Dams, ports and NFC

The authors of fantastic ideologies, fables and fairy tales have crafted a myth that the people of Sindh and Balochistan are anti-development. This falsehood has been based on Sindh's opposition to mega water projects and Balochistan's concerns over the under-construction Gwadar port. Instead of finding out why this is so, the two provinces have been discredited and condemned.

Why does Balochistan have reservations about the port? Baloch leaders say the project would create a demographic imbalance, turning the local people into a minority in their own province. They say the people should be co-opted for any development projects in their areas.

Why do Sindhis oppose mega water projects? They look at the history and tremble at what any new dams and canals upstream will do to them. They see broken promises, agreements and treaties.

How did the upper riparian unilaterally bypass the 1945 Water Agreement, the only accord between Sindh and Punjab reached without any coercion or intimidation? They have seen what has happened to six water commissions since the British Raj. They know how the Indus Basin Treaty was concluded behind their backs.

The people of Sindh are also aware how an unrepresentative regime was forced to sign the 1991 Water Accord. And today even that agreement is not being followed. The people know under what agreements and promises the Chashma-Jehlum and Taunsa-Panjnad canals were built and how these agreements and promises have been trashed.

It is universally accepted that the upper riparian can't undertake any mega projects as it pleases and that already existing projects have precedence over any new projects.

That was the principle why the British administrators rejected the Greater Thal Canal project. And today our own government is building the same project. When there is already a huge shortage of water in the Indus River system, where will water come from for the canal?

The same is the case with the NFC when the provincial governments and the federal authorities are hoodwinking the people. Instead of seeking 80 per cent share for the 97 per cent population, the provinces are nowhere near even presenting their case properly. It all looks like a pre-arranged affair where the people at large will suffer and the federal government, its agencies and a few powerful lobbies will be the beneficiaries.

Still they say Sindh and Balochistan are at fault - they are anti-development. Nothing could be farther from the truth. They need it the most. But only if they are co-opted and if it is beneficial to their people.

AZIZ NAREJO

Corpus Christi, Texas, USA

Punjab's mother tongue

This is with reference to Mushir Anwar's column, 'Urdu as Punjab's Mother Tongue' (Dawn, May 7) and Safir Rammah's letter (Dawn, May 13). According to the claims of Fateh Muhammad Malik, chairman of the National Language Authority as referred to in Mushir Anwar's article, adoption of Punjabi "could only be a folly or conspiracy against the Muslims ... once Punjabi had been introduced as a medium of instruction, it would be heavily Sanskritized.... and then its Quranic script will be changed to Gurmukhi."

No demand for the Gurmukhi script has ever been made by any Punjabi writer or organization. If the script of Bengali has not changed the identity of the Bengalis and Prof Fateh Muhammad Malik in an article in a Urdu daily (May 13) can call Bangladesh another Pakistan, how could the adoption of Punjabi as a medium of instruction in the Persian script change the Muslim identity of West Punjabis?

It is not the fault of Fateh Muhammad Malik; he is just following the legacy of the protagonists of Urdu like the late Dr Syed Abdullah, Principal of the Oriental College, Lahore, who had accused Punjabi language activists of being anti-Pakistan and anti-Islam (The Pakistan Times March 15, 1962).

It may be recalled that the adoption of Punjabi as a medium of instruction was demanded in 1956 at the conference held in Lyallpur (Faisalabad) under the presidentship of the late journalist and writer Maulana Abdul Majeed Salik. The clear message was that the mother tongue of Punjab is Punjabi and not Urdu.

TEHSEEN ULLAH

Bahawalnagar

Lessons from Indian polls

The Indian elections are over and the results have been declared. It is neither the BJP that has lost nor the Congress that has won. The real victory is of democracy itself.

The major credit for this huge effort involving over a billion people goes to the election commission of India that guards its independence so jealously that the government in power dare not interfere in its fair and free dispensation.

There are lessons for us to be learnt here. The grace with which the BJP accepted defeat and the humility with which the Congress embraced victory are yet other examples of how a genuine democracy should work.

The people of India have spoken, loud and clear, through the ballot box that there is no room for religious chauvinism in a nation that is beset with hunger and illiteracy, and that is facing poverty and growing unemployment. The BJP government was so sure of its victory that it chose to go to the polls six months before the due date; they had thought that their slogans of Hindutva and India Shining would easily carry them through, but the masses of India have proved that they are an awakened and enlightened lot in spite of their illiteracy and poverty. Such is the beauty of democracy when practised in its true spirit.

DR SALAMAT KAMAL

Karachi

Crow menace

If only the Punjab governor could venture out one morning from the Governor's House to take a stroll down Kashmir Road he would immediately find out why, increasingly, the gatherings on his spacious lawns are invaded by hordes of crows, vultures and hawks. ('Crows scare governor and his guests,' Dawn Lahore, May 8).

