Education of intellectually impaired

THIS is with reference to Abdul Aziz’s letter, “Identifying mentally retarded” (Oct 1). The letter certainly provided food for thought.

We should be more sensitive to the intellectually impaired and use politically correct terminology. The identification of vast areas of disorders and discrepancies in learning is a challenge even for the professionals.

Many students who experience learning difficulties but are considered ‘normal’ sometimes demonstrate the same characteristics as students considered ‘mentally retarded’. Conversely, many children who have no learning problems can be associated with emotional and disturbed behaviour.

No one has a choice whether they are born physically and mentally healthy. Mr Aziz’s letter perhaps suggests his mental attitude towards human beings in general. He suggests only academic skills are important and that failure in this area should result in the child being labelled ‘mentally retarded’ and sent to another special educational institution.

If only academic skills are essential, we must point out that many of our politicians, players and singers — whom we call national heroes — also do not have a proper educational background. Do we call them ‘mentally retarded’?

Everyone has his or her own limitations. While some of us are good teachers, doctors or scientists, others are good coaches or players. Are any of these skills really more valuable than the others and, if so, who decides? Similarly, who qualifies to get a place in the regular schools? It is time to let discrimination end and think of ‘inclusive’ education for all.

As members of a so-called civilized society, people with intellectual impairments and other special needs deserve to be given an opportunity, at least. While credit is due to Mr Aziz for at least recognizing the need for the intellectually impaired to be educated, his idea of segregated institutions provokes the question asked by an Indian schoolteacher: within a segregated setting, how do we prepare them for mainstream society?

Every school should indeed have a psychologist to guide all the children according to their mental and physical abilities. Only then can we realize the potential of every child within the mainstream school and begin to build on the child’s own strengths while minimizing their weaknesses.

STUDENTS

Aga Khan University, Institute for Educational Development,

Karachi

Mymensingh cinema blasts

AS a reader of Bengali origin, I thank you for your concern about the Mymensingh tragedy in the Dec 10 editorial. That said, it seems that your thoughtful editorial misses some fundamental facts.

The current joint army-police drive against organized crime in Bangladesh has netted many political types, a plurality of them being members of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), not the opposition Awami League as the editorial suggests. When was the last time that happened in South Asia?

Only a thorough investigation will tell us who is behind the Mymensingh cinema blasts. What we do know, however, is that the ill-wishers of Bangladesh are pretty active in the neighbouring countries and in the West trying hard to tarnish the image of one of the only four Muslim democracies in the world.

Let us not forget that Bangladesh is a pluralist multi-party democracy. It was the first non-Arab, non-NATO country to rush troops to oppose Saddam Hussein in 1990. This is a country which George W. Bush, in his Eid message, called a ‘dependable partner in the war on terror’.

Since early this year, Bangladesh’s major neighbour has attempted armed incursions, kidnappings and outright murder on the borders. At erstwhile unknown places like Roumari and Padua, actual invasion was repelled by Bangladesh’s armed forces. Earlier this month, two spy rings, working for a neighbouring country, were allegedly busted by the local law-enforcement agencies. It was interesting to note that the editorial was silent on such happenings.

Bangladesh is perhaps among the less important nations. But to paraphrase the indomitable Daniel Webster in the Dartmouth College case: ‘She may be a small country, but there are those who love her’.

ESAM SOHAIL

Kansas, USA

Improving the economy

AS a part of structural reforms by the Musharraf government, the rupee against the dollar has strengthened by 15 per cent in the open market, and about 9 per cent in inter-bank. And this is appreciating. Versus the yen this appreciation is a further 10-12 per cent.

Car and motorcycle manufacturers fixed prices when the yen was 110 to the dollar. The yen went up to 135 to a dollar. These days it is in the 120-125 range.

The rupee import bill of these assemblers today is 20-25 per cent lower, but no downward price adjustments have been made. Car manufacturers are showing 80-100 per cent higher profits versus last year.

Businessmen have been given significant support by major interest rate cuts and other fiscal support (while savings accounts are taxed at 10 per cent).

Commerce and finance ministries should see to it that there should be significant reductions in the prices of cars, motorcycles, imported products in stores and supermarkets, imported medicines, ingredients and raw materials, and industrial products where the revaluation of the Pakistani rupee has an impact.

This will require some arm-twisting and a lot of persuasion. The dividends of the government’s economic policies will then be felt by the citizens.

Financial pundits say that currently the dollar is intrinsically worth Rs54. The State Bank and public sector banks should stop artificially keeping the rupee value lower on the pretext of making exporters happy. Today’s foreign buyers do their sums keeping exchange rates in mind.

At Rs54, we will still have an exchange parity advantage of over 10 per cent versus India and others who are the main competitors in textiles etc. And with this our debt burden will be enormously reduced.

