| August 17, 2008 | Sunday | Sha'aban 14, 1429 |
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Teachers’ appointment in Sindh
Setting forest on fire
Ensuring speedy justice to Aafia
Little or no health facilities for Tharis
Pensioners’ neglected
Issue of qualifications
Unofficial guests
Musharraf’s birthday
Deteriorating system of justice
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
THE present government’s preoccupation with politics at the cost of the economy has helped currency speculation by banks, rich individuals, exporters and businessmen leading to an accelerated fall in the value of the rupee.
Banks and thousands of people have bought dollars, euros, pounds and dirhams. Moreover, due to political uncertainty and the UAE being in close proximity, flight of capital is occurring every day. The rupee is in a virtual free fall with no steps being taken by the government to stop its erosion.
The average Pakistani is stunned with the overall economic situation facing the country. Our debt burden has gone up in billions and inflation is skyrocketing owing to high oil prices and food commodity shortages.
If the slide of the rupee is not stopped, it has fatal implications not only economically but for the integrity of Pakistan as this could trigger riots in the country as the ordinary Pakistani does not have funds stashed abroad.
One is reminded of the Southeast Asian debacle a decade ago when currency speculators, alarmed by bad economic indicators in the region, nearly decimated their economies until the government stepped in to halt the descent into chaos.
While neighbouring economies in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka are also facing similar problems, they have some political stability . It is only our currency which is in a free fall. Our government does not need to reinvent the wheel but must take steps emulating the Southeast Asian countries to stem the rot .The following measures must be initiated to stop the downhill slide:
1. With immediate effect the State Bank of Pakistan should stop buying of foreign currencies by banks, companies and exporters.
2. Only citizens travelling abroad with confirmed tickets or foreign exchange needed for financing education should be allowed to exchange rupees at money changers’ with a prefixed limit per person .
3. All export proceeds should be repatriated and those who violate this rule should be proceeded against.
4. Imports of goods like cars, cellphones and all non-essential and luxury items should be stopped immediately to conserve foreign exchange. Foreign exchange held by the state should be used only for import of oil and essential food commodities.
5. A council of professional economists should be formed with the mandate to stop flight of capital and stop the rupee’s erosion. All four provinces should nominate two members each for establishing this council, and its decisions should be accepted by the government.
If the government has better ideas, it should put them into practice to stop the economic debacle staring us in the face.
AZIZ SUHARWARDY
Karachi
THE present government inherited a long list of problems: uncontrolled inflation, lawlessness, crippling poverty, loadshedding and unemployment at the top. However, a beam of hope has risen by issuing the orders of the appointment of teachers in government schools in Sindh province.
Hats off to the Sindh education ministry for taking the initiative. This will not only reduce the ratio of unemployment but will also increase the living standard. A great number of vacant schools turned ‘autaq’ of waderas will regain their lost status and many deprived children will get a chance to get free education.
The Sindh government has taken the initiative. Now it is our duty to help and with mutual participation and cooperation attain the goal of education in Sindh. If we sincerely want to improve and develop, we have to take huge strides.
Teachers are the most responsible persons as far as our bright future is concerned. They have to prove their worth as the role model. Taking classes punctually is their first and foremost duty, but it is not enough. Transferring knowledge from what is written in the book will only make a path to bright future.
However, polishing the personality and mentality will make the future brighter and stronger. Teachers now have to inculcate a message of struggle, unity, dignity, compassion and moderation in the fresh minds instead of cheating culture, shortcuts, obscurantism and narrow-mindedness.
At individual level, we all want Sindh to flourish with prosperity and we want to come out of social barriers. Now we have got a platform and opportunity to prove our capability. Keeping aside personal benefits, let us all work hand in hand within our resources to move forward to reform the foundations of education and personality development.
The result, of course, may take time but it is the only way to make our motherland regain the lost glory. The wartime British prime minister, Sir Winston Churchill, said: “Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It’s the courage to continue that counts”. And we have to follow his advice.
KIRAN SHIRAZI
Jamshoro
ISHA M. Kureshi’s letter, ‘Setting forest on fire’ (Aug 4), raises a much needed alarm about the contempt with which environment, wildlife and natural wealth are being treated despite laws to the contrary.
‘Keti Mumtaz’ is a name coined by the police for a police station at Manzalgah village in the kacha area near Naodero. The jurisdiction of the police station extends to more than six miles and covers Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s lands and village called Izat Khan, together with the lands and villages of the Khuhros, Mohils, Phulpotas, Jatts, Junejos, Narejas, Sheikhs and many others.
