| January 11, 2009 | Sunday | Muharram 13, 1430 |
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Vintage flour mills
ICC’s Hall of Fame
Suhrawardy and independent Bengal
Mockery of law
Demise of the newspaper?
No electricity in Chitral
Public health dept’s performance
Maritime 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
Dawn’s editorial and letter (Jan 4) on the above subject demand urgent action by the authorities concerned. We need sensible conservation polices not only to meet the energy needs but also to guide us to live within our means.
Less than two per cent of our people are ruining any chance for the other 98 per cent to ever catch up with the basic needs of a decent life, and no self correction is in sight.
The energy crisis is deepening because we have tried to follow ‘short cuts’ to become millionaires overnight. We would like to adopt inefficient processes in industries, resulting in high costs and enormous pollution because we expect, and usually manage to get, unfair help from the government to support our shortsighted approach.
The result is countless subsidies in energy costs which come from the same kitty that is supposed to provide life support systems to the poverty-stricken 40 per cent population.
We have to learn to conserve, and the following are our ‘showcase’ failures in the energy sector:
1. We waste energy resources in operating inefficient power plants, though these could be economically converted to combined cycle design to provide considerable additional power with no fuel costs.
Above all, we sanction our precious gas to an inefficient combined cycle power plant, which the influential supplier is not able to service and the result is that both power and desalinated water are not available to Karachiites now for many months in these critical times.
2. Our industrial sector continues to waste gas in firing boilers (in addition to inefficient power generation) to produce process steam and hot water when these could be cogenerated and considerable electric power could be produced, ‘free’ of gas costs. Here many industries can reduce their production costs and also help fight energy shortages etc but, instead, they seek subsidies.
3. Large commercial complexes are yet another big source of inefficient utilisation of energy resources. Many of these buildings are centrally-airconditioned with the most energy inefficient technologies and yet we are ready to provide them gas at all times.
4. Just to show ‘savings’ in our oil input bill, the earlier government allowed conversion of petrol cars to CNG fuel at subsidised costs. We took away the much needed gas from our essential industrial sector. Also, it is a fallacy to claim reduction in environmental pollution by converting standard petrol engine to CNG operation.
You actually increase your carbon footprint since, first, you use considerable energy in gas compression to very high pressures, besides these CNG-converted engines being less efficient than originally petrol fuel design and it is only subsidised gas costs which has encouraged this conversion. We have wasted country’s enormous resources in CNG installations at a huge cost to our economy.
With the above examples of our policy failures, what are we actually doing to ‘solve’ our energy problems? Some recent feedbacks :
a) Building Energy Code has been recently issued which allows the use of direct gasabsorption chillers with coefficient of performance (COP) of 1.0 (whereas electrical operated equipment with COP of five are easily available). The gas companies, knowing the efficient gas utilisation policy very well, are ‘covering’ their action in sanctioning gas to commercial building complexes by mentioning ‘cogeneration and chillers’ while approving equipment for gas utilization. But, unfortunately, they are not checking/insisting on this design and ‘approving’ installations with direct fired absorption chillers! Are we really serious about solving our gas shortage problems?
b) A provincial environmental protection agency has taken out a large ad in favour of CNG use! Again, are we really serious in solving our gas shortage problems?
c) A premier engineering organisation has advertised for ‘conversion’ of their offices to ‘green design’, with special emphasis on solar power! Photo voltaic solar power for such application is still just a ‘fad’ where normal power lines are already available (even with loadshedding) and such ‘lip service’ can hardly add anything to energy problem solving.
Unfortunately, policies and standards are not being streamlined to help acceptance of basic energy conservation requirements. Energy conservation must be our first option, as it is the most economical way of making ‘additional’ power and gas available for sustainable development.
AAZA
Karachi
ACCORDING to a recent media report, there are a total of 77 flour mills in Karachi, out of which 72 are currently functional whereas five are not working.
It is interesting to note that until 1947 there were only four flour mills in Karachi. The first-ever flour mills built in Karachi was said to be Rama Flour Mills, situated close to the City Courts.
Then came forth the house of Nusserwanjis, who established their Karachi flour mills at the place where now exists the Millwala Apartments opposite the KMC workshop on Lawrence Road. The built-up quality of Nusserwanjis’ Karachi flour mills was stated to be the finest among all the four flour mills.
The third mill of Karachi was Sindh Flour Mills in which place now stands Azeem Plaza in the Shoe Market area near Garden. This mill comprised a complex of two separate buildings.
