| January 12, 2009 | Monday | Muharram 14, 1430 |
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National Savings Scheme
Two-state solution
Oil spill preparedness
Certification of maritime deck officers
Hydroelectric power to cut outages
India-Pakistan relations
Remembering poet Tajal Bewas
Flyovers in Hyderabad
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
OVER the last 40 years the most important and sensitive law on industrial relations has been repealed and enacted three times. The manner in which this subject has been handled by the successive governments tends to show the lack of clarity and ad hocism amongst the people in power to address the core issues confronting the employers and the workers in their interaction and relationship at workplace.
The Industrial Relations Ordinance 1969 was repealed by the IRO 2002, which has now been repealed by the Industrial Relations Act 2008. The preamble of the IRO 1969 stated: “An Ordinance to amend and consolidate the law relating to the formation of trade unions, the regulation of relations between employers and workmen and the avoidance and settlement of any differences or disputes arising between them”.
In its preamble, the IRO 2002 added the words “and improvement of relations between employers and workmen”. The IRA 2008 has gone a step further and describes purpose of the Act “to consolidate and rationalise the law relating to formation of trade unions, and improvement of relations between employers and workmen”. Whatever be the stated good intentions of the government, total repeals and enactments of this law have in reality been causing confusion and promoting conflict between the employers and their workmen.
In order to improve the living standards of industrial workers, the first PPP government in the 1970s had brought in substantial amendments to the IRO 1969. The judicial process in labour matters was made more expeditious and easily accessible to workers by introducing the highly-powered forum of National Industrial Relations Commission, which mostly tried cases of unfair labour practices both on the part of employers and workers.
By adding the forums of Management Committee and Joint Management Board to the already existing forums of Shop Stewards and Works Council, workers were given an opportunity to participate in the management of factory where they were employed.
This concept, which was borrowed by the government from the Scandinavian countries model of labour management, did not succeed in our country primarily due to illiteracy and vested interests of unions representing the workers and hostility of employers in general towards treating their workforce as stakeholders in the business.
Instead of promoting harmony and better understanding between the employers and workmen, they generated hatred and mistrust amongst them. The forums of Management Committee and Joint Management Board, therefore, became redundant in the inception.
In 2001, the then government felt the need to bring about necessary amendments to the IRO 1969 and convened a tripartite conference in Islamabad comprising representatives of employers, workers and the government. After thorough discussion on crucial provisions of the Ordinance, the employers and workers/labour federations came up with certain mutually acceptable amendments to laws which were left to the government to implement.
The government enacted the IRO 2002 and, besides including some of the amendments, added a few new provisions which were never discussed or agreed to in the conference. For instance, the requirement to have the membership of at least 10 unions (at least one from each province) to constitute a federation at the national level (Section 18).
As a result, the IRO 2002 was immediately rejected by workers’ representatives who continued to organise rallies and protest meetings for withdrawal of those contentious provisions during the tenure of the previous government but it did not take any action.
Instead of calling a tripartite conference in Islamabad to discuss and agree on amendments to the IRO 2002, the present PPP government has acted in undue haste and promulgated the Industrial Relations Act 2008, reviving the IRO 1969 for the reasons best known to them.
The only two provisions of the IRO 1969 which have not been included in the IRA 2008 are the ones relating to formation of wage commission for bank employees and workers’ right to second audit.
The federal labour minister says that IRA 2008 will remain in force for 18 months only. This Act is facing the same criticism from labour federations as the IRO 2002, hence what is the logic to keep it operational for so long.
The Employers Federation of Pakistan is holding a high-level ‘industrial relations conference’ in Karachi on Jan 14, which will provide a good opportunity to the participants to impress upon the government to immediately carry out amendments to IRA 2008 acceptable to all stakeholders.
PARVEZ RAHIM
Karachi
AS the National Savings Scheme (NSS) is run by the bureaucracy, they have given an unfair advantage to ‘pensioners’. These pensioners can only be ex-government employees. Other pensioners or those who get no pension are excluded from this good scheme.
It is proposed that this most unfair scheme be merged with the Bahbood scheme and the investment limit for the merged scheme should be Rs6 million so that current ‘pensioners’ are not at a loss.
As a matter of fact, the upper limit for the merged schemes may be Rs8 to 9 million. This will cover the very high inflation we are faced with and also give NSS more invested funds.
Corporate clients should be excluded from the NSS. This will release funds for investment and, thereby, create jobs. At present entrepreneurs are putting money in the NSS and not investing those funds. This is a bad scheme and its economic cost is very high.