Sharifpur Forest is also located here and adjoining it is an even larger wildlife sanctuary which I maintain at my own expense. In fact, my watchers guard Sharifpur Forest also, otherwise like all other forests in Sindh this too would have disappeared.
More than two years ago, a group of the most wanted bandits took up residence in Sharifpur Forest, very visibly under the sponsorship of the police, a fact which is well-known to all, from the chief minister down to the local police. The Keti Mumtaz Police Station personnel, instead of taking action, abandoned the police station in haste and took refuge at Shah Nawaz Bhutto Railway Station, about four miles away.
This is the scenario in which the recent so-called police operation has been launched. It is, of course, well-known that while the operation has been a dismal failure, everything in sight, including Sharifpur Forest, the private sanctuary, which is now littered with burnt carcasses of hog-deer, wild boar, rabbits, jackals, partridges, doves, etc., has been reduced to ashes and bulldozed.
Dozens of local villagers have also been picked up and taken to various police stations. In short, the whole area has been destroyed and terrorised, but not even a hair of the bandits has been harmed and they continue to inhabit the area.
The operation failed primarily because the very first step that should have been taken was avoided: the police officers at Naodero and Keti Mumtaz Police Stations, who defiantly maintained a close liaison with the bandits, should have been acted against before any other step was taken.
As it is, the bandits were tipped off and were seen to be vacating their women, children, cattle and other belongings three days in advance of the operation.
The informer police officers, who have thus committed criminal offences by protecting the bandits, have in fact received high patronage and have been promoted out of turn and posted at Naodero under the direct orders of the RPO concerned, who in turn is said to have acted on instructions from even higher-up.
The operation, which has cost the people more than Rs50 million, caused damage to private and public property many times more, victimised innocent people and, last but not least, resulted in the death of two policemen by heat stroke and drowning while landing others in hospital, has been a cruel joke, which any government worth the name must investigate and take corrective and compensatory measures.
But even more important and urgent is the need to drastically purge the police force. Otherwise, the hungry and vanquished people will be driven to revolt.
SARDAR MUMTAZ ALI BHUTTO
Chairman, Sindh National Front
Larkana
PRISONER 650, Dr Aafia Siddiqui, is a mere statistic whose silent screams continue to be muffled by the high-sounding rhetoric of protecting the greater interest. Her alleged kidnapping is just a pre-emptive measure undertaken to eliminate the scourge of terrorism.
The death of her four-month-old baby has been called collateral damage in the war on terror. A neuroscientist of Pakistani origin who went missing from Karachi in 2004, Dr Siddiqui is just one of the many people who were silently whisked away by the authorities as Pakistan’s fate was doled out in dollars in return for unquestioning acceptance of American demands.
Tragically enough, when this mother of three appeared in court a couple of days back, her dishevelled appearance, restructured face and haunted look elicited no concrete step from our government. Her sister’s pleas have fallen on deaf ears.
Ironical though it is, our nation celebrated 61 years of independence from its colonial masters conveniently forgetting that not even once in the past six decades have we ever come close to that idea of liberation our forefathers laid down their lives for.
Shackled by the chains of western imperialism, Pakistanis are but mere pawns on the global chessboard, the first lines of offence and defence.
Dr Siddiqui’s predicament is not just a personal tragedy for her immediate family but a mockery of our sovereignty. Yvonne Ridley, the British journalist, has termed her as the ‘grey lady’. Her pitiable condition is shocking. It won’t be long before the grey turns to ash-white and then to nothingness.
A collective and decisive stance is the need of the hour. Today, it is she, tomorrow it can be you. After all, her only crime was being an educated Pakistani Muslim woman. If we don’t raise our voice to ensure speedy justice for this poor lady, tomorrow no one would be left to speak out for us.
AYESHA ARIF BAWANY
Karachi
THARPARKAR is the main arid zone region of Sindh province. About a million people inhabit this area. Their common problems are absence of clean water, almost no or negligible health and education facilities and rampant poverty.
Common health problems are anemia, fever, allergy, skin diseases, headache, gastric problems, diarrhoea and other viral diseases.
Many places in this region have no basic health units and many lack transport facilities to carry their sick and ailing brothers, sisters, elders and children to nearby basic or taluka health units. Grim appears the situation when one thinks for a moment of a patient having acute abdominal pain or a pregnant lady in labour /bleeding or a case of severe diarrhoea. Where to carry or how to carry a patient is the big question? Transport him/her on a camel or donkey cart to a hospital, which is 10 to 40 kilometres away, for treatment is next to impossible. The mere idea is frightening. Some villages have chhakra ( a transport peculiarly used in Tharparkar ) facility available every alternate day.
