| October 12, 2008 | Sunday | Shawwal 12, 1429 |
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US politicians and Israel
Privatisation of Qadirpur gas field
Bomb hoax mania
A series of confusions
Reopening of the Marriott Hotel
What chutzpah!
Investing in neuroscience education
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
A REPORT says that Pakistan has become a major issue for the US media and think tanks (Oct 6). It is being said that given Barack Obama’s apparently unassailable lead over John McCain, the Republican candidate can only come back in the race if there’s a national security crisis.
Pakistan is being placed at the top of the list of adverse scenarios. An example of this goes:
Pakistan’s new government is toppled. Al Qaeda and Taliban, with support from elements in Pakistani intelligence and the military, get a stronger foothold in the nuclear-armed nation. India, which already accuses Pakistan of complicity with terrorist attack on the country, initiates a cross-border attack on its long-time enemy. The regime of President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan becomes even shakier. Chaos reigns in one of the most dangerous places on the planet.
It is amazing what a fertile but extremely pessimistic imagination the person who came out with this scenario possesses, along with a shallow understanding of Pakistan and its people. One wonders if this dark assessment is designed to scare the Americans into voting for the Republican Party?
The Americans must realise, above all else, that it is this very party which has gotten them into a big mess. When some European allies and all the Muslim countries were advising Washington not to invade Iraq, it turned a deaf ear. Now, 70 per cent Americans think it was a mistake to do that. Any intelligent teenager would point out that before this invasion, the Al Qaeda-related terrorism was non-existent in Iraq but the occupation served as a magnet for the militants and bogged America down.
The hundreds of billions of dollars wasted over there weakened the American economy needlessly. Hence, prolonging that party’s rule will only bring further suffering.
Regarding the hopeless picture painted for Pakistan, attention is drawn to the following facts. First, the US elections are less than four weeks away. Does anybody seriously think all the slated developments could take place so quickly? Second, the two possible ways in which the new government could get toppled are (a) by the Army and ( b) through a movement by the opposition political parties, lawyers, civil society, etc., to oust it.
The Army, as decisively shown by COAS Gen Ashfaq Kayani’s actions so far, has absolutely no intention of getting involved in politics. The other group cannot succeed so quickly, but many months would be required for such an eventuality to occur.
Even then, it wouldn’t mean a revolution or overthrowing of the PPP-led coalition. What might happen is that it may have to quit and new elections held.
Still, there would not be any massive lawlessness because all the parties involved would understand the consequences and the Army would supervise the transition to the new set-up. In the Feb 18 polls, the people have shown their maturity, moderateness, strongly democratic approach and peaceableness, which were acclaimed by the world. Don’t expect the Pakistanis to sit back and let their country be hijacked by lawless elements.
Third, never have the ordinary folks here revolted en masse against the established order. In fact, some commentators inside and outside Pakistan have noted the inclination of our people to bear adversities with patience.
Similarly, the military has a huge constituency and is very well-organised and disciplined and won’t allow the extremists to lay hands on the nukes. Besides, the bombs are kept in an unassembled state and only a group of authorised experts could make them usable. The militants just don’t have that ability.
Fourth, regarding India launching an attack, one hopes it would have the good sense of not engaging in an unwinnable enterprise like that. Also, gambling on a nuclear war wouldn’t be worthwhile for any sensible Indian leader. On the contrary, India’s welfare also lies in warding off instability in Pakistan, to keep the militants from capitalising on it and exporting the jihad.
Finally, Mr Karzai, with his western allies, has started off in the right direction by holding parleys with Taliban. This is the best thing all of them could have done and many Pakistanis had been saying for long that there’s no military solution to the Taliban problem and that a political one must be found. Therefore, there is no need for our American friends to get so worried about Pakistan.
KHALID CHAUDHRY
Karachi
SPEAKING in the televised debate between the two US vice presidential candidates, Democratic Senator Joe Biden said Pakistan is the most dangerous country in the world, even more than Iran, because its nuclear weapons can hit Israel and the Mediterranean (Oct 4).
The anxiety that most American politicians have about Israel’s security is amazing. Shouldn’t people like Mr Biden be more concerned about Pakistan’s safety and stability, since they keep saying that if there is another 9/11 type attack on the US, it would surely come from the militants based in the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan?
