| November 06, 2008 | Thursday | Ziqa'ad 7, 1429 |
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Karo-kari killings in Sindh
Sherry’s job
Women university in Sukkur
War and peace
Our economic mess
PSO clarification
Daunting task
Killing babies
Traversing new territory
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
SOME four decades back, the US had created history by sending the first American, Neil Armstrong, to the moon. I think that the sending to the White House of the first Afro-American person by a landslide, in the shape of Barack Obama, is an even more momentous achievement. Well done, Americans!
Today, not just the majority of Americans, but the people from Africa, Asia and Europe would have heaved such a big sigh of relief that one could almost hear it.
This, because of deliverance from the establishment and the party that had severely compromised peace and harmony on earth and the Americans’ economic well-being by its bad policies.
At this time of joy and celebration for those who voted for Senators Barack Obama and Joseph Biden, it would be pertinent to remind the two victors that according to reports and surveys by the BCC, most Pakistanis and Muslims in the US have also voted for them.
While apprehensions remain amongst the people over here about the likelihood of the threatened attacks on areas within Pakistan, it is generally hoped that this would merely have stemmed from pre-election requirements, and it would be realised that they would only lead to the production of countless more militants.
The news of the death of Senator Obama’s maternal grandmother, who had been responsible for his upbringing for several years and about whom the US president - elect has been speaking so highly, has bedimmed my eyes, although it may not fit in with the current bad image of a Pakistani and a Muslim. May her soul rest in peace.
I only wish she had lived long enough to see her grandson become the president – something he had told his Indonesian schoolteacher he wanted to do, even at the age of eight (Dawn, Nov 4).
It would be opportune to quote what the New York Times wrote about him recently:
“Mr Obama has withstood some of the toughest campaign attacks ever mounted against a candidate. He’s been called un-American and accused of hiding a secret Islamic faith….
“This country needs sensible leadership, compassionate leadership, honest leadership and strong leadership. Barack Obama has shown that he has all of those qualities:
“Mr Obama has met challenge after challenge, growing as a leader and putting real flesh on his early promises of hope and change. He has shown a cool head and sound judgment…”
It may be interesting for Mr Obama to note that I had already arrived at similar conclusions over five months back, when I wrote in my letter, “Obama’s war on terror” in Dawn on May 25, much before his nomination by the Democratic Party:
“It is clear that Barack Obama is having to fight on several fronts in what may be called a war against (personal) terror, while doing principled politics himself … One believes this shows his moral high ground and his detractors’ loss of nerve. Perhaps this will prove to be a blessing in disguise for him by preparing him to lead the US expertly through the various crises resulting from the Bush establishment’s many foibles.
“One must admire him for sticking to his guns – the outcome will affect the whole world …”
One would also take this opportunity to refer to Mr Obama’s intention of shutting down the notorious prison at Guantanamo Bay, which has brought so much pain to many innocent Muslims, including Pakistanis, and embarrassment for the Americans. It is requested that he make it one of his first priorities to deal with that issue, after his assumption of office on Jan 20, 2009.
Besides, his attention is also drawn to the plight of Dr Aafia Siddiqi, who has reportedly been in FBI custody for five years, along with her three children now aged between five and 12 years, the oldest of whom was ‘found’ in Afghanistan and released a while back. Dr Siddiqi’s father had died of a heart attack some time after learning of her and her children’s abduction.
The new president should try to secure her release urgently because she is in very bad health in a Taxan detention centre. This will assuredly boost the Pakistan-America relations and provide a good start for the new administration.
KHALID CHAUDHRY
Karachi
THIS is apropos of your editorial, ‘Condemnable to the core’ (Oct 29), regarding the case of young Tasleem Solangi, who was thrown before dogs under the custom of karo-kari.
This heinous crime has been claiming the lives of thousands of innocent people throughout the province of Sindh every year.
Most of the incidents occur in small villages where the woman killed as kari is buried at home without performing any formal rituals.
Only a few of these cases come to light like the case of the unfortunate Tasleem Solangi.
Karo-kari has basically been a custom practised by certain Baloch tribes. Historically, the practice had been alien to the liberal society of Sindh, which came face to face with it in the 13th century when a magnanimous wave of Baloch migrants crossed into Sindh after Mongols invaded their land.
But this custom was very sporadic and confined only to some of the Baloch tribes settled in Sindh.
No Sindhi ever indulged in this heinous practice, which was further reduced during the colonial rule as severe penalties were introduced both for the individual offender and the erring tribe.