It is time to think of the overwhelming majority, not a few pressure groups. The outfall of this will be a huge improvement in the economy that is apparently not being visualized.

MUZAFFAR A. GHAFFAR

Lahore

Travelling on GT Road

DURING the Eid holidays, I travelled on the Islamabad-Lahore GT Road. Its condition has undoubtedly improved a lot for which the National Highway Authority deserves praise. But there are certain aspects which must be looked into to ensure public safety.

There is a median in the middle of the road but at a few places only. It is felt that it should be erected throughout the length of the road. While driving at night, the light from vehicles coming from the opposite direction is extremely disturbing. The median wall prevents drivers from being dazzled.

At some places where the partition wall does exist, it is not high enough to intercept the glare from the on-coming traffic. This problem could be solved by raising the wall a bit. Those travelling on the Islamabad-Lahore Motorway also face this problem.

The NHA must solve this problem on a priority basis. The authority should also build a median wall on the under-construction Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway.

It seems that nobody inspects the condition of GT Road though there may be a host of people employed solely for this purpose. There are a large number of pits and humps, specially between Lahore and Gujrat.

Cat’s-eyes are required to be installed along the entire length of the road as they are quite helpful in guiding the drivers to keep themselves on track. The quality of the road from Jhelum to Rawalpindi is superb.

May I ask the authorities concerned why the entire road cannot be of the same quality?

AIR CDRE (R) AZFAR A KHAN

Rawalpindi

Not learning from history

IN October 2001, Sufi Mohammad, after taking over parts of Swat, Dir and the Korakoram Highway, led his 5,000 strong army to attack the US forces operating in Afghanistan.

Most of these illiterate and misguided soldiers lost their lives to unfriendly daisy cutters, and Sufi, who had himself never seen either an American or an aeroplane, deserted the battlefield, ran for his life and ended up in a Pakistani jail, with a three-year sentence.

Not given to learn from history, Qazi Hussain Ahmad, speaking to a gathering of 4,000 followers on Dec 8, vowed that his party will help Iraq physically and financially in case of an American attack.

Can I propose that Qazi Hussain Ahmad and his 4,000 men be immediately provided a one-way ticket and dropped in Baghdad as soon as possible?

While persuading others, he managed to keep himself well away from the Afghan war. This time we should not lose this great opportunity to enable him to do so. It would be great if someone could also motivate Fazlur Rahman, Samiul Haq, Maulana Noorani and Azam Tariq to avail themselves of this excellent opportunity.

NAEEM SADIQ

Ontario, Canada

Friday as working day

ONCE again there are reports in the press that the government is seriously considering reverting to Friday as the weekly holiday.

Friday was turned into a working day in response to the requirements of the business community, particularly exporters, who were out of touch with almost half the world for four days in a week.

Even from the point of view of religion, mosques are more crowded and better utilized for Friday prayers when that day is a working day. What do the mullahs want? Deserted mosques?

In any case, instead of a knee-jerk reaction, the matter should be thoroughly discussed and debated in the assemblies before a final decision is taken.

I sincerely hope that politicians will demonstrate some maturity and take all aspects into consideration so that we take a decision once and for all.

NAZIM HAJI

Karachi

PTCL’s apathy

THROUGH these columns, we, the residents of R-347, 348, 349 and 350, Sector 15-A/5, Buffer Zone, North Karachi, want to draw the attention of the PTCL authorities towards our problem.

The PTCL does not have our telephone bills delivered at our homes, thus forcing us to get duplicate bills before the due date. We have been facing this problem for many months now.

In November too, we did not receive our telephone bills. We had to acquire duplicate bills before the due date (Nov 11).

We urge the PTCL authorities to realize the sufferings we face in obtaining duplicate bills as due dates are changed every month. In case of late payment, we face more difficulties. If the bills are not delivered on time, it is the PTCL’s fault for which the company should be penalized and not customers.

Perhaps PTCL should consult the billing departments of the Southern Sui Gas Company which sends bills to consumers well in time.

Why can’t the PTCL learn to be efficient and competent as is the SSGC? How long will we continue to suffer because of incompetence and carelessness of the PTCL billing department?

The inefficiency of the PTCL staff is fast eroding the consumers’ confidence in the company.

AFFECTED RESIDENTS

Karachi

Park littered with rubbish

I TOOK my children to one of Lahore’s popular recreational parks. It was the second day of Eid and the park was full of people with children playing all around. But it pained me when I saw the beautiful park littered with plastic bags, juice cans and food remnants.

Once in the United States of America I went out for an early morning walk to a park. There I saw about 20 people walking here and there and picking up what little rubbish was thrown around by late-night visitors and dumping it into trash bins.