The last flour mill of the British era was Goa Mills whose construction began in 1902 and it started its production in 1908.The mill was located at a place once called Cincinnatus Town, in the Garden West area off Lawrence Road.
The street of the mill still bears its name even today, i.e. Mill Street. As it appears from its very name, the original owners of the mill were probably Goan Christians.
In 1936, at the time of purchasing of this factory by business tycoon Seth Fakrudin Tawawala, the mill’s ownership appeared to have changed hands from Goan Christian to well-known Parsi political figure of Dadabhoy Navroji. Because by that time the mill had been already renamed as Dadabhoy Navroji and Sons: The India Flour Mills.
The mill was said to have been purchased by Seth Tawawala from Dadabhoy at a sum of Rs3.6 million. It is said that Mr Dadabhoy had forbidden the new owner to further change the name of the factory. For this reason, the mill retained its old name till the last moment. It is interesting to note that despite hostility towards India during the 1965 and 1971 wars, no one protested or objected to the India Flour Mills’ name and it flourished during those difficult periods of time.
The mill was said to be the biggest flour mills of the time. Its production capacity was about 1,285 flour bags of 100 seers in a single shift of eight hours. The mill had been working in two shifts. There was no match of its godowns in terms of capacity. They were so huge that no other mills had such amount of stocktaking capacity. The mill was spread over 30,000 square yards with an impressive stone-built airy structure.
Amid a hue and cry of nationalisation in the air, suddenly on the night of Oct 23, 1973 the mill caught fire and was completely gutted. One half of its land now occupies Prince Avenue, the other half is vacant.
Sadly all the above-mentioned vintage flour mills have gone.
GHULAM M. BALOCH
Karachi
THE International Cricket Council (ICC), in association with the Federation of International Cricketers Association (FICA), has named 55 former players for its inaugural Hall of Fame (Jan 3). This long list of 55 former cricketers includes three players each from India and Pakistan. The remaining 49 players belong to England, Australia, West Indies and South Africa.
In other words, at least 12 players represent each of these four countries. Most surprisingly, there is none from Sri Lanka. One may point out that De Silva has been one of the most prolific and consistent run - getters for Sri Lanka. Is this a sign of discrimination by the ICC which is dominated by a non - Asian administration?
Whatever may be the rules of the game set for the selection of players for this elite panel of cricketers, one cannot ignore the contribution made by some great players from Asian countries like Lala Amarnath, Gundappa Vishwanth and Chandrasekhar from India, and Asif Iqbal, Sarfraz Nawaz and Abdul Qadir from Pakistan.
Keeping in view their high stature in the game of cricket, these great players should have come as a natural choice for the ICC’s inaugural Hall of Fame!
RAFAT MAHMOOD ANSARI
Islamabad
THIS is apropos of Dr Mubarak Ali’s article (Dec 22) and H. N. Akhtar’s letter (Dec 29). When on June 3, 1947 the partition of Punjab and Bengal was announced, Huseyn Shaeed Suhrawardy, with Abdul Hashim and other prominent leaders of East Bengal, went to the Quaid - i - Azam, who was in Masoorie then, and discussed the proposal of an independent Bengal and got his permission to contact the Congress about this.
Mr Suhrawardy approached Sarat Bose and S.K.Roy who were favourably inclined, but they met with strong opposition from Hindu Mahasaba as voiced by Shyama Parshad Mukerji.
Also, the Central Congress led by Nehru and Patel vetoed the suggestion. Mountbatten was also in favour of a united Bengal and remained hopeful of its success. He wrote to Governor Burrow that he hoped that Suhrawardy would redouble his efforts to secure the cooperation of the Hindus in order to achieve his objective of an independent Bengal.
While replying to a no - confidence motion moved against him in September 1946, Suhrawardy said: “Reference has been made to a statement which I am alleged to have made at Delhi regarding unilaterally declaring independence of Bengal and running a parallel government in case the demand for Pakistan is not accepted.
“Surely I have never conceived that I could declare independence while remaining as chief minister under the 1935 Act.
“I still maintain that Bengal one day shall be an independent and sovereign country.”
These efforts and statements of Suhrawardy are at variance with the resolution that he moved in April 1946 at the Muslim League Parliamentary Party convention in New Delhi.
According to this resolution, the last para of the 1940 Pakistan Resolution, declaring that both Eastern and Western Zones will be sovereign having their own defence, foreign affairs, communication sections, etc., was deleted. Instead of the two zones, the word Pakistan zone was incorporated. The word ‘states’ was changed to ‘state’ and ‘units’ were changed to ‘provinces’. The word ‘units’ meant both the provinces and the Indian states together with the tribal areas.
