Rethinking Kashmir policy

HOPE for peace and peaceful co-existence between India and Pakistan has grown after the initiative taken by Mr Vajpayee and Mr Jamali during the last one month. Perhaps, it is the last hope for normalization of relations between the two very hostile neighbours. Still there are apprehensions about the success of the forthcoming talks because of their different perceptions about various issues.

For example, Pakistan is insisting on making Kashmir a core issue and India is persisting on the annexation of Kashmir. This may lead to failure of the talks once again. The establishments on both sides of the frontier have not realized the ground realities of the present-day world. A clear example of this mindset is the proposed plan of Kashmir’s division unveiled by former diplomat Niaz A. Naik.

According to this plan, which is known as Chanab formula, the river Chenab will become a dividing boundary between Indian and Pakistan’s Kashmir. In this way, the valley will become a part of Pakistan, and the Hindu-majority Jammu will go to India. Now, one can ask him, who is he or anyone else to decide the fate of the Kashmiris? If we want to settle the issues rationally, we have to accept the right to self-determination of the Kashmiris and have to avoid introducing unrealistic formulas.

The army has been ruling this country directly or indirectly for the last 50 years. Now it is time to rethink our past behaviour and strategies and make changes to our foreign policy and perception about Kashmir.

Today, democracy is the only mode of governance and guarantee to all kinds of fundamental rights. We can say that social, political and economic development and strengthening of democracy and democratic institutions in Pakistan widely depend on better relations with India. It is now clear that a stronger and prosperous India is no threat to Pakistan and similarly a democratic and well-placed Pakistan is no threat to India.

MUQTIDA ALI KHAN MANSOOR

Karachi

PRIME Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali has announced some trust-building steps to create a cordial atmosphere before a dialogue with his Indian counterpart is held. The proposed measures include air, rail and bus links. He has also ordered release of all the stranded fishermen from the Indian side, and expressed his desire to send Pakistan’s high commissioner to India and seek the same from the Indian side.

These steps are not only courageous but also enough to show his sincerity in order to resume talks. Pakistan has been constantly saying for many years that it wants to have good relations with all its neighbours, including India. Pakistan has continuously been asking the international community to pressure India to hold talks, but India has been trying to run away from such talks owing to its own reasons.

To counter the Indian allegations regarding infiltration into Kashmir, Pakistan’s stand is clear. It is asking the United Nations to deploy its observers to monitor the situation on their own.

The recent steps taken by Mr Jamali deserve commendation from the world community whose responsibility it is now to persuade Indian authorities to come to the conference table.

SYED IMRAN ALI

Karachi

MBA as corporate secretary

THIS refers to a news item (March 18) and a letter published in Dawn (May 10) regarding the company secretary’s qualifications.

The company (corporate) secretary is a statutory position whose duties, though not clearly spelt out in the Companies Ordinance 1984 or the Listing Regulations, include minutes writing, presentations, management of shareholders’ affairs, compliance with relevant provisions of listing regulations, Companies Ordinance 1984 and any special enactment, and coordination with various administrative departments of corporate (company corporation or corporate body) regarding the implementation of the board’s instructions, directives and decisions.

Accordingly, he is expected to be proficient in written and spoken communications, knowledgeable about the business objectives of his corporate and financial, marketing and administrative methods and strategies applied to achieve them effectively. Besides, he is required to be conversant with the working and functions of the Stock Exchanges and Central Depository Company of Pakistan, and should be a specialist to act as an intermediary between the owners and the executive management through the board of directors.

Based on these points, the SECP, while proposing amendments to Companies (General Provisions & Forms) Rules 1984, may give due consideration to the following opinions:

(i) It will be more appropriate that the position is called corporate secretary instead of company secretary;

(ii) Besides qualifications like CA, ACMA, CS and LLB, an MBA may also be considered as a relevant academic qualification for a corporate secretary. In fact, there is already a good number of MBAs proving their worth as corporate secretaries in Pakistan;

(iii) As already included by the SECP in the Code of Corporate Governance, graduation with at least five years’ experience of managing corporate affairs or working as assistant corporate secretary of a public- listed company or corporation may also be considered as the qualification for the corporate secretary’s position.

AKHTAR KHAN

Karachi

ARY ‘Gold Card’ membership

ARY TV announces several times in its daily transmissions about its ‘Gold Card’ membership and urges the viewers to acquire it and enjoy a variety of benefits it confers.

According to ARY rules, the membership card is supposed to be delivered to a member within three to four weeks on receipt of his application. Unfortunately, I am having a bitter experience on this account as I have not received my card even after 10 weeks.

I applied for the card through the UBL Bank Square Branch, Lahore, on Feb 26, and my application, duly completed, was sent by the UBL to the ARY office at Karachi the same day. After waiting for the card for six weeks, I wrote to the Karachi office of ARY on April 12 inquiring about the card but they did not bother to reply. Subsequently, I spoke to the UBL officer who had handled my case. He cooperated and telephoned ARY Karachi twice to send the card, but to no avail; they chose to remain silent.