However, there has been a surge witnessed in the crime for some time. During my tenure as director, Centre for Information and Research in SZABIST, we conducted a study on karo-kari killings. It came to light that in most of the cases the victims were from middle and lower income groups.
An interesting fact came to light that the women who earned were very rarely killed.
The background interviews showed that as the killing of a woman who earned a reasonable amount could disturb the family budget, it was resorted to only in rare circumstances.
The investigations revealed that usual causes for killing women were: husband’s dislike for his wife, desire for second marriage, to extract money, to get a new woman in penalty from the rival tribe and to disgrace a rival.
It also came to light that more than 80 per cent of karo-kari killings took place only in two (former) divisions of Sindh: Larkana and Sukkur.
One of the most important findings in this study was that almost 85 per cent of the cases of karo-kari were committed in the tribes of Baloch origin.
One of the most important factors responsible for karo-kari killings in Sindh has been the role of the police.
The study showed that the police failed to register even those cases of karo-kari killings which were reported in the press.
Then the rate of apprehending the offenders was abysmally low. The basic reason for this state of affairs has been that most of the policemen are recruited locally.
Being part of these tribes themselves, they consider the karo-kari a family matter relating to honour and not a murder.
Then the political and administrative structure of the country is such that several tribal leaders are either sitting in the legislative assemblies or exercise considerable influence over the state apparatus on the basis of their electoral strength.
In the absence of changes in the law and behaviour of the police department, the chances to slash the practice of karo-kari are not bright.
DR MUHAMMAD ALI SHAIKH
Karachi
THIS is apropos of Rizwan Yasin’s letter (Nov 4) in which he has commented that heavens will not fall if the prime minister continues to mispronounce sovereignty as ‘saaverenity’ because we treat many other words of English language with similar unkindness.
In my opinion what is more painful is that we ravage our own national language Urdu with even greater impunity. The word ‘mulk’ is pronounced as ‘mulak’, ‘Allama Iqbal’ is pronounced as ‘Ilama Ikbal’, ‘sabz’ is pronounced as ‘sabaz’, ‘taalluq’ is pronounced as ‘tallak’ and the list is never ending.
The argument that Urdu may not necessarily be our mother tongue holds no ground because we are talking about the educated elite who claim to be at least graduates in an education system where both Urdu and English are compulsory subjects. Is it too much if we expect our national leaders to look like, behave like and sound like well-educated individuals?
CDR (r) KHALID DURRANI
Karachi
THE recent decision by the Sukkur district local government authorities to establish an institute of higher learning in the town, as reported on Oct 30, ‘Women varsity in Sukkur Soon’, is deserving of praise.
This institution will facilitate women to have advanced education close to their home towns.
The advanced learning is bound to bring positive changes in this most significant part of society hitherto neglected and at times maltreated, especially in the tribal-ridden culture of upper Sindh.
However, locating varsity permanently in the premises of Government Girls Degree College, Sukkur, which is itself imparting education to large numbers of girls of the area is not advisable.
The district government should construct a new campus building for the university on the pattern of the Institute of Business Administration, Sukkur, which is successfully running on the outskirt of the town, with the collaboration of the IBA, Karachi.
It is, therefore, proposed that a plan should be prepared in cooperation with the Sindh University for which the Higher Education Commission may also be approached for funds and expertise to set up a new campus with modern facilities such as IT laboratory, functional library and gymnasium at some suitable site of the town.
I further suggest that the district nazim should also look into the pathetic state of affairs prevailing in Sukkur, once considered to be one of the cleannest and environmentally healthy cities of the country.
At present the overall civic amenities are in tatters because of neglect/non-maintenance and degradation of the infrastructure.
Roads within the town are almost in ruins, sewerage lines are mostly chocked and gutters overflow in every street and no building control regulations have been observed.
Multi-storeyed buildings have mushroomed, even narrow lanes are not spared, making the approaches impassable and the lives of residents miserable.
The builders’ mafia, whose prime object is to mint huge profits with minimum cost, with the connivance of officials concerned, has even devoured open spaces such as parks and playgrounds and tuned the town into a mass of cement and steel.
Last 10 to 15 years’ neglect, collaboration and misuse of funds have turned entire Sukkur into a huge slum for which now Herculean efforts are required to clean the mess.
I request for special attention of the district nazim, who is at the head of the affairs of the town since the creation of the new system of city government.