With these changes we put in danger our claim on Kashmir which stood for the word ‘K’ in ‘Pakistan’.
Suhrawardy’s only explanation was that he did it as per the command of the Muslim League high command.
ENGR. ZAHURUDDIN
Peshawar
THE report, ‘Government buildings exempted from KBCA approval’ (Jan 6), disclosing that the provincial government has exempted its buildings from mandatory approval of the Karachi Building Control Authority (KBCA), is a shattering blow to the law - abiding citizens. This unfair immunity has raised queries in the minds of people who are obliged to follow the regulations, i.e. either the government - constructed buildings have some super qualities or the authorities are trying to hush up indiscretions.
As has been rightly mentioned in the investigative report, it was the government structures which collapsed en bloc killing thousands of people during the earthquake in the Northern Areas and Azad Kashmir in 2005 and Ziarat, Balochistan in 2008.
Obviously these substandard buildings were constructed under the supervision of the government agencies, violating all construction rules and using low quality material. It appears that instead of learning some lessons from these destructive incidents, the provincial government has decided to make a mockery of the law by giving exemption to the government buildings whose record was never enviable even when the KBCA regulations were applicable.
The KBCA is a regulatory and supervisory body whose prime objective is to make certain that building plans are in conformity with the existing building and town planning regulations.
The quality, soundness and implementation of approved design/specifications are the sole responsibility of the relevant professionals licensed by the KBCA under Karachi Building Control Licensing Regulations 1982. Allowing exemption from town planning regulations is tantamount to encouraging substandard construction.
The chief minister should intervene and get the highly damaging notification by the chief secretary rescinded at the earliest.
S. SHAH NAWAZ SHAH
Tando Adam
THIS IS apropos of Dr Mohammad Ali Shaikh’s letter, ‘Demise of the newspaper ?’ (Jan 5). While the writer is correct in his assertions, unfortunately he has not mentioned the fact that the reasons for the decline or so - called ‘demise’ of newspapers in the US or the western world do not apply to Pakistan and most of the developing world.
Newspapers have a bright future in Pakistan for many decades to come. Because in Pakistan, according to a 2003 Unesco estimate, only about 0.8 per cent population is using the Internet (a pre - requisite for getting online news) while only one - fourth of them is Internet subscribers.
On the other hand, 248.2 million Americans are users of the Internet and 60 million have high - speed broadband access. Moreover, almost all schools in the US have Internet facilities for students. American businesses are ensuring their presence on the Internet to survive competition.
In Pakistan, such data is not gathered but it is most likely that the people who have access to the Internet visit newspaper sites to read news. Most are young school and college students belonging to middle income or high income families, who use the Internet for mostly entertainment purposes.
Older users are mostly interested in emails. Not many colleges and universities provide access to the Internet to the student population. Broadband is still a far cry and due to lack of access and connection costs, relatively a few people benefit.
Most of Pakistan’s population is not even educated and even those who are, they do not know enough English to be able to use the Internet. If there is a danger of declining circulation, its first victim would be the English language newspapers, because their readers know English and are likely to switch to the high speed Internet, when available, for news and other information. But this transition may take place in about two to three decades.
Nevertheless, I suggest that major newspapers should collaborate, with the mushrooming class of mass communication and journalism schools/departments in the country to carry out research on the reading habits of their readers, and their likes and dislikes.
It would be interesting to find out how many people have broadband or dial - up connections, access to the Internet, and if they subscribe to newspapers. And why are they doing so?
JAVED S AHMAD
New York
I WOULD like to point out the acute electricity problem in my locality. One HT poll of Pepco fell in Lowari Pass and the whole valley went into darkness.
In Chitral we have a local powerhouse which supplies electricity to the area. To overcome the shortage, the government had also arranged a diesel power station, lying inoperative for a long time now, because of the unavailability of diesel.
The diesel rates are considerably low nowadays and the Pepco authorities can afford the charges.
Had the district government pressed the highups of Pepco to run the power station, problems of electricity would not have arisen.
One unit of our local power station has been out of order for the last three months. The spare parts are lying at Peshawar airport ready to be delivered, but nobody is taking interest, not the district government, nor PIA or the Pepco authorities.
Because of mismanagement, the common man is the main loser. In such a freezing cold weather, gas cylinders and firewood also disappear from the market. Please do something to make the lives of the comman man bearable.