Here is a true story of a 23-year-old lady who lost her kidneys owing to pregnancy bleeding. She could not reach the health facility on time as there is no hospital in her village and no transport to reach any nearby hospital.
To add to her misfortune, she lost her only son who suffered from a bout of diarrhoea and died because there is no hospital and no transport available in the area. Despaired of life, she has decided to opt for family planning and remain childless, a decision very difficult for a woman to take.
I can count many villages which do not have even basic health units in Tharparkar. Some of these are:
a. Diplo taluka: villages lacking in health facility (even basic health unit) are Winger, Chhaho, Pharaoh, Dabri, Koorio, Ajak, Lassio and Katho.
b. Mithi taluka: villages having no basic health unit are Kakrario, Visasar, Seenhar, Lakhmiar , Arniyaro and Sakrio Bajeer.
c. Chhachro taluka: villages having no basic health units are Mossajidani, Plat, Kalario, Aklan, Jamalani, Kumbhijopar, Salani and Dhori.
d. Nagarparkar taluka: villages facing health problems in the absence of medical facilities are Tigusar, Dobhar, Mithno Halipota, Choorio and Chuglio. There must be other places where health facilities are lacking .
People living in the areas mentioned above have to travel for miles together to get medical treatment. Some of them even do not have any transport facilities. For them technology, space, ozone, etc, etc, do not make any sense.
This government is elected in the name of the poor people, with a slogan to solve their problems. They also promised to provide food, shelter and health. How can it be achieved in this manner? The people of Thar have no food, no shelter, no schools and no hospitals.
In an era of progress, science and technology our people have no right to live: a cruel truth.
MURLI DHAR
Karachi
THE federal and Sindh budgets were out in June, declaring an increment of 20 per cent in the salary of regular government servants as well as pensioners. The said increase comes into effect from July 1 of the same fiscal year.
This time, it is mystifying to see that whereas all government servants have been allowed and are availing themselves of the benefit, the summary regarding the notification for the pensioners is still stuck somewhere in the files of the chief minister of Sindh.
I have got it confirmed from the Sindh finance department where they say they have sent the summary in this regard on time. One may ask: what was the hitch to include the case of pensioners also in the same summary put up for those in active service?
Certainly, the PPP government in Sindh headed by a seasoned politician like Qaim Ali Shah is not caring for its old, infirm pensioners who find themselves in the jaws of ever - whopping inflation, without any help from the government.
The pensioners are, in fact, hoping for a better relief package for them than offered by the Nawaz Sharif government on Oct 1, 1999 (Oct. 2, 1999) and mostly implemented but later on hijacked by the Shaukat Aziz corporate governance.
MOHAMMAD ALEEM SHAIKH
Karachi
THE qualifications of PhD or Master of Engineering degree in environmental engineering for the post of director-general, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), were proposed and drafted by me in 1990, when I was posted as director, EPA, back then.
Since I earned a Master of Engineering degree in Environmental Engineering from Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, in 1975, I knew that only a person qualified in the field of environmental engineering would be able to control environmental pollution, since he/she would be well-placed to understand the dynamics of pollution control.
Environmental pollution problems, from technical point of view, are a serious business and -- if one is serious about controlling pollution -- my 33 years’ experience in the field of environmental engineering strongly shows that the postgraduate education in environmental engineering is extremely essential for the post of director-general.
Let me explain this with an example. According to me, the National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS) are irrational. A person qualified in environmental engineering will understand that, while a person qualified in social sciences will blindly follow the NEQS.
Likewise, a qualified person knows where and under what circumstances environmental impact assessment, strategic environmental impact assessment and ecological risk assessment are applied. He/she can also guide the industries on industrial waste water and sludge treatment. This is a complicated issue and would sound Greek to persons not qualified in environmental engineering.
Comparison of EPA with Colombo-based South Asia Cooperative Environment Programme is not correct. The mandate of SACEP is to support protection, management and enhancement of the environment in the region. It is more on policy issues and dialogue and on regional capacity-building.
The South Asia Cooperative Environment Programme is not mandated to control automotive air pollution in Karachi or water pollution in Badin. Hence their choice of qualifications (Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, Planning, Engineering, Law, Business Management) is pertinent.
