Journey to peace

AT the conclusion of the recent Musharraf-Manmohan parleys, the peace process was described as “irreversible”. But I have a haunting thought that we have been here before. It takes two to tango. Is the fervour or enthusiasm for peace the same on the other side? Is it as open-minded and unreserved as on our side? Analytical comments from across the border belie this supposition.

The very educative commentary by Mr Kuldip Nayyar, “Green light finally?” (Dawn, April 26) seems to indicate that all the running in the peace campaign is being made by Pakistan.

According to him, the Indian leadership sticks to the belief that Pakistan has taken a U-turn on strong American pressure and their post 9/11 campaign against fundamentalists-cum-terrorists. In this mode, the Indian thinking is that Pakistan is surrounded by turmoil and being militarily weak/overstretched is so desperate for peace that it will accept any dispensation on Kashmir. By way of an olive branch, Dr Manmohan Singh is supposed to have offered to change the design of Baglihar, if it is established that the design violates the Indus Basin Treaty. For a project that is going to be completed within less than a year, the offer can not be turned very serious. “In fact, Manmohan Singh has offered an integrated development of the entire Indus Basin,” writes Mr Nayyar. So, now the Indians wish joint management of all our rivers.

There are two ominous notes in the article. One is the Indian PM’s remarks that “an attack on any key public building like the one on parliament house could reverse the (peace) process”. Now, it is widely known and a thorough investigation has revealed that Pakistan had no hand in the attack, following which Indian armed forces marched to our borders and remained there for about two years. Such incidents can be “managed” any time like the hijacking of the Indian aeroplane “Ganga” by Kashmiri youth who were on the payroll of an Indian intelligence agency. The second sore note is the allegation by Mr Nayyar that Pakistan is dragging its feet on “people to people” contact.

It seems that a “psychological” campaign is being undertaken to make Pakistan a supplicant for peace at any cost and its timing is synchronized with India’s geo-political ambitions of securing a permanent seat in the Security Council and joining the “big leaguers”. For, if Pakistan were to accept India’s preferred dispensation on Kashmir, subcontinental peace would have arrived and we would then be expected not to oppose a friendly India’s elevation to a permanent seat on the Security Council.

The irony is that in Pakistan also there are many adherents to “peace-at-any-cost”. For example, Mr Irfan Hussain’s article (Dawn, April 25). Throw in a few businessmen, a few showbiz starlets who are dreaming of Bollywood fame and some copycat advertising magnates and you have the complete picture of this peace lobby.

The only matter remains to be sorted out is: Can a Kashmir solution concocted by the Indo-Pakistan leadership be enforced on the people of Jammu and Kashmir? Why not ask them at this very stage by inducting them into the peace process?

A genuine peace between India and Pakistan can only be on the basis of sovereign equality and not through any assessment of strength and weaknesses of either party nor any intervention by outsiders. The other aspect relates to satisfying the urges of Kashmiris who have sacrificed over 100,000 lives. A ceasefire between the Indian military and the mujahideen (militants) followed by an India-Kashmir dialogue is urgently needed.

The sophistry of calling Kashmir a territorial or a communal problem should cease. It is a plain and simple question of “self-determination” — a principle fashioned by India in dealing with the princely states of Hyderabad, Junagadh, Mana-vadar and Mangrol, where the respective ruler’s decision was rejected as not reflecting the people’s will. So the instrument of accession by Maharaja Hari Singh, even if genuine, does not prevail over Kashmiri people’s will.

H. N. AKHTAR
Karachi

Samiul Haq episode

IN response to Mr Sahibzada Muhammad Usman’s letter (April 27) stating that the European Union (EU) parliament could not tolerate a “bearded Muslim Pakistani”, I would like to point out that the EU’s objection neither referred to his religion nor him being bearded, but towards his stance on the hardline version of Islam and his views on the relationship between the West and the Muslim world that he and his party propagate.

Keeping in mind his views and those of his fellow maulanas about the US, the UK and the western world one wonders why he ever wanted to be a part of that delegation?

A considerable number of males among the millions of Muslims living within the EU have beards while women wear the hijab, and everyone is allowed to practice their religion with absolute freedom, perhaps even more than what is allowed in some Islamic nations.

It’s a pity that educated people in Pakistan still condone extremist views, which are completely out of tune with the teachings of Islam by supporting leaders such as those belonging to the MMA. Maulana Samiul Haq and his MMA colleagues should accept the fact that their brand of Islam may still have some following in Pakistan, but will never prevail in the West.

Muslims residing in the West have grasped a better perspective of religion and follow Islam not based on strict inflexible fatwas issued by hardline leaders who are out of tune with modern times, but on flexible application of Islamic teachings that allows them to gain both spiritual and materialistic excellence in the modern world of today.

DR SHAAZ MAHBOOB
London, UK

Stolen cellphones

IN response to my letter of April 20, the chief of CPLC-CRC, Karachi, has agreed (April 29) to my point that cellular phone companies should have had a system of monitoring IMEI/ESN numbers right from the beginning. I do not agree with his other point that reporting an incident of snatched/stolen cellular phone to Madadgar-15 or the CPLC is not a cumbersome process, as people hardly get any response or their stolen or snatched mobile phone sets even after registering their complaints.