BASHIR HUSSAIN AZAD
Chitral
THE standard of public health - related services in Islamabad leaves much to be desired.There are few checks on quality and prices of food and meat. When authorities try to act, it is often stunning.
A few weeks back I saw a CDA health directorate van spraying insecticide in Sunday Bazaar on tomatoes and apples, making the entire lot inedible. Unfortunately, it was sold later on.
The purity and safety of milk carried in utensils is another unaddressed issue . Some butchers in Islamabad are hepatitis C - positive or hepatitis B - carriers . Additionally, barbers are seen using non - sterilised razors, blood and powder stained receptacles where razors are put in between. The modern ones are under the impression that if they do use disinfectants, they can sterilise everything, which is incorrect.
One can see live chicken , half devoid of feathers, kept in filthy shelves near meat, with cats running about , along with flies .
Urban public health responsibility lies with the CDA health officer and health directorate. Video cable diggers are the biggest source of water - sewage infection which leads to hepatitis A and E, both endemic in Islamabad no matter how vigorously it is denied.
The rural public health is under Islamabad’s district health office which has some modestly built BHUs and RHCs. They are best known for spraying insecticide if some pressure is exerted . It is hardly known for any serious work except that it distributes some vitamins via its LHVs and dispensers who give some contraceptives and sterilisation medicines.
Finally , there is no organised connection between larger hospitals, public health departments and people . There are more ambulances parked in front of Pims to carry bodies than there are ambulances for live people in need. There is one children’s hospital and some departments with beds to care for Pindi - Islamabad’s more than one million under - 15 years of age.
Something needs to be done urgently, perhaps a technically - rich task force is in order to look into the matter. A parliamentary debate is another minimum beginning, a well - funded commission and regional health authority under a well - educated, well - meaning technocrat are other options.
DR M.I. SHAIKH
Islamabad
THIS is apropos of the article, ‘Maritime education for economic prosperity’ (Dec 28), containing very useful analysis and suggestions to rescue the merchant marine profession.
In the prevalent scenario, we need similar write-ups to correct the wrongdoings and help the government to boost the employment of skilled manpower and competent seafarers in the international market.
In the same spirit, I would like to ask as to how can an officer be accepted for employment on a ship without satisfactorily completing the model course 7.03 prescribed for officer in charge of a navigational watch and model course 7.01 prescribed for master and chief mate or equivalent notified courses for each grade of merchant marine officers by the maritime administration, through an approved college or institute?
In all training endeavours, the knowledge, skills and dedication of the instructors are the key components in the transfer of knowledge to those being trained. The course materials specify clearly the technical content and levels of knowledge and skill necessary to meet the technical intent of IMO Conventions and related recommendations.
Each course sets out specific number of hours for each subject area to ensure the required performance and to achieve standards for safe operation of ships at high seas. A certificate issued in a non-compliant mode of STCW Convention, in a non-transparent manner since Aug 9, 2007 would land the certificate holder into trouble.
The course validated and approved for Class 4 (deck) and Class 3 (deck) certificate of competency by the government of Pakistan under regulation II/1 paragraph 2.5 of STCW-95 Convention vide reference No. 5(1)/97-CNS dated 9.9.1998 is not being followed. Hence, allowing candidates to appear in the examinations directly without attending any approved college/institute.
The examination hall is flooded by such direct entry candidates at each examination and the custodian of examinations is least concerned with his international obligation and his professional responsibility.
CAPT AJMAL MAHMOODI
Hon. Secretary
The Nautical Institute, Pakistan Branch, Karachi
(II)
THIS is with reference to the piece, ‘Maritime education for economic prosperity’ (Dec 28) by I.M. Khan Samdani.
The decision of the directorate-general, ports and shipping, ministry of ports and shipping, to set aside the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) requirements for preparatory courses leading to certificate of competency (COC) for merchant navy officers is most atrocious.
The maritime nations all over the globe have made it compulsory for the merchant navy officers aspiring to take up management positions on board merchant ships to attend structured preparatory course as per IMO guideline before taking up COC examinations. IMO has placed these maritime nations, including Pakistan, in their white list.
Countries on the white list accept certificate of merchant navy officers on a reciprocal basis.
The action of the director-general, ports and shipping, to do away with the requirement of preparatory course through an approved maritime college will jeopardise the status and, thereby, the employment prospects of Pakistan merchant navy officers.
It seems that national interest has no longer any significance.
AMAAR HYDER
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