I also invite attention of the members of civil society and non-governmental organisations to wake up from slumber and make sure that Sukkur, once a beautiful township and hub of socio-cultural activities in entire upper Sindh, which also produced many names in the field of art and culture, is restored to its pristine grandeur.
MANZOOR H. KURESHI
Karachi
THE German city of Dresden was heavily bombed by allied aircraft in February 1945, in retaliation to London bombings. Thousands died in Dresden, within a few days.
An Englishman wrote a letter to the editor last week, as follows: “I visited Dresden recently. I was travelling in a taxi driven by a German driver. I mentioned to him that my father was one of the pilots who bombed Dresden, in 1945.
“As we talked, it was soon established that the German driver’s mother was killed in the bombardment on the same day when my father was part of the bombing mission. In stunned silence, the driver stopped the taxi and parked in a dignified way. Then he extended his hand to me and said: ‘Now, we shake hands’.”
Wars are inhuman, but our humanity can be stronger. Forgiveness and repentance are far more satisfying than revenge and hatred. There is a time for war but it must be followed by a time for peace.
KHALID A
London
YEARS of mismanagement, poor governance, lack of accountability, wasteful indulgence, rampant financial impropriety by successive governments, state corporations, traders and powerful institutions, including the military, have driven Pakistan into an economic mess that leaves us with no option but to concede and accept IMF funding.
Given the irresponsible attitude of our civil, military and political establishments, the conditional penalties and oversight can be used to our advantage, if sense and loyalty prevails.
Shaukat Tarin, a homegrown banker with roots in Pakistan, has no other option except to seek IMF endorsement, since other channels are hesitant and the whole world itself has been engulfed by recession.
There is also a crisis of credibility within Pakistan, because we have failed to provide a credible accounting for utilisation of these funds in the past decade.
The shameful tolerance for corruption, plunder of state assets and planned default of bank loans has further eroded our credibility.
Look at the most recent Bank of Punjab heist, where the main criminals have been allowed to leave the country or given relief by a pliant judiciary that has no credibility.
Billions of US dollars repatriated by loyal expatriate Pakistanis were allowed to be funneled abroad by those who after making tax-free fast bucks in real estate, stock exchange and corruption, were eager to seek immigration abroad.
Funds obtained as aid from foreign donors and taxpayers’ money ended up in developing real estate that was subsidised for allotment to the paid servants of the state, only to be sold by them at market price to highest bidder.
The government considered it prudent not to subsidise education, health or in developing basic infrastructure, but was very keen to give expensive state-owned land for golf courses at subsidised rate.
Disinvestment of state-owned educational institutions of repute has made education itself beyond the reach of poor lower middle class citizens of Pakistan.
The last two decades have witnessed a deterioration of human resources, which is vital for development of any country. Countries like Japan have minimal natural resources and owe their development to investment in human resources, science and technology.
Boards of state-owned corporations were run by directors who didn’t understand and could not control the risks of businesses that they were running, which is evident from the balance sheets of PEPCO, Railways, PIAC, KPT, etc.
The collapse should make clear to the government, parliament and wider public that the changes which have taken place in the international financial market require an urgent reappraisal of the way in which the state has been managing its business.
There has to be a substantial rethinking of the regulatory approach within Pakistan, as the events have demonstrated all too obviously that existing national regulatory structures and approaches are no longer appropriate.
MALIK TARIQ ALI
Lahore
THIS is apropos of the news item, ‘Pakistan to cut diesel imports from Kuwait’ (Oct 30).
The PSO imports between 2.7 and 3.0 MMT per annum from the KPC under a term contract mechanism.
During 2008 the PSO will import the contractual quantity of about 2.8 MMT from Kuwait which is evaluated on a six-month span.
The news item gives a wrong impression about the mechanism of PSO imports and the figure of 200,000 tons is incorrect.
The PSO, as part of the normal quantity adjustment, is importing the projected volumes from Kuwait and some adjustments in the cargoes have been made in order to balance out the stock levels and to avoid any choking of the pipeline systems, which is a normal activity.
The projection for imports is based on seasonality and demand-supply balance, considering the local availability based on which the deficit calculation is made and import quantities are determined.
It may be noted that the spot tender requirement is not a regular mechanism and only arises when the import needs exceed the contractual volumes of the term contract.
SPOKESPERSON
Pakistan State Oil Co. Ltd.