I would like the CPLC chief to make public how many cellphones sets have been recovered and returned to their rightful owners till date even when Madadgar-15 and the CPLC have received numerous complaints and when police repeatedly claim to have busted several gangs and recovered a large number of stolen cellphones. Where have these recovered cellphones gone? People report such incidents to the police or to the CPLC with the hope that whenever their cellphones are recovered, they will be returned to them.

Is reporting an incident of cellphone snatching to Madadgar-15 or the CPLC just meant to feed their computer data system in order to fill in the blanks? The CPLC may have had successes in combating crime, but it still needs to work hard to cover this weak area by establishing an effective community policing system.

The simple definition of community policing is to organize “a philosophy of full service, personalized and decentralized policing, where citizens feel empowered to work in proactive partnership with the police in solving the problems of crime, fear of crime, disorder, decay, and quality of life”.

The CPLC chief can take help in setting up an effective “community policing” system in the city from the Shehri-CBE, an NGO that has held several workshops and seminars on the subject.

SYED A. MATEEN
Karachi

Postgraduate trainee doctors

THIS concerns the sudden decision taken by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan (CPSP) with regard to training programmes and requirements which need to be fulfilled by postgraduate trainee doctors:

(i) FCPS trainees who appear and clear FCPS-1 are required to complete their training in recognized hospitals and appear for the FCPS-II exams within six to seven years (six years for those whose training requirement is three years and seven years when the training requirement is four years).

This was decided in the CPSP academic council meeting recently but applied retrospectively to all trainees, debarring hundreds of postgraduate trainees all over Pakistan who had worked so hard, spending so many hours during their training. Their FCPS-I has been cancelled and they are being asked to reappear for the FCPS-I and undergo the training cycle all over again.

(ii) Another decision during the meeting was about thesis/dissertation writing — another cumbersome exercise undergone by all doctors under training — submitted before the exams and written under the supervision of specialist supervisors (appointed by the CPSP itself) during the training. The CPSP evaluates the dissertation and accepts and rejects it as required. This time even after the acceptance of the dissertation, which is a prerequisite, all those doctors applying for the FCPS-II exam were asked to submit the data of all patients which were included in the dissertation, which became another cumbersome process requiring one to collect all the data once again from hospital records.

The academic council of the CPSP can take decisions in order to improve the quality of training, but there is no point in applying them retrospectively.

DR TAHIR MALIK
Via email

Helmet regulation

THE regulation on helmet is unworkable on many counts. In the hot June and July temperatures wearing a helmet is a potential disaster because the skull of the rider enclosed in the helmet in fact gets more heat than the temperature outside. Moreover, the overall view is badly affected, threatening the lives of those riding pillion too. Wearing of a helmet with even one pillion rider puts the life of the pillion rider in danger.

The government has made a faux pas by pushing this regulation in the absence of the availability of helmets in the market which are especially designed to enable our riders to survive the climatic conditions.

We now see motorcycle riders in Lahore wearing all sorts of helmets, ranging from those worn in Formula 1 races to the ones worn by cricketers. This regulation is the result of a different mindset — those travelling in official limousines and working and living in the coolest of temperatures. If at all the government feels so concerned about the safety of its citizens, it must first design and manufacture helmets that specifically cater for the climate of our country and protection required.

SAEED WAZEER BUTT
Lahore

Valuers’ list

UNDER prudential regulations, in the year 2000, the State Bank rightly asked the Pakistan Banks Association to prepare a list of valuers, from whom member-banks could get assets offered to them as security evaluated. The PBA, through their own staff, under the guidance of their executive committee, prepared a list which worked smoothly and efficiently for more than two years.

Then somebody in the PBA or the State Bank got the bright idea of inducting a firm of consultants to do the simple job and also collect large sums of money. The PBA consultants started prepared a booklet and allocated numbers on considerations like geographical diversity, representation of foreign firms and the number of engineers employed.

Geographical diversity meant a higher score for firms working in two, three or four provinces than for a firm operating in one province. Membership of associations and representation of a foreign firm do not reject competence nor integrity. A large number of engineers only shows that a firm can turn out more work which is not the objective of enlistment. the objective should have been competence and integrity. Further, enlistment was opened every three months with the result that the number of valuers in the list became large, defeating the very purpose of enlistment. Cut-throat competition started inducing many to charge lower fees and demand more money under the table.

The consultants made it compulsory for every valuer to report to them every month the full particulars of assets evaluated, including the name and branch of the bank and the name and address of the borrower. The consultants claim that they are monitoring the activity of the valuers, but no useful purpose was actually served by this.

Then, the criterion of enlistment was changed and it was declared that only degree-holder engineers of electronics, electrical, mechanical, civil and architecture were allowed to assess agriculture land, residential land, commercial land, farm houses, residential houses, commercial buildings, factory buildings, factory plants and machinery.