Positioned at short intervals along Kashmir Road are hawkers dispensing their wares from wooden crates stacked on the carriers of their bicycles. Often a motorist or motorcyclist stops beside one of them.

Raw meat is hurriedly wrapped in bits of old newspapers, the packages circumnavigated three times over the heads of the buyer, and hurled across the road towards Burney Bagh.

These invariably fall short of their intended target onto the road, which becomes the repository of the contents of these packages. Those hawkers who are at a distance from the Bagh throw the packages over the wall into the Governor's House.

This lively commerce of warding off the evil eye has tangible benefits for two of the three parties involved, the hawkers and the scavenging birds - and a spiritual benefit for the third, the buyer.

However the common citizen suffers, as he side steps the cubes of raw liver bristling with flies that litter the roadside. Add to this the suffering of the uncommon guests at the Governor's House lawns, and you have a common cause for banning these hawkers from plying their environmentally hazardous trade.

ASAD SIDDIQI

Lahore

Pollution in villages

City dwellers often associate village life with fresh air and open spaces. They think that only cities face the problem of garbage and pollution. However, village life in Pakistan is often worse than city life.

Recently, I visited a number of villages in different parts of the country. Almost all the villages (large and small) were dirty. Garbage piles were everywhere. Open sewage channels remain filled and frequently spill over into narrow lanes where small little children play all day. Villagers were often seen sitting beside heaps of garbage, chatting, smoking, oblivious to flies and mosquitoes and the stench.

Inquiries made at the offices of various nazims revealed that most villages are rarely cleaned because of a "shortage of manpower". There is usually a small staff of sweepers who often hang around the nazim's office.

We, as a nation, need to understand that cleanliness is everybody's business. At least, half of the respiratory, intestinal and skin diseases will disappear if we clean up our air, water, food, and surroundings.

DR AMAN ULLAH KHAN

Lahore

'Day dawns, we awake, we yawn'

This is with reference to Mr Ardeshir Cowasjee's column "Day dawns, we awake, we yawn" (May 16). Mr Cowasjee excels at spinmastery, a la Tony Blair's Alistair Campbell, and out-of-context references. Here are some examples:

Referring to Bhutto's and Nawaz's corruption, he writes that their friends and relatives followed suit. May one ask if those erstwhile friends and relatives of theirs and "NABees" are not part of the present "clean and good governing" dispensation?

Mr Cowasjee delights in the way Shahbaz Sharif was bundled out to Jeddah. May one ask if in the process gross contempt of court was not committed and the fundamental right of a citizen to return to his homeland not violated?

Mr Cowasjee, quoting profusely from history, advocates ad nauseam the inviolability of institutions, particularly the judiciary, and of fundamental rights. Apparently, all was in order in this episode.

And so on....

TEHMINA NAQVI

Via email

Police high-handedness

The news (May 10) regarding the misbehaviour of a policeman with a veteran journalist is yet another reminder of the fact that our police, in general, consider themselves to be immune to any kind of accountability.

A few months back a letter was printed in these columns in which a gentleman had narrated his ordeal at the hands of the highway police. The letter was addressed to all those supposed to be responsible for safeguarding the life and property of the public. To this day not a single reply has come from any quarter regarding the steps taken to avoid high-handedness in the future.

ARSHIA AZHAR

Rawalpindi

Farming on arid and saline land

One can grow plants nowadays anywhere by making use of recent advancements in science. Large green-houses and clime chambers are producing vegetables, fruits (specially tomato, cucumber, banana and oranges) within feasible economical return in many harsh climatic regions of the world.

Man-made pastures of grazable salt bushes established at arid/saline hot desert of Australia have given the opportunity to progressive farmers to start goat/sheep farming and earn foreign exchange by export of meat and woollen garments.

In Pakistan lots of arid and saline marginal lands of zero productivity are available. They are mostly in Cholistan and Tharparkar deserts. These technologies are no more secret and those who proceed with sincere effort harvest feasible economic returns.

But since these need initial investment, our poor farmer of barren arid/saline land cannot afford it. Hence there is a need to establish a consortium of an industrial level in the private sector where members can contribute funds in a joint venture.

Initial expenditure will be required for purchase of land, establishment of nursery of aridity-/salinity-tolerant plants of commercial value, land preparation, installation of irrigation system, tubewells, etc, construction of sheds for goat/sheep farming, purchase of farm equipment - tractors, and construction of hutments for staff, etc.

It is proposed that a committee of four knowledgeable persons may be entrusted with this work. The committee may comprise a chairman, a scientist having experience of plant growth in an arid and saline environment, a progressive farmer of arid / saline land (agriculturist), an expert in goat/sheep farming (animal husbandry) and an agriculture economist.