Karachi
APROPOS of Shahzad Roy’s article, ‘No good deed goes unpunished’ (Nov 2), I truly appreciate the altruistic efforts by him for the promotion of education amongst the deprived youths of Sindh.
The onus for the provision of free education, with proper physical facilities, lies on the government but sincere efforts from passionate individuals can really make a huge difference.
I want to encourage Mr Roy by saying: “True passion forgets fear, overcomes fatigue and triumphs over difficulties”.
TAHIRA SALEEM
Multan
IT was heart-breaking to read (Metropolitan, Nov 3) how babies born out of wedlock are killed and buried.
Several years ago when I was working in New York, my boss, Dr Rita Harper, was invited to speak at a conference organised by the Pakistan Paediatrics Association.
During her visit she was so impressed with this city that she told me that Karachi does not look like a city of a developing country where you have five-star hotels, women working and going around without their heads covered.
She asked me to take her to a slum area. I took her to the Edhi centre in Mithadar where she met Abdus Sattar Edhi in person.
There was a wall notice just behind the chair of Edhi Sahib, which said and I quote: “Do not kill, put it in my cradle’.
Dr Harper was very impressed with that note and said that in the US “we tell them not to kill, but we do not tell them what to do with this baby.”
Later after the meeting, she told me that the poor living in Mithadar looked happier than on 5th Avenue of New York.
Though foreigners have to say such good things about this city and people like Abdus Sattar Edhi, some people still choose to kill babies and not bother to put them in the cradles of Edhi’s or Chippa’s who have a list of parents dying to look after these children.
Is it wiser to kill or let some one less blessed to look after these children? Why are they afraid of leaving the baby in Sattar Edhi’s cradle instead of packing them in a garbage bag to suffocate and die? The lawmakers should look into the matter seriously.
PROF (DR) MUMTAZ LAKHANI
Karachi
SHAHID Javed Burki, in his latest educative article, ‘Traversing new territory’ (Oct 28), has presented valuable suggestions to the government which is now negotiating with the International Monetary Fund for the much-needed financial help.
He has concluded the thesis with an equally significant proposition that as a result of the successes the rewards of growth would need to be more widely disbursed among different segments of society and among different regions of the country.
His last wish, however, seems to be not attainable in view of the policies adopted by the previous regime during its nine years’ stay in power which the present government has continued to adopt unhindered.
The known fiscal measures, through which a society ensures equal distribution of income and wealth, are direct taxes which are income tax and wealth tax.
The previous regime, in the first instance, abrogated the wealth tax — a small amount of levy on the wealthy, just to satisfy the wish of the foreign-imported finance minister and later prime minister to save his fabulous wealth from taxation.
Although this mindless and anti-people decision was favoured by many, especially civil and military bureaucracy, whose value of immovable assets multiplied during a short period many a time.
Likewise, income tax was also gradually converted to indirect taxation, such as general sales tax and various withholdings by bringing drastic changes in the established law and procedures.
Since indirect taxes were collected at production/import/payment of bills, etc, stages, there were, therefore, not only easy to collect but their incidence was sifted from business commercial class to consumers.
Policies adopted by the previous regime earned praise of the business community as well as of the World Bank as every year revenue targets were achieved conveniently.
The former was happy because their incomes were freed from the burden of taxation and the latter considered such ‘successes’ as the result of the much trumpeted ‘reform process’ introduced at its behest in the taxation system.
Nobody realised that the tax collected was mainly through levies on oil products, incomes of banks which earned extraordinary profits on account high rates of interests allowed in the entire region, withholdings on imports, supplies and services and GST on almost every product, including even electricity/telephone bills, while bank drawal tax is being deducted at certain percentage.
All these measures added to high inflationary results the poor people are now bracing.
The business such as real estate, stock exchange brokers and cartel like sugar, oil, ghee, cement and flour were left at will to loot and plunder the hapless masses without contributing towards national exchequer.
Things have hardly changed as former finance minister/prime minister Shaukat Aziz, a banker, has been replaced by the other of the same genre as the finance minister to lead the destiny of the nation.
The authorities should know that the present incumbent may be an expert of financial sector who served his masters in the previous regime well but the problem with bankers is that they can’t look beyond liquidities and financial bailouts whereas national economies are a different ballgame altogether.
I agree with Mr Burki that the current economic crisis has forced Pakistan to traverse the territory on which it has never travelled before. Thus at this crucial juncture of history the country needs an expert economist who can take the country out of this economics morass.
AMANULLAH TURK
Dubai, UAE
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