You can imagine my frustration and mental anguish at this inexplicable delay in the delivery of my card. Further, groups of youngsters claiming to be ARY reps are roaming about in the city accosting people and offering them membership cards for Rs1,400 as against Rs2,000 being charged by the UBL from its account holders and promising to deliver the membership card within 10 days.

I myself was accosted by such a group some time ago. Even if it is assumed that these youngsters are authorized reps of ARY, how it would justify the difference in the charges of the UBL and that of the reps.

This is nothing short of a scandal and is bound to damage the reputation and credibility of ARY. Will the ARY “high-ups” take immediate notice of the facts mentioned above and clarify the position before it is too late.

SYED IRFAN AHMED

Lahore

Rescuing heritage building

A NEWS item appeared in Dawn on Jan 11, saying that the Sindh government has directed the city district government, Karachi, to immediately stop construction activities at the old KMC building on M. A. Jinnah Road as it was covered by the Sindh Cultural Heritage Protection Act.

It is stated further that the Sindh Cultural Heritage Preservation Act’s section 18 (penalty) says: “Whereas any person, including the owner, destroys, removes, damages, alters or defaces a protected heritage... he shall be punished with a fine which may extend to Rs100,000 or with imprisonment which may extend to three years or with both.”

A building which was declared heritage property by the Sindh Cultural Heritage Protection Act is being demolished and reconstructed without any formal approval from the concerned authority.

The Sindh government, as well as the Karachi Building Control Authority, is aware that heritage building cannot be demolished at any cost.

Recently, a heritage building on property No. 4, Survey Sheet No. RB-7 on M. A. Jinnah Road, Karachi, has been purchased by a builder who intends to demolish it and build shops and other commercial premises.

We hope the authorities will look into the matter.

MANSOOR AHMED

Karachi

Kidney patients

MR Ayaz Amir in his column (May 17) has mirrored the sentiments of dialysis patients.

He rightly mentions that dialysis treatment is very costly — between Rs40,000 and Rs50,000 per patient per month.

He also reminds the government that dialysis treatment in Nawaz Sharif’s era was free for everybody. It is not possible for a poor man or even a person of middle class to afford such huge expenses involved in the lengthy treatment of kidney patients.

It is hoped that the government would make enough provision in the next budget to restart the abruptly-ended dialysis treatment and alleviate the sufferings of kidney patients.

FURRUKH M.S. TABBA

Karachi

Prince Sadruddin remembered

PRINCE Sadruddin, son of the late Aga Khan III and uncle of the present Aga Khan, died recently at the age of 70 at Geneva. He was connected intimately with Pakistan. Whenever there was a refugee problem — for example, in the late fifties — he as the high commissioner for refugees at the UN, Geneva, liberally helped in settling it and providing assistance.

He had visited Pakistan several times. At world conferences whenever a finger was wrongly raised at Pakistan, he would stand up to put things straight. He was also a great collector of Islamic art works which were kept in his personal museum at Geneva in his very big house which he called after the area of people living there as “Chateau de Bellerive”.

Professor Mohammad H. Kerawalla has the following interesting facts and figures: Prince Sadruddin was born on 17-1-1933. If we add all these four figures that is 17 + 1 + 19 + 33 the total comes to 70 which was his age when he passed away, that is 1933-2003.

SHERALI ALIDINA

Karachi

Robbery on motorbike

MY sister and wife were going to attend their aunt’s soyem on May 9. When they reached near the Shah Faisal Colony police station, Karachi, a person on a motorbike appeared behind them and snatched my sister’s handbag. As she was not prepared for this sudden attack, she fell on the ground and received severe head injuries. Now she is in the intensive care unit of a city hospital.

The robber disappeared from the scene, with her bag containing valuables and cash.

Many incidents of this nature take place every day here. Is there no law-enforcement authority to prevent such happenings?

FAYYAZ ALI

Karachi

Sports officials’ indifference

THE Pakistan Sports Board has stopped grants of 14 sports federations for not implementing the sports policy. But the Pakistan Football Federation is not worried about it (May 8).

It reminds me of an incident when a football team went to Japan and all its members disappeared while the Japanese hosts kept waiting for them on the football ground. Insiders claim that the so-called players were actually visa seekers who paid paid handsome money to the officials concerned to go to Japan under the cover of football players.

If the PSB thinks that such people will be affected by stopping the grants, they are living in some other world. Former sports minister S. K. Trusler has very rightly called such sports set-ups “mafia”. Some of the following incidents confirm his statement:

a. Hockey teams smuggling case in 1984.

b. Disappearance of our players in Atlanta, Sydney, Manchester, Hiroshima, and several other places.

c. Letters to the embassies by tennis, kabaddi and wrestling federations for visas under the cover of sports visits while many went abroad and disappeared.

d. Disappearance of the whole baseball team in the US.

e. Arrest of five wrestlers by French embassy in 1998.

