ali Bhurgari regarding allotment of 20,000 acres for the development of aquaculture is realistic, financially sound, environmental-friendly, in line with the principles of aquaculture and is a proper strategy for resource utilisation, food production and employment generation, particularly under the circumstances when there is a food shortage in the country.
IRSHAD HUSSAIN SHAH
KAKAKHEL
Deputy Director (Wapda)
Mangla Dam Raising Project
Mangla, Jhelum
THIS is apropos of the highest-ever increase in fuel prices (July 21). All of us are trying to understand as to what is happening in the land of the pure. The government is a conglomerate of different ideologies and there can never be any understanding and agreement if there are many ideologies.
A poor man finds himself anchored where he was before the present proverbial mandate. The alliance at the federal level agrees on everything but nothing positive gets done, which makes life of the common man miserable.
People, thanks to the media, are well informed and are keenly watching the trend. The socialist agenda and capitalist economic programme can never compromise and deliver.
The most serious problem with the government is the lack of know-how to govern and priorities which have led to the non-existence of bodies/organisations to deal with enormous problems the nation is facing.
Fortnightly increase in the prices of utility services and fuel has created chaotic conditions and an abnormal rise in inflation, making it impossible for the common man to even have one square meal. The government would be in a position to provide succour and relief to the poor if we have accountability at all levels. Slogans and legacy can never put out the fire of hunger burning in an empty stomach.
KHAN A. SHAMSHAD
Karachi
DURING his July 19 TV address to the nation, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani said that dictatorship was hindering his government. The question is why does he not take an initiative to resolve the matter? To talk like an opposition leader while enjoying confidence of the National Assembly does not befit an elected prime minister.
Pakistan’s main problem now is not Pervez Musharraf. The ruling coalition’s numerical strength is almost enough to remove him from the office of president. Many other legislators would be glad to fill the gap if a sincere effort is launched in this connection.
The problem now is Asif Zardari, whose main objective is to protect his personal interests, rather than Pakistan’s interests. The election replaced one-man rule of Mr Musharraf with one-man rule of Mr Zardari. Ousting Mr Musharraf does not fit in Mr Zardari’s personal agenda, hence Mr Gilani’s predicament.
The prime minister must show leadership and set the boundaries for the head of his ruling party. India’s great example is before us. But the prime minister would need the help of his fellow PPP legislators to deal with Mr Zardari, and this would be the first step toward dispatching Mr Musharraf to oblivion.
As a prelude to this gargantuan accomplishment, a major restructuring of the PPP’s internal working mechanics would be needed, and it must be done. The PPP must start functioning as a national political party. If its legislators and their parliamentary head cannot accomplish this, nobody can, and then democracy in Pakistan is doomed.
SIDDIQUE MALIK
Louisville, Kentucky, USA
THE very touching letter, ‘Woman prisoner at Bagram’ (July 20), shows that some sensitive souls still remember the plight of folks, like Dr Afia Siddiqui, who have been made to disappear by some agencies years ago. It was a painful reminder of the episode when the lady and her three young children simply vanished and are now probably languishing in some American detention centres.
If memory serves, Dr Siddiqui’s father had died of heart failure soon after the incident. God only knows how her mother and rest of the family would be coping and what has become of her kids. I would beseech the prime minister to please take up her case at the highest level during his forthcoming visit to the US and secure her release.
Similarly, the cases of the other Pakistanis, most of whom are being held at Guantanamo Bay without any charges, should be pursued earnestly.
A PAKISTANI
Karachi
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