What would a secure Israel do to help ward off such an attack on the US? Absolutely nothing. So, doesn’t it make more sense for the Americans to not only help strengthen Pakistan economically, politically and militarily but, equally importantly, to win the hearts and minds of the ordinary Pakistanis?
This is because at present they are highly anti-American, not least due to the attacks by US forces and drones inside their country. Scaring potential investors away by calling Pakistan ‘most dangerous’ will only worsen things.
Another crucial thing is for the Americans to decide first of all whether having most or all of the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims on their side would be better than having the support of Israel’s six million Jews. The foremost reason for the Muslims’ resentment against the US is its longstanding, blind support for the Zionist state, which has been grossly abusing the Palestinians’ rights with its behaviour deemed worse than apartheid even by responsible South Africans. An example is the building of separation walls and barriers that have been declared illegal by the ICJ. The British writer, Geoffrey Wheatcroft, while reviewing the book, The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy, by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Watt, for the Guardian, had made some telling observations (Dawn, Books and Authors, Oct 14, 2007):
“Whatever may be said about Israel or its advocates, the people who come out far and away the worst from this story are American politicians; and ‘The Israel Lobby’ had the most unusual effect of making me rather proud of my country and its parliament. The Palestinians have friends on both sides of the British House of Commons and, while there are also Labour and Conservative Friends of Israel, there is nothing remotely like the craven grovelling habitually displayed by Democrats and Republicans alike.
“Although the Iraq war may not have been ‘fought for Israel’, it is demonstrably the case that the (Israeli) lobby can turn the Congress on the off like a switch. At the height of the bombardment of Lebanon in the summer of (2006) ... the House of Representatives passed a resolution of unconditional support for Israel by 410 votes to eight.
As Mearsheimer and Watt show from the polls, this did not even reflect opinion in America, let alone Europe or Asia….”
What more can one add to this perfect analysis? Perhaps, that the American politicians are so dependent upon Jewish financial and political support that they don’t hesitate to sacrifice their country’s real interests, much less the requirements of doing justice to the Muslims in Palestine and elsewhere. Their own self-respect doesn’t even seem to matter at all.
They are reminded of John Milton’s lofty words: “The pious and just honouring of ourselves may be thought the fountainhead from whence every laudable and worthy enterprise issues forth.” Also, “There is no virtue so truly great and godlike as justice”. (Addison).
IBNE INAYAT
Karachi
THE decision of the federal government to privatise the Qadirpur gasfield, the country’s second largest gas reservoir, has created a lot of uproar in Sindh, as reported on national pages of your paper, ‘Protests against privatisation of gasfield’ (Oct 9).
A few weeks ago, in a similar manner, the federal cabinet established, through a notification, the ‘Thar Coal Authority’ by abolishing the Sindh Coal Authority (SCA), a statutory body which came into existence through an act of the Provincial Assembly.
Surprisingly, in both these cases, the provincial subject has been encroached upon by the very party which, before coming into power, always claimed to be championing the cause of allowing maximum autonomy to the provinces. The decision, therefore, at the face of it appears lopsided and hasty, besides it is beyond the pale of the federal government’s sphere of influence.
It is never wise to sell precious assets, especially those having the value of strategic and public importance, which also includes gasfields. Had the apex court not intervened on time, the case of Pakistan Steel Mill would have been another failed story like the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation. In the case of the KESC even the government has now realised that its decision to privatise a public utility was not scrupulous.
Besides, how long the sale of such assets will bear the cost of day-to-day expenses of the administration. The government, therefore, instead of going for the easy way of disposing of precious national assets, should make efforts to create more funds through proper taxation and also stop wasteful expenditure.
The proposals for reintroducing wealth tax (abolished by the previous government only to favour a few privileged people), taxing the exempt sectors such as stock exchange brokers, taxing properly high-earning groups such as oil companies/dealers and bringing those not contributing to the national exchequer by broadening the tax base by documentation of economy are worth considering.
Moreover, in view of the stringent economic situation the country is facing, expenditure on foreign tours/training, as well as on local training, involving huge funds on travelling and daily allowances should also be stopped forthwith.
Similarly, official functions at the cost of public money held by the federal and provincial government functionaries need to be stopped unless essentially required in view of the protocol. Even in that case no extravagance should be allowed.
I suggest the government should reconsider its decision of disposing the Qadirpur gasfield as it will, on the one hand, create more mistrust and hatred between the province and the centre and, on the other hand, deprive the province of this important asset and annual source of income which it gets as royalty from the federal government on sale of gas.
