| August 11, 2008 | Monday | Sha’aban 8, 1429 |
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Issues and ‘non-issues’
Woes of MRP contract employees
Pakistan-China deal
US establishment’s misstatements
Test for lecturers’ posts
Squandering national resources
Impeachment
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
SHAHID Javed Burki’s surprise in his article, ‘Grim and unsustainable fiscal situation’ (Economic and Business Review, Aug 6), on the present-day economic crisis the country is facing is itself shocking.
This is particularly surprising from a person who has not only studied Pakistani economy for the last quarter century but has also remained part of the government in a caretaker setup. Moreover, his articles on the subject admittedly well researched, most having appeared regularly in Dawn during the post-Nawaz Sharif period, have guided governments on various aspects of economy.
I hope that Mr Burki, being a prominent economist, should have anticipated the tribulation the country would have landed after surrendering its economic sovereignty to the West, more specifically to the dictates of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
He should have known that these international financial institutions have generic prescriptions for economic diseases of every country, which more often than not damage the system further instead of healing it.
It is for this reason that the nation is under foreign debt of more than $58 billion, highest in its history.
The decline of tax-to-GDP ratio despite Bretonwood sisters’ advice and the financial support (in fact loan on interest) to improve the efficiency of tax administration as admitted by Mr Burki is a case in point. It is a well-known fact that the prescription of donor agencies has rather played havoc with the system.
Except reconstructing the offices in the style of foreign banks with central airconditioning and reframing of laws on which billions of rupees have been spent only to suit business communities, nothing has changed.
The direct taxes have been converted to indirect taxation, burdening the consumer more than those who are making immense profits. This has resulted in hyperinflation in the consumer goods making the life of the masses miserable. The ‘trillion target’ achieved during the year has by and large come from indirect taxes such as GST, excise, customs and withholding on imports and supplies etc.
In a country which is ruled by autocratic regimes for most of its existence, having scant regard for the institutions most of which they have destroyed in the name of reform; where basic law of the land, i.e. the Constitution, was humiliated at least on four occasions, etc , the end result is obviously not unpredicted.
I, however, agree with Mr Burki’s suggestions that unless serious efforts are made, of course without yielding to the mafia and cartels, and by taxing those who have the ability to pay; reducing drastically the non-developmental expenditure and investing heavily in development side and, last but not the least, allowing fiscal autonomy to the provinces to raise revenue, economic scenario will continue to deteriorate.
DR ALI AKBAR M. DHAKAN
Karachi
“Let justice be done, though the heaven fall!” — Earl of Mansfield
THIS is apropos of Anwar Syed’s article, “Issue and ‘non-issues’” (Aug 3), which mainly revolves around Nawaz Sharif’s six-point agenda, expressed through his July 15 statement given in London which, inter alia, signifies the need for independence of the judiciary, indispensable for attaining progress.
I agree with Mr Syed that most of the goals will be taken care of if the 1973 Constitution is restored in its pristine form. However, I have failed to understand how virtues such as rule of law, independence of the judiciary, restoration of the deposed judges, parliamentary supremacy, etc., are less worthy, hence secondary, that require to put the nation on the road to progress and prosperity.
The judicial independence is directly relevant to rule of law: a prerequisite to progress and prosperity of any society. The qualities of “inclination to question the conventional wisdom, inquisitiveness, ingenuity and inventiveness, attainment of excellence in the arts and sciences, tolerations of the dissident and in sum ability to be at peace with complexity” Mr Syed has suggested are though sign of advancement but at the same time how such values can germinate if society has no deference for the law.
The country is passing through the most difficult times in the history of its existence. The agriculture sector, which used to be mainstay of the economy and is still providing jobs to 65 per cent of its population and producing foodgrains for 160 million souls, is in disarray due to total neglect.
The industrial sector, development of which has remained all along dependent on state patronage since 1958, despite eating away of billions of dollars through depreciation of machinery, rebates on incomes and remissions and write-offs of loans, is mostly a liability on the state revenues and conscience as well. And the result is clear: the industrialists are thriving whereas the industries are suffering colossal ‘losses’.
The preservation of law and order, Mr Syed admits, is essential for flourishing of agriculture and commerce and trade. However, he has failed to justify how law and order could be maintained if justice is not dispensed, as it should be a priority number one.