Savings Accounts at the NSS should have cheques which may be issued by account-holders to others which may be encashed by the recipients or crossed cheques deposited in banks may go via clearance at the State Bank of Pakistan. Savings Accounts with this facility will attract much more funds which have lower profit rates and be of great advantage to the NSS and thus to the government.
Banks are crying hoarse that the NSS is taking away their deposits. The banks are themselves to blame. They were giving no profit on savings deposits up to Rs100,000. Only when the State Bank made a ruling did they make this profit five per cent.
At the same time the spread between deposits and lending is 10 per cent on a total basis. Compared to the measly five per cent on savings accounts, it is much greater. The State Bank should raise the minimum profit for savings accounts to 10 to11 per cent, and reduce the spread to six to seven per cent. This will bring deposits into banks and improve profitability with more lending. Banks which were used to 1,000 per cent annual growth should join the real world again and still be very profitable.
With the great growth of clients at NSS centres, it is time an increase in staffing was made. At least a second, even a third cashier should be placed immediately so that the two and a-half hours it takes to get one’s money may become more reasonable.
MUZAFFAR A GHAFFAR
Lahore
THE attack on the coastal strip of Gaza reminds one of the holocaust. The death toll is more than 500, and many of the victims were civilians, harmless innocent citizens.
There is a huge humanitarian crisis in the Gaza strip and the international community appears to be indifferent to the situation.
Measures should be taken by it to stop Israel against its ‘allout war’ in the area. I suggest a two-state solution which might end the long conflict and this new map must be enforced by the international community in the earliest time possible.
It should be noted, in order for this to materialise, Hamas must be taken into confidence as it is against a two-state solution, otherwise it will become isolated from the Palestinian people and will not yield any suitable result.
Israel, on the other hand, must also show some flexibility in its attitude. America must also play its role in bringing the two conflicting countries close. Both the countries must share Jerusalem and the borders should revert to the pre-1967 armistice line. Israel must stop its settlement blocks inside the West Bank. Hamas must also be convinced that Israel is not going to disappear, and if it wishes to seek peace with the Zionist state, it will be achieved by implementing the two-state solution.
SAAD KHOSA
Lahore
(II)
ON THE night of Jan 4, as I watched a TV discussion, the news of Israel invading Gaza strip from three sides was a blow to my heart. But what adds to my grief is the behaviour and policies of the Muslim countries which chose to ignore the plight of the Palestinians instead of helping them.
Mohammad Nazool, a member of Hamas, made it clear in his telephone interview on the show that night that they do not require any Muslim from other countries to come to Palestine to fight against Israel. The Palestinians, at this moment of chaos, only wish for the support of the Muslim countries, may it be political, financial or through media.
This is exactly what we, the Ummah, are failing to do.
The Hamas member further spoke of Egypt’s behaviour which is unfortunate. The comments of the editor of Arab News gave a more detailed picture of the Arab world.
He openly spoke in the show about the way Arab and non-Arab Muslims are treating the Gaza situation. It was his opinion that Arab leaders are afraid they might lose their seats and chose to remain silent.
Palestinians have called for Islamic unity and its our turn now to aid Gaza with sincerity.
PERVISHA KHAN
Lahore
I RECENTLY read a very interesting article, ‘Oman drill points out gaps in oil-spill response strategy’ (Khaleej Times). The full-scale mock exercise on the oil-spill response was a tremendous success, as reported. However, in order to be totally fool-proof, the authorities still looked for the gaps. Indeed exercises like this aid to foresee and thus reduce the loopholes from the contingency plans.
In this context, I was wondering what will happen if such a crisis situation arises in Pakistan? We neither have an appropriate contingency plan nor have we worked on a realistic gap analysis. The current situation is pretty bleak as we apparently are unprepared and poorly equipped to cater for oil-spill, especially at our seas.
Pakistan has witnessed disasters like the Tasman Spirit, Golden Globe oil spill, Dhow wreckage and several near misses, and now the recent rupture of high-pressure crude oil pipeline, operated by Parco, occurred due to imprudent operations management.
These incidents have devastating effects on the environment and people’s health while the aftermath could be much significant leading to incapacitation of trade through sea. In case such an accident happens, the whole economy of the country will come to a standstill. It is a sorry state of affairs that entities like the PQA, the KPT and related ministries have not done any tangible effort to avert such disasters but rather failed to properly control the spill in the case of Tasman Spirit. We should learn from our mistakes and do prudent efforts for the betterment of Pakistan.