When I threw an empty cigarette box, a young student picked it up and handed it back to me while saying very politely, ‘Sir, throw this at some proper place.’

I think we are not interested in keeping our places of recreation clean. There were not enough trash cans for the size of the park and no notice asking visitors not to throw rubbish.

MANSAB MAHTAB

Lahore

Sense of duty

‘SENSE of duty in the face of death’ (Dec 10) by S. Raza Hassan was an excellent write-up.

I thank Dawn for acknowledging the efforts of these selfless workers associated with the Edhi Foundation. Abdul Sattar Edhi has become an angel of blessings for the nation. He and his colleagues are doing a tremendous job by helping a large number of distressed and poor people.

The media must acknowledge the services being rendered by the Edhi Foundation.

NOOR ALI R. NARSI

Texas, USA

Costlier visits for Pakistani expatriates

I RECENTLY visited the Pakistan consulate office in Los Angeles to get some details about dual nationality, permission for which was announced by the government of Pakistan about four months back. To my surprise, the consulate staff were completely ignorant about it.

The staff laid emphasis on some other ‘identity cards’ that Nadra has introduced recently. They were the Pakistan Origin Card (POC) for people of Pakistani origin, who have acquired citizenship of some other country, and the National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis (NICOP) for persons holding Pakistani passports.

The fees for these cards ranged from $25 to $125 depending upon the validity period of the cards. The last date for acquiring these cards is March 31, 2003. Thus, Pakistanis will have to incur multiple expenses imposed by various agencies to visit their country of origin.

I wonder what would happen if an overseas Pakistani does not obtain an NICOP by the due date and goes to Pakistan with a valid passport. Would he be denied entry to his own country?

M. AKRAM

Los Angeles, US

Distribution of Zakat

The government distributes a big amount as Zakat among the needy every year. However, many Mustehqeen fail to benefit from this system due to their ignorance.

The procedure for applying for Zakat requires an application to be recommended by a member of the Zakat committee. But people generally do not know as to who this person is in their locality. It is also usually not known as to where the application is to be submitted.

It is, therefore, suggested that the procedure for applying for Zakat be simplified. It would be more convenient for the applicants if applications for Zakat are submitted through the area councillor and the procedure is publicized through the media.

SHAMIM AHMAD

Karachi

Supply of dirty water

WE, the residents of Block C, North Nazimabad, Karachi, have been receiving contaminated water for three weeks. We have been facing great hardships as we cannot use this water for either drinking and cooking.

All our visits to the KWSB office have failed to change the situation. News reports were published in Dawn on Nov 11 and Dec 4 to highlight this issue, but no action has been taken by the KWSB yet.

The residents of this locality belong to the middle class and cannot afford to buy water from tanker operators for a long period.

We request the authorities concerned to issue directives for removing the fault immediately.

RAIS ZAIDI

Karachi

Plight of Umra pilgrims

RECENTLY, I performed Umra with my mother. The journey was undertaken through a travel agency approved by the Saudi government and their agents at Lahore.

I want to highlight some of the miseries being faced by Pakistani Umra pilgrims, as mistreatment of pilgrims has become a routine since the introduction of the new Umra policy.

On arrival at Jeddah, pilgrims have to wait for hours before being taken to Makkah. But no arrangements are made for seating, for offering prayers or for refreshment. The lack of such arrangements causes extra fatigue to pilgrims.

A very serious negligence on the part of Saudi travel agents, called muallims, is that they do not often book hotel accommodation for which they have already charged pilgrims.

My muallim charged me $392 for hotel accommodation and confirmed the booking to me before the start of my journey but, on arrival in Makkah, I found that neither was there any room reserved for us in that hotel nor was there any room vacant at that time. The embarrassment of a traveller, accompanied by a 73-year-old lady, can be well imagined. Subsequently, accommodation was arranged at another hotel, which was both overcrowded and of poor standard.

Most of the pilgrims were compelled to stay at other hotels on their own. The same story was repeated at Madinah.

Under the new policy, the return ticket is taken away by the travel agent when a traveller lands at Jeddah and is returned to him only three hours before the scheduled departure time.

As a result of this, it is not possible for the pilgrim to get his booking reconfirmed. Consequently, many are forced to extend their stay for several days. This causes them great hardship and also a substantial loss of money.

The fact is that, as things are now, a pilgrim remains under constant tension for one reason or the other, all through his stay in the holy land.

It is, therefore, felt that travel agents must be directed to improve their services. The policy of retaining return tickets with the agents should be discontinued. If this is not possible, the tickets should be returned to the pilgrims two or three days in advance of the departure date so that there is time enough for re-confirmation. Complaint centres should be established by the Saudi government at Makkah and Madinah.

TAHIR MAHMOOD NADEEM

Lahore