SHAFIQUE ANSARI
Dubai
FAKE calls are adding to the miseries of the people by creating unnecessary security checks leading to delays. People indulging in such nefarious activities are enemies of the people trying to disrupt peace and tranquillity of our cities.
Crank calls have also resulted in numerous flight delays and problems for the travellers. There seems to be mania prevailing everywhere resulting in fake calls creating unnecessary security evacuations.
Recently callers were arrested for creating bomb hoax in mosques and hotels in the capital. These calls are not only destroying the peace of the cities but also disrupting the economy and creating unemployment in the country.
Last week Standard & Poor’s, the US-based credit rating providing company, downgraded Pakistan’s long-term foreign currency rating to CCC+ from B. Pakistan has been declared a war zone by international organisations resulting not only in diplomats moving their families and non-essential staff out of the country but also raising the cost of trading with other countries.
Under these circumstances the government aught to take severe action against those contributing to creating political and economic chaos in the country.
Worth mentioning is an incidence which resulted in a massive security sweep at a local hotel in Islamabad. The roads leading to it have been barricaded creating more problems for the commuters. The person responsible this time for creating a bomb hoax, according to news report, was none other than our journalist friends.
Apparently a TV channel crew decided to teach the hotel management a lesson for not allowing their vehicle in the hotel premises. The TV channel crew thought of running a ticker/ news item reporting a bomb in the hotel.
This resulted in evacuation and terrible losses in business to the hotel. If true as reported in the media, such incidents should not have gone unpunished by the government. We urge the government, specially the security agencies, to ensure that such culprits get an exemplary punishment to deter them from repeating such obnoxious incidents.
The government needs to improve its monitoring of such calls/news and punish the culprits severely.
S.ALINA MASROOR NAQVI
Karachi
THIS is apropos of the news report (Oct 10) on the confusion in the KESC tariff. One feels both pity and miserable in countering confusions or contradictions from the authorities responsible for running the country.
Such confusion has been taking place for the past few months back when the CNG price hike was approved. This led the CNG dealers to make millions due to a significant difference of Rs3 to 4 per kg while costumers suffered heavily.
Then a price increase in gas tariffs was proposed initially to 68 per cent but the decision was soon reversed amid rising protests and sudden shutdowns by some industries, finalising the increment to 31 per cent.
Also, a series of contradicting reports continued to pour after the horrendous blast at Marriot Hotel, when it turned out that the two top officials, Rehman Malik and Asif Ali Zardari, had two entirely different versions regarding the actual targets of the suicide bomber.
The recent incidence of confusion in KESC tariff is also part of the same chain which raises serious questions about the capability of those ruling the country.
To add to the misery of the people, the effect is transferred to the consumers as they will be paying arrears for these adjustments.
The fact which aggravates the situation is that the ultimate sufferers are the masses paying a heavy price for the mistakes made by their elected government.
ALI AMMAR
Karachi
ARCHITECT Ejaz Ahed’s letter (Sept 30) on the above subject covers the most important aspect of structural safety but, unfortunately, misses an equally important aspect of energy efficiency and sustainability of buildings.
How is it that we would like to plan a structurally safe building but not worry about the energy required to sustain the use of that building? With our electric power and gas tariff rising to international levels, how can we afford to build (or to renovate) any major building without first meeting the energy conservation requirements?
It is so unfortunate that we have not even developed the minimum energy conservation code and standards as a result of which the professionals in this industry are unable to highlight the urgent needs. We are developing building complexes with no planning as to how the energy needs will be met and, more importantly, who is going to afford the very high energy tariffs in these wasteful buildings.
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has developed ‘mandatory’ guidelines for their professionals which has already ensured 30 per cent less energy use in new buildings when compared to earlier efficient building design in the USA and this saving will be enhanced to 50 per cent less energy use by 2010.
Their vision is to have ‘zero net energy’ buildings by 2030, which would mean that buildings would be so energy-efficient that if at all they need outside energy source, they would generate enough renewable energy to offset this. But where are we? We do need to understand that without energy security and affordability, our buildings will only become “white elephants”.
American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Airconditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) has worked closely with AIA to develop energy conservation design guides for buildings and ASHRAE Green guide and latest handbooks are also available or reference even in Pakistan.