The above-mentioned facts are indicators that we lack in crisis management response and application of safety/rescue measures while handling oil-related accidents that make us vulnerable to disasters.
In my opinion, we should direct the oil movement to safer areas, as far as practical (to avoid such incidents as ports in Karachi are reported to have become too congested). The environmental protection agencies, port authorities, communications, Coast Guards, Pakistan Navy, Maritime Security Agency, etc., should all join their hands to thoroughly review and reform the existing disaster recovery plan, if there is any.
Furthermore, oil-spill response drills should be conducted at least twice a year of different magnitude to realise the weaknesses and plan accordingly.
SARWAR KARIM
Karachi
THIS refers to SRO 109 (KE)/2006, dated Nov 2, 2006, stating that mandatory college attendance for the courses at approved nautical institutes will no longer be required for a deck officer to appear for his examination to obtain a Marine Certificate of Competency.
In the late 1990s, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO ), which is the International Shipping Authority and a branch (or secretariat) of the United Nations, and located in London, of which Pakistan is a member and signatory to their conventions, resolved to audit all maritime nations for compliance with their Standard of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW) Convention for Marine Officers and Ratings/Crews, to be compliant with their minimum requirements, and for such nations to be put on their “white list”, whereby certificates issued by the shipping authority of that nation would be internationally recognised, and their officers/crews deemed to be meeting their STCW requirements for competency.
The IMO had organised teams of five members from various maritime nations, consisting of experts from their marine ministries/departments to jointly conduct such audits. Pakistan was also a member of one such team.
An IMO audit team visited Pakistan in the late 1990s, scrutinised the Pakistan Marine Academy in Karachi and the examination centre at D.G. Ports and Shipping. It also reviewed the system of approval of the marine institutes with their facilities, along with the syllabus of the various subject courses provided, and then approved Pakistan to be placed on their ‘white list’.
Now to state that the mandatory courses/training are no longer required would be a violation of the basis on which Pakistan was placed on the ‘white list’.
Any dilution/omission of the training/certification procedures will have an adverse effect on foreign ship owners/managers employing officers/ratings from Pakistan.
RAFI AHMED
Master Mariner & ex-director of Terra
Mariner Agencies
Karachi
THE unparalleled energy crisis which has hit Pakistan should serve as an eye-opener for the establishment and the powers that be because it is a disaster foretold. In a country where merit and capability has been pushed aside so that politics and expediency rule, sycophants and incapable people are running our affairs. Since their only quality is subservience and finding ways to make money, they are incapable of finding solutions to our problems whether they be power, sugar or wheat shortages.
The Pakistan Citizens Movement invites the attention of the establishment and the government to a simple solution to raise our power generation capability through recycling of water stored in dams and reservoirs where electricity-producing turbines are installed.
Not only is hydroelectric power the cheapest form of electricity but one needs to understand the basic difference between it and the thermal generation process. Gas, furnace oil or diesel once utilised to produce energy cannot be reused. Unlike these, once water’s kinetic or potential energy is utilised to run turbines, it still retains its capability to produce power once again by recycling it.
Recycling water makes an ideal solution for Pakistan where every year after the snow melts and rains we are informed that water reservoirs at Mangla etc are filled to capacity. A month later we are informed that water levels have fallen and since water has to be conserved for irrigation purposes, it cannot be released in required quantity until needed for crops. Thus with release of limited quantities of water hydroelectric generation falls rapidly, leading to massive power shortages as we our witnessing now. Did we spend billions of dollars on our dams and turbines for this to happen while our bureaucracy sits idly by without pondering over what should be done to solve this issue.
This is a problem which we as students of electrical engineering studied and which led to solutions like water recycling which has been put to use in the West, specially Europe.
By selling off government-owned power plants the KESC by the Shaukat Aziz clan, the state’s capacity to control power affairs has been compromised. Capitalists who have bought it are only interested in making money and people’s suffering doesn’t count for them. They are willing to let people suffer and protest while getting free power from Wapda and crying about high oil prices to save their funds.
On average one kg of furnace oil produces 3.8 kwh electricity. When cost was Rs50,000 per ton, one kwh would cost Rs50,000 divided by 2,000 [ 1 ton = 2,000kg ] =Rs25 divided by 3.8=Rs 6.6 per unit
Adding fixed cost of Rs3 of IPPS , one unit was thus costing Rs9.6.
With furnace oil now costing Rs20,000 per ton ,the per unit cost now is Rs20,000 divided 2000=Rs10 divided 3.8=Rs 2.63 per unit. Adding fixed cost of Rs3 brings the IPPS cost to Rs5.62 per unit.