A reasonable honorarium may be given to the members of the committee. Expenditure involved on their travel, board and lodging for conducting meetings and on preparation of pre-proposal may also be provided.

DR RAFIQ AHMAD

Consultant, Saline Agriculture, University of Karachi

'Beggars are choosers'

The famous proverb that beggars cannot be choosers holds no ground now in the age of modern technology. Beggars are operating at selected places in their own way and style.

In Europe a new concept of begging has emerged, which is called cyber begging. Since begging is an industry, modern techniques are being adopted for posh areas like Clifton and Defence in Karachi where mendicants are using modern gadgets for coordination and conducting their operations which include espionage activities, dacoity, drug trafficking and all other social evils prevalent in society.

Revolutionary measures are needed to eliminate this menace. Begging is a social evil and a nuisance which can be eradicated through dedicated efforts and active participation of the people and NGOs.

LT-COL (retd)

EHTISHAMUDDIN

Karachi

Killings in Macedonia

Deep concern is being felt by everyone in Pakistan over the killing of our innocent citizens in Macedonia. It reminds us of our other citizens who were unscrupulously and callously hauled up and handed over by our government to the US as 'suspected terrorists'.

Would our government apprise the people of what happened to them in American jails? How many have survived and how many have succumbed to the mental and physical torture inflicted upon them?

Would our interior minister and the spokesman of the foreign office inform their countrymen under what pressure the government played with the life and liberty of its citizens merely on suspicion?

BASHIR AHMAD

Lahore

Dirty currency notes

I have corresponded on the subject of dirty currency notes a few times in the past. I also suggested (Dawn, July 25, 2001) that the printing of paper currency in five- and 10-rupee denominations be done away with by switching over to coins.

The proposal was intended to save expenditure on recurrent replacement of worn-out and badly soiled notes. This measure would also reduce handling of dirty and unhygienic currency notes, thus reducing the chances of spreading disease.

The State Bank has announced demonetization of five-rupee notes from July 1, 2005, and their replacement with coins. May I suggest stopping circulation of the ten-rupee note and switching over to metal currency?

AIR-CDRE (retd) A. WAJID SALIM

Lahore

Boosting tourism

Pakistan has great tourism potential, yet we don't see much of it. Pakistan is home to some of the oldest monuments in the world. However, not many people know about it in the international community. A lot of our historical monuments are not well maintained.

An increase in tourism investment can go a along way. We can hire people to maintain the monuments, thus providing jobs to our youths. We can educate prospective tour guides about the history of our ancient infrastructure and artifacts in Pakistan, and so when tourists come, the tour guides can help them. People should be hired to maintain the infrastructure and for security, so that tourists feel safe while visiting the sites.

MUNZIR A. NAQVI

Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Troops for Iraq

US Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca at a meeting with our government has asked for deployment of our troops in Iraq. Pakistan has always lent a helping hand to the US in dire need.

During the 1980s, when the former Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, we provided logistics, military and all needed support to the US, but after the disintegration of the USSR we were left to deal with drugs, arms and refugees on our own despite our meagre resources.

Also, after the 9/11 attacks, Pakistan was among the first to come forward to support the US in its war against terrorism, but, instead of any accolades, Pakistani immigrants had to weather persecution and deportation at the hands of American security forces.

Now when America and its chief ally UK have been unable to muster troops from anywhere else, they have come to us to help them out. Our rulers should not agree to any commitment of troops unless the UN is involved in the process.

MISBAH NOMANI

Karachi

Attachment to LHC

I want to request the chief justice of the Lahore High Court that Sahiwal district be attached to Lahore High Court, Lahore, as it is an important district of central Punjab.

It has a long and glorious history and was a big district in the past, having boundaries with Sheikhupura, Lahore, Bahawalnagar, Multan and Faisalabad. It has its own culture, traditions and customs similar to those of central Punjab. Its language and life style have resemblance to the people of Lahore.

Two former tehsils of Sahiwal district, namely Okara and Pakpattan, have been separated from it, shrinking it to only two tehsils; Sahiwal and Chichawatni.

It is a longstanding demand of the people of Sahiwal that their city be detached from the Lahore High Court's Multan Bench and attached to Lahore High Court Lahore.

SAJJAD SALEEM KHAN

Sahiwal

Mosque security

The recent bombing of a mosque in Karachi in which 19 people were killed and many others were injured is a reminder that terrorists are again starting their heinous activities in that city. Before this, there were many other incidents of firing, bombing and sabotage in mosques.

I wonder why there cannot be any check on people coming to offer their prayers, at least in the big mosques. There should be at least two policemen on duty at each mosque's entry. Everyone who goes to a mosque should be fully searched by policemen to avert any untoward incident.

Also, I request the government to conduct a probe into this sad incident. If the persons behind this bombing are captured, they should be awarded severe punishment.

HAFIZ AHMAD NOUMAN HASAN

Lahore