Lawlessness that permeates society today, be that in Fata or settled areas of the country, has a definite nexus with continual authoritarian rule, which constantly relegated the system of justice to a subordinate position.
Consequently, incessant mistreatment caused irreparable damage to the most significant and exalted pillar of the state edifice that lost its strength and position as well in the eyes of the common man.
It is for this reason that when the then chief justice of Pakistan was seized of issues of public importance and tried to provide relief to the aggrieved, entire civil society stood up behind him like a solid rock.
Since much has been written by now on this topic, I will, therefore, restrict myself to the fact that supremacy of the Constitution, rule of law, and the maintenance of fundamental rights affect the lives and well-being of all citizens of which the judiciary is the custodian.
Thus to bring reason to a society marred with a variety of tribulations and misperceptions, there is no other method except uphold an independent and impartial judiciary, a sine qua non for the just public order.
ALTAMASH M. KURESHI
Karachi
I WOULD like to draw the attention of the higher authorities to the discriminatory attitude towards the contract employees of the Machine Readable Passports (MRP) Project, Phase-I.
I was appointed as Data Entry Operator (DEO) in the MRP Phase-I in August 2007 and posted in one of the regional passport offices in Pakistan on a one-year contract on a fixed salary of Rs6,500.
I was astonished to know that my colleagues, appointed in the MRP Phase-II, were being paid Rs10,000. This is discriminatory and violates the principle of natural justice.
I have failed to understand why the new and the old employees of the MRP Phase-I are being discriminated against. They are still drawing the salary they drew when the MRP project began four years back. The government has fixed the minimum wages at Rs6,000 but the educated technical staff of the MRP Project is being paid Rs6,500.
How would a person fulfil needs of his family and support parents with this meagre amount? My senior colleagues, appointed in the MRP Phase-I project on a three-year contract in May 2003 on a salary of Rs6,500, are still getting the same payment despite the ever-rising inflation.
The government has given suitable increments to its employees, permanent or contractual, but contract employees of Immigration and Passport Department are not entitled to such increment on the ground that they are appointed in the MRP Project and though notifications clearly mention that the rule of salary increase applies to them too.
Contracts of some employees expired but they were given extension. Contracts of some of others expired but they weren’t given extension. There is uncertainty about their future.
Many of us have appeared in test and interviews for selection in the hope that our services will be regularised.
Regrettably, even after passage of one year our services haven’t been regularised, though the government has already announced that services of all federal government contractual employees would be regularised.
The authorities concerned should intervene and put an end to this discrimination against us. All those working for more than two years should be regularised and given suitable increment in their salaries.
MRP PHASE-I CONTRACT
EMPLOYEE
Hyderabad
THIS is apropos of the news, ‘IAEA approves US-India nuclear deal’ (Aug 1).
If India, which had never joined the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), can have a nuclear deal with the United States of America to work toward full civil nuclear cooperation between India and the US, then why can’t Pakistan and China have a similiar deal between each other as China is our best friend and neigbouring country too?
It will help us to introduce and generate civil nuclear facilities in Pakistan which will provide us atomic materials and technology for civilian use in Pakistan also.
It will give us an opportunity to overcome the energy crisis by introducing more nuclear energy power plants like Kanupp under collaboration with China.
It will boom our industry sector which will further boom the employment opportunities for Pakistanis.
It will also boost our country’s economy. In all, it will help us to brighten our future.
MUNTAZIR MAHDI
Karachi
AFTER apparently being rattled by the pressure built within Pakistan regarding Dr Aafia Siddiqui and her three young children and the alleged FBI or some other American agency’s role in that, some American officials have apparently resorted to what the Bush administration has attained an expertise in, i.e. lying.
Five years after the family’s disappearance from Karachi, the lady has suddenly been discovered and arrested in Afghanistan on July 17. What is more, the FBI claims that Dr Siddiqui tried to kill some American operatives and soldiers by seizing a gun belonging to one of them. She has been moved to the US post-haste and even produced before a court in New York (with its memories of 9/11), whereas those in Guantanamo have been crying for years for recourse to a court of law. The lady has even been shot in the foot to make the FBI story sound credible.