ASHRAE Pakistan Chapter has conducted seminars to introduce green building concepts and yet we find really no action when it comes to ground reality. Pakistan urgently needs to work towards energy security which can only come from energy conservation and affordable power. We are again being misled by announcements that there will be ‘no loadshedding’ by end of next year.
Nobody is saying what will be the power and gas tariff by that time and who will be able to afford that tariff! If power tariff is going to be 100 per cent higher than today’s already high costs, maybe there will be no demand of that expensive power, specially for running unhealthy airconditioning units (to which we are addicted). That, by itself, would ensure there is no power shortage and thus no loadshedding!
Energy conservation in centrally-airconditioned buildings like hotels , hospitals, airport terminals, shopping malls, etc., needs to be urgently addressed. Whereas the rich and developed countries are moving towards ‘zero net energy’ design, we are ignoring the basic conservation requirements and are not willing to change our wasteful ways.
The latest announcements regarding winter gas shedding in the industrial sector are indeed very disappointing. Instead of encouraging those who invest in energy conservation measures which would drastically reduce gas wastage, same rules are applied to both efficient and inefficient installations. It has been reported many times that changing conventional steam-producing boilers in industries and central airconditioning gas-fired absorption chillers in large buildings to efficient cogeneration systems would result in availability of ‘thousands’ of megawatt (electric power), without any additional gas fuel.
Instead of announcing that there will be no gas shedding in efficient installations (which would help greatly in solving our energy problems), we discourage even those few industries and commercial building complexes which have wisely invested in efficient cogeneration power plants.
One would wish that at least the building professionals would take the sustainability aspects very seriously since what use is a building complex without affordable energy to utilise its facilities?
AINUL ABEDIN
Karachi
I COULD not help but burst out with laughter when I read that a suicide bomber had destroyed a three-storeyed block of the Anti-Terror Squad building in Islamabad when most of the squad was away guarding the parliament (Oct 10).
At a time when the US is breathing down our neck -- and the mostly absent President Zardari is making all sorts of promises to wipe out terrorism from the country – the attack is yet another reminder that Pakistan continues to exist only by the grace of God.
It is said that 9,000 out of Islamabad’s 10,000-strong police force is deputed to protect the city’s resident and visiting VIPs. This leaves only about 1,000-odd cops to see to the security of the tax-paying masses.
Makes one wonder, doesn’t it, if the damage to the Anti-Terror Squad building by members of some radical group should be of any real concern to you or me.
SSH
Karachi
I READ with interest the article by Rudina Xhaferri and Khalid Iqbal on ‘Investing in neuroscience education’ (Dawn Education, Oct 5), which basically was about the unavailability of qualified psychiatrists, neurologists and institutions to cater to the health needs of the Pakistani population. This was attributed to low funding and poor allocation of the health budget towards training in this field and dismal quality of higher education.
The writers work for the Promotion of Education in Pakistan (PEP) Foundation (http://www.pepfoundation.org/).
The writer, Dr Khalid
Iqbal, a leading international Alzheimer’s disease scientist, is one of the founders of this foundation and, along with many Pakistanis and Americans, donates his personal awards, consultancy fees and royalties as generous donations towards the foundation.
The PEP has been active in setting up centers of neuroscience at Pakistani universities and establishing scholarships and fellowship programmes for students interested in studying and conducting research in this vast and fascinating field.
As a medical student, I have always been very interested in neuroscience and the research being conducted in it to find cures for senile and congenital mental disorders.
Therefore, I wrote to Dr Khalid Iqbal, who also heads the Department of Neurochemistry at the Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities in New York, to see if I could pursue research at the institute during my elective time which is part of most medical curricula.
Planning on building on my research techniques and getting exposed to the latest advances in this field, I hoped to implement what I would learn there, here at my university in Karachi and somehow be part of the positive change that, interestingly, is also the aim of the PEP Foundation.
Whereas this foundation pledges millions to promote neuroscience education here, my request for a stipend/accommodation allowance was rejected due to non-availability of funds for this purpose, even though my application was accepted and I was invited to work and learn at the above institute.
After reading the article, and visiting the PEP foundation’s website, I was amazed to discover the purpose and objectives of the foundation and how it was created for exactly what I wanted to achieve, but my experience showed me that the reality was different.
RABAB ZEHRA
Medical student
Karachi
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