What does an electronic engineer know about the value of land, building and plant/machinery? No factory has electronic machinery. Similarly, a mechanical engineer knows nothing about land and building. He is not familiar with every kind of machinery such as textile machinery or chemical plants. He would know only about engineering workshops. A civil engineer or architect knows how to design or calculate the cost of construction. As regards plant and machinery, his knowledge is zero.

An exemption has been made for a person who has passed BSc with physics, chemistry and mathematics. What special knowledge do these subjects give in valuation of properties?

The State Bank governor should appoint a committee to review the system.

SAIFULLAH TAREEN
Lahore

Hyderabad: division of bonded voters

THERE is much hue and cry over the division of Hyderabad. It is being called a wedge in the unity of Sindhis. Everybody knows the advantages of this kind of division. The local people benefit from such moves. The problems of the people are solved locally and they receive a number of other facilities. Then why this hullabaloo? The answer is that waderas always feel unhappy over decisions which benefit the people.

They are feeling ill at ease due to the division of their bonded voters. They are livid because the areas involved would develop. There would be some new educational institutions and the people would get some health facilities. They would be able to get some relief from government institutions as well.

The waderas are blaming the Sindh chief minister for this decision on the plea that he is promoting the cause of the MQM which wants to put forward the demand of a new province consisting of Karachi and Hyderabad (remaining). All such apprehensions can have some tinge of truth in them, but the formation of new districts would never be a hurdle in the way of the people of the area. Rather, it would benefit them a lot. The government should not budge from its decision.

M. AKRAM SAQIB
Sahiwal

Motorway project

The Islamabad-Peshawar motorway project (M1) was due for completion by December 2001 by the Turkish contractor but the contract was cancelled ostensibly for being behind the schedule by one month. An impression was created among he people of the NWFP that probably the federal government was keen to get the project completed without further loss of time and that action by the National Highway Authority was then considered to be as in interest of the NWFP.

But to the dismay of this province, the project is nowhere complete even after a lapse of four years. A cursory look at the pace of progress indicates that the motorway is not likely to be completed even in the next 10 years. Only the Burhan-Islamabad section has been made functional so far, which falls in the province of Punjab. The Faisalabad-Pindi Bhatian section of the motorway was completed in a record time of 10 months due to the provision of adequate funds and pressure from the Punjab government. The federal government should ensure that there is no discrimination.

SYED ABBAS SHAH
Peshawar

Indian films in Pakistan

IN his recent write-up “Indian films in Pakistan” cine critic Zed Ess has quoted some wrong information which needs to be corrected to set the record straight.

Zed Ess’s assertion that “Jugnu” and some other movies owned by Shaukat Hussain Rizvi were denied screening is wrong. “Jugnu” and other movies produced by S. H. Rizvi were all pre-independence productions, and were exhibited all over the subcontinent.

All of them were freely exhibited in Pakistan till the September ’65 war when a ban was imposed on the import

and screening of Indian movies. I was privileged enough to see “Jugnu” in 1960 in Sialkot.

Zed Ess gave the impression that poet-filmmaker Nakshab, too, was denied the right to screen his three productions, which he brought from

India. The fact is Nakshab brought four movies from India (the fourth was “Mr Chakram”, missed by Zed Ess) and all were shown throughout Pakistan (including the eastern wing). Out of these “Zindagi ya Toofan” (“Diya aur Toofan” mentioned by Zed Ess) proved to be a blockbuster.

TARIQ MAHMUD
Lahore

Status of Punjabi

MS Ramila Rauf Khan’s letter “Status of Punjabi” (May 1) about the status of Urdu is simply a distortion of history. The writer is trying to depict Urdu as a Muslim language and one of the reasons for India’s division. For her information, Sindh did not join Pakistan to promote Urdu at the cost of the Sindhi language; rather the division was more of a religious issue.

Languages are not Muslim or Hindu. They are simply languages and should be given their due status. If we were to adopt a language on the basis of religion, than Arabic qualifies to be our national language and regional languages like Sindhi are closer to Arabic and Islam than Urdu.

Urdu was not the language of the people who lived in the areas currently in Pakistan. The mass migration of Indian Muslims to Pakistan gave Urdu its current status and regional languages were ignored in the name of Islam and Pakistan.

When the people of Punjab and Sindh ask for due status for their languages, they are brushed off as anti-Pakistan. We should try to learn to accommodate differences and should not try to suppress them. I believe this is the only way we can move forward.

SHAKEEL NIZAMANI
Toronto, Canada

Football ground

THIS is with reference to Ms Rafia Taj’s letter (April 24). A renovated and refurbished perimeter fence is being installed around the DHA football ground at an estimated cost of Rs0.4 million, designed to last for a long time. Not only Ms Taj’s apprehension is unfounded but her proposition is unrealistic too, because going for a complicated and expensive option is neither prudent nor proper where a well-planned job is accomplished in a cost-effective manner.

LT COL (retd) SYED RAFAT HUSSAIN NAQVI PRO DHA
Karachi