Thus costs have come down considerably and Nepra has no right to increase power tariff which is crippling industry and creating social unrest.
The present PPP regime owes everything to Z.A. Bhutto whose legacy endures because what he promised to the masses he tried to implement to alleviate their sufferings. That is why the masses remember him. The prime minister needs to take charge. If democracy has to prevail, solutions have to be found by him. He must prevail over the ruling class and allow issues to be handled by the right people who are professionals in their fields. On behalf of the Pakistan Citizens Movement we recommend that:
1. Pseudo-organisations set up by Mussharaf and Shaukat Aziz like Nepra, Ogra, NAB should be abolished and the government should manage them directly .
2. The KESC and IPPS should be nationalised.
3. The government should implement the recycling of water stored in dam reservoirs to produce hydroelectric power all the year round after listening to our proposal and letting professionals implement it.
Merit must be allowed to prevail in Pakistan, otherwise we will fall without ever having risen in the comity of nations.
AZIZ SUHARWARDY
Convener,
Pakistan Citizens Movement
Karachi
INDIA-Pakistan relations have been far from satisfactory since independence. Three full-fledged wars, innumerable clashes, severance of political and diplomatic ties on various occasions paint a dismal picture of relations between these two South Asian nuclear neighbous.
Though international mediators did, in the past, intervene to restore peace between Islamabad and New Delhi, the Mumbai attacks have offered international players, particularly the United States of America, a fresh excuse to pressure Pakistan to cooperate with India in tracing, catching and punishing masterminds of dastardly attacks.
India’s inflexible approach, consistent visits of the American officials to Delhi and Islamabad, and Pakistan’s internal problems have put democracy and peace under threat in Pakistan, in particular, and in the region, in general.
In the wake of rising insurgency in Federally-Administered Tribal Area / tribal areas, Balochistan and terrorists attacks across the country, the economic and the energy crisis and social unrest in Pakistan, clouds of another war between Pakistan and India is not a good sign.
Hence, to avoid any conflict, Pakistan and India should hold bilateral talks, rather than through mediation of the US.
Face-to-face communication is better if India really wants to punish Mumbai perpetrators, restore peace and achieve prosperity in the region.
But, this time, these talks should not be held between politicians or generals, but students, sportsmen, academicians and writers irrespective of caste, creed, colour and ideology.
This time let these diplomats decide how do they want to live as neighbours? I am sure these diplomats want peace as they need education, prosperity, good health facilities, transport and bread.
ZULFIQAR ALI LANGAH
Khanwahan, N. Feroze
TAJAL Bewas, who died on Dec 14 last, was a poet of love. Thirty-one of his books have been published while nine more remain to be published. Though a top bureaucrat, he was s smiling, caring and loving person.
Tajal Bewas wrote in Sindhi, Urdu and English languages but he never shied away from saying: “After Shaikh Ayaz and Narain Shayam, I am the poet of Sindh”. Truly it was not he alone who took pride in his poetry but all Sindhis do.
Sindh My Mother, what shall I write on your beauty there is one pen and one me, how do I do this mounting task (of writing on your beauty)
Sung by Abida Parveen, a melodious song which became the poet’s identity. Because of poems like this, he was considered a national poet who inspired resistance movement, a hallmark of Sindh, from the 1960s to the 1980s.
He not only established a connection between writers and poets of Sindh and Sindhis in India but maintained those relations and remained a bridge. He was equally loved and praised by Sindhi literary figures in India, received all highest awards of Sindhi literature from India.
Progressive literary and political movements remained his inspiration. He was associated with the progressive voice of Sindh. In his last few years I read his letters and articles taking great interest in history, he was a deeply sensitive person.
MUSHTAQUE RAJPAR
Karachi
TRAFFIC jams have become a major problem for Hyderabad. To solve this issue, the district government decided to build flyovers in different parts of the city.
One flyover in Latifabad has been completed and three are being built in different parts of Hyderabad. Construction of these flyovers was started several months back but more than 60 per cent work remains to be completed.
This slow pace of work has been causing major traffic jams. Children reach school late, office workers are late. Pushcarts are also playing a vital role in traffic jams because their owners are selling their goods beneath the half-built flyovers. There is lack of proper streetlight too, and after sunset it is very difficult to drive vehicles.
The local government is requested to speed up the work and try to complete these flyovers as soon as possible.
IMRAN RAJPUT
Hyderabad
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