Fazalur Rahman, chief secretary of Sindh, should post a person having postgraduate qualifications in the field of environmental engineering as EPA director-general.
F. H. MUGHAL
Karachi
THROUGH these columns, I would like to request Mr Farhatullah Babar, the spokesperson for the PPP, to clarify under what capacity Bilawal Zardari (along with his sisters), who is not a member of parliament, joined Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani on an ‘official’ visit to China for the inaugural ceremony of the 2008 Olympics.
Can the spokesman please further clarify whether the travel expenses of Mr Bilawal and his sisters were paid from the taxpayers’ money or were paid from their own pockets? A proper clarification will for sure clear the picture to the benefit of the Pakistan People’s Party.
DR IRFAN ZAFAR
Islamabad
ACCORDING to a story of Aug 12, President Musharraf’s 65th birthday was celebrated at the President’s House the previous day. Reportedly, there were instructions in the President’s House and the President’s Lodge in Rawalpindi to celebrate the occasion with full vigour.
If the president and those around him had kept as good a track of the number of Pakistanis committing suicides due to hunger and poverty as they have been doing of his birthdays, today the nation would have been praying for his long life and a long reign over the country, instead of impeaching him. Compassion makes a world of difference and the supplications of those undergoing a calamity are answered preferentially.
Mark Twain had observed, “Why is it that we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the person concerned.” My version would be: “Why is it that some of us celebrate our birthdays but don’t care a whit about the day a poor man was born? And, why aren’t we concerned when he can no longer keep his body and soul together?”
SIDDIQUE
Karachi
WHEN the British departed from the subcontinent, they left behind some very strong and efficient institutions managing the affairs of the state well in accordance with the established procedures and regulations. The most vital, and esteemed as well, was the administration of justice.
The judiciary was spread through the nook and corner right from the federal court at the apex to civil courts in the small towns at subdivision level.
The judges presiding over the courts were quite unapproachable, upright and experts in the legal knowledge. Because of capable and upright judges, cases at the lower level did not take much time and those contested at the highest level were also decided expeditiously.
The recruitment of judges was transparent and was strictly merit-based. As a result of this balanced functioning, the judiciary did fairly well.
Pakistan also inherited the same system of justice. The federal court at the centre, chief courts in the seats of provincial capitals and sessions courts heading the districts and at the lowest rung of the subdivision were the civil courts.
These courts were dispensing justice fairly well. However, like other organs of the state, things in the judiciary also deteriorated gradually. The same judiciary whose judges refused to respond to social invitations of the prime minister and was deciding petitions against the state — such as the ones where the governor-general was personally involved (Maulvi Tameezuddin vs. State) and standing against the edict of a strongman like Ayub Khan —succumbed slowly to various pressures/temptations.
Since the judiciary nowadays is under debate, I would, therefore, like to dilate on two apolitical aspects that have affected this most venerated organ of the state adversely and severely.
First, sons of senior judges, up to the level of the chief justice, after adopting the legal profession have established professional offices and now taking briefs for high courts, the same courts where they have relationships to claim, including a father being the chief justice of the high court.
Of course, as proprietary demands, they do not appear before the bench where one of the judges is their father. However, while appearing before the benches, especially those that include ad hoc and unconfirmed judges, they aspire to preferential treatment, because the judges need their confirmation by the father, i.e. in the case of the son of a chief justice making an appearance.
Similarly, those professional chambers of whose parts were once some senior judges are also having the same advantage, which is against the principle of justice and fair play.
Secondly, it has become a common and acceptable practice that whenever a litigant finds that he is losing the case, he approaches a lawyer who is known as prohibited before that ‘headstrong’ judge. This ‘not before me’ lawyer charges a hefty sum from the crafty client only to file his power of attorney so as to get the case transferred from that particular bench.
Similarly, the government-side advocates, who are supposed to represent the state, are also running their independent chambers, value-added by their influencing positions. Surprisingly, most often than not even attorney-generals, advocate-generals have been seen defending the cases of their private clients through and from their independent chambers, offices represented by their juniors or their own relatives, which may be against the professional conduct.
These are anomalous and unfair practices, certainly apart from political interferences which have crept in our courts that have affected most the system of justice in Pakistan. I hope the ministry of justice with the cooperation of the apex judiciary may address these issues so that, as the maxim goes, “justice should not only be done but it should also seem to have been done”.
Moreover, under the access to justice programme (funded by donors) these issues may also addressed.
ENGR M.A. JABBAR
Karachi
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