Unfortunately, the “mafia” is being handled by incompetent people who get high-ranking sports appointments through ‘sifarish’.

When incompetent people will handle the mafia, the mafia will not be worried, but Pakistan’s sports-loving people are definitely worried about the performance of their sportsmen/ sportswomen at international level. Let the NAB handle the sports cases. I am sure many people will come forward with documentary proofs to assist the NAB against such elements.

LATIF UR REHMAN

Tando Muhammad Khan

Essential medicines

THIS refers to the article, “Essential medicines in short supply”, by Mr Nasir Iqbal (May 8). We are surprised to see the name of thyroxine among the medicines in short supply.

Years ago we became aware of the fact that thyroxine sodium remained in short supply for protracted periods of time, owing to the inability of the companies manufacturing this drug to cope with the demand.

Platinum Pharmaceuticals decided in the year 2000 to market, as a service item, thyroxine sodium under the brand name of Thyro. Ever since we have ensured the continued availability of our product Thyro.

Marketing Manager Platinum Pharmaceuticals,

Karachi

Ties with Moscow

APROPOS of your editorial (May 15) under the above caption, I agree that with the end of the painful Afghan episode, both Pakistan and Russia would realize the need for opening a new chapter as there is no dispute that should keep them apart.

Pakistan and Russia have an old history of mistrust. The relations between the two countries were marred by circumstances for which neither Pakistan nor the Soviet Union is entirely responsible. In 1954 Pakistan became a member of a defence alliance; to which the Soviet Union protested and warned that this may worsen Soviet-Pakistan relations. Pakistan did not accept the Soviet contention, nor was the Soviet Union convinced by Pakistan’s reply that it would use US military aid exclusively to maintain its “national security” and “legitimate self-defence”; and “will not undertake any act of aggression against any other country”. It was from here that the relations between the two countries began to deteriorate.

It is a heartening sign that our relations with Russia are now improving. The beginning of a new phase has already been marked and one hopes that efforts will remain geared to further strengthen these relations.

President Musharraf’s visit to Moscow last February provided an occasion for a radical survey of the two countries’ bilateral relations and a means to enlarge the field of cooperation between them. The visit indicates that Pakistan’s relations with Russia are entering a new phase and it confirms the two countries’ keen desire to promote cordiality and understanding.

CHAGHTAI MIRZA EIJAZUDDIN

Karachi

‘Eat right, walk enough’

WITH reference to the news item headlined “Obesity induced ailments on the rise” (May 15), it is stated that health experts have stressed the need for adoption of the motto “eat less, walk more” to defeat obesity. To make it nutritionally corrected and explicit, it should be “eat right, walk enough”.

DR SYED ASLAM

Karachi

Cuts in NSS profit rates

WITH the announcement of the next budget, the middle class will be once again asked to make sacrifices. The national savings schemes (NSS) profit rates, which have been lowered several times in the last 18 months, are still to be lowered on the advice of the World Bank.

The country director of the WB, John Wall, wants the government of Pakistan to lower the rates on the NSS on the plea that they are much higher and are obstructing the flow of funds to the banking sector. Does the banking sector need more funds?

These WB wizards come once or twice a year, stay here for three or four days and become experts on our country’s economy. They have no clue to the situation on the ground. Does Mr Wall realize that almost all banks made a profit of over a billion rupees last year? Does he know that the banks are awash with liquidity and do not know what to do with the cash? Does he know that there is no investment taking place at the national or international level? Yet Mr Wall wants the NSS interest rates to be lowered, thereby curbing the purchasing power of the people, which in turn will bring down production of goods and create unemployment.

Do the government and the finance ministry not realize that the middle class is already at a starvation level? The WB has been asking the government for the last several years to reduce the defence budget. Can the ministry of finance reduce the defence budget?

The government should realize that the WB has totally ruined the economy of several South American and African countries because of their unsound economic policies. It should compare this with the economies of those developing countries that have refused to be guided by the WB and are prospering.

I request the president to look into this matter and help solve the problems of the middle class, since the finance ministry has no sympathy with the people of Pakistan.

A. REHMAN

Hyderabad

SENIOR citizens, retired persons, pensioners, widows and small investors in the national saving schemes have been living in a state of constant fear for the last three years, as they are not certain about what will happen to them next.

The finance minister and the State Bank governor have been shockingly oblivious of the suffering and plight of these people, caused by their unwise policies. The sufferers have not been able to comprehend as to why they alone have been picked up for such cruel treatment and made an easy target for revenue generation, which in fact is a drop in the ocean.

The income of investors in the NSS has been reduced by more than half on the basis of false fiscal banking notions having no relevance to the ground realities. The policies pursued are irrational, illogical and immoral, having no consideration whatsoever for the countless difficulties faced by the poor investors.

It appears that the managers of fiscal/banking policies have set their eyes on their hard-earned and tax-paid savings leaving them no avenues of investment to make their living. Where should these people go?

S. YASIN KHAN

Karachi