There is one big problem, though. I have this cutting from Dawn of May 29, 2004 that exposes the agency’s falsehood. According to its staff reporter, a Pakistan interior ministry spokesman confirmed to him that Dr Aafia Siddiqui had been arrested from Karachi in 2003 and handed over to the US authorities because she had ‘kept her US nationality’.
The correspondent said that an FBI report claimed Dr Siddiqui to be still in Pakistan but the interior ministry spokesman said that she was in US custody. Another interior ministry official said Pakistani intelligence agencies had interrogated her but no links with Al Qaeda could be found.
This clearly shows that the American domestic spy agency has been lying quite routinely. This is not surprising, if we consider how the Bush government has been behaving. In an amusing story (May 18, 2004), it was revealed that the then US secretary of state Colin Powell had admitted that the information he used in his UN Security Council address for justifying invasion of Iraq was false.
The admission, in a dramatic interview to NBC television, assumed added importance because of how his deputy press secretary — a white woman named Emily Miller — attempted to cut him off and Gen Powell was heard saying, “Emily, get out of the way.”
This gives a good idea of what has been going on in the US. An article, ‘Torture began at the top’, by Tim Rutten, noted recently: “The Bush administration has been wretchedly mistaken in its conception of executive power, deceitful in its push for war with Iraq and appalling in its scheming to make torture an instrument of state power” (June 20).
Then, there’s this new book by the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Ron Suskind, which accuses the Bush White House of forging documents to invade Iraq (Aug. 6).
I am a grandmother and have seen a lot in this life. I remember how, as a young woman, I had stood at the side of a Karachi street nearly 50 years ago, like the hundreds of thousands of other Karachiites, to welcome the visiting American president Dwight D. Eisenhower. We all had waved very enthusiastically when he passed by because we all loved him.
Now, there’s George Bush, who has engaged in wholesale lying, abuse of human rights and war-mongering and created a bad example for the rest of the establishment to emulate. He has set the Islamic world on fire and is terrorising the Muslims, who have been manipulated into fighting against each other.
For no amount of money can the people in Washington be given a lincence to rob the honour of Pakistan’s daughters or mercilessly traumatise its infants and children. Senator Joseph Biden, who proposed the tripling of US aid to Pakistan, is, I believe, a decent person, because of a detailed interview I read. He is urged to counsel Bush Inc. to change their policies and also to kindly help in getting Aafia Siddiqui and her children sent back to Pakistan urgently.
A GRANDMOTHER
Karachi
WRITTEN tests (male and female) for recruitment to the posts of lecturers in journalism, Punjabi, statistics, geography will be held on August 16; sociology, phsyical educaiton, commerce, Persian on August 18 and social work on August 19 from 9am to 12 noon at examination centres of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, 49-A Lawrence Road, Lahore.
Admission letters have been issued to the eligible candidates.
However, if any candidate does not receive his/her admission letter/roll number slip by Aug 10, he/she may visit Punjab Public Service Commission website www.ppsc.gop.pk or contact on phone numbers 042-9202762, 9202760-61.
SECRETARY
Punjab Public Service
Commission
Lahore
THE country is passing through a very serious economic crisis while some government functionaries, taking advantage of their positions, continue squandering resources, be that of loans.
A recent report in a section of the press has disclosed that officials of the health ministry have spent Rs23 million on the booking of 40 rooms in the salubrious Bhurban hotel resort where they stayed, with their kith and kin, for four nights.
The health ministry has recently received a foreign loan equivalent to Rs23 million to update and improve the country’s deteriorating health services.
However, this endowment has been wasted, as the entire amount has been used for the pleasure of officials and their families.
Although we as a nation are already well-known for living beyond means, by wasting donors’ funding so brazenly and criminally we will not only be deprived of whatever little respect we have in the world but in future will also lose sympathy even for some compelling need. Thus whosoever is found involved needs to be investigated thoroughly and made accountable before the nation.
QAZI BASHIR AHMED
Hyderabad
THIS country has the singular honour of hanging, like an ordinary criminal, a highly enlightened, charismatic, elected prime minister and now getting ready to impeach a president against whom there is no charge of corruption by those who have proven record of rampant corruption.
ABDULLAH KHADIM HUSSAIN
Karachi
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