Checks without balances

THE main thrust of the regime’s argument for constitutional changes is to introduce a system of “checks and balances” between various institutions and offices functioning under the Constitution. Let this be the touchstone. Does the LFO cater to this basic argument? No, it draws from the powers of parliament and the prime minister to vest the office of the president with authority that encroaches on the sovereignty of parliament and reduces the prime minister in his own cabinet to an equal among the equals. A lot has been said on this issue. Let the people of Pakistan sit in judgment.

The LFO, under Article 58(2)(b), provides the president with the power to dissolve the National Assembly. This experiment in our chequered parliamentary history has added to political instability as the relation between the president and the prime minister becomes strained. This power hits at the root of the parliamentary democracy as the sovereignty of the National Assembly becomes captive in the hands of an individual. Article 112(2)(b) provides the corresponding power of dissolving the provincial assembly to the governor with the prior approval of the president. This is an encroachment on provincial autonomy. Islamabad will decide the life of a provincial assembly to the exclusion of its electorate.

Under these Articles the lives of “five assemblies” rest in the hands of a single individual with no fetters on the use of this power. The implication of this provision is fully understood when it is read with Article 101(1) where the advice of the prime minister is not binding on the president for the appointment of the governor. Under Article 224(i) Proviso, it is the president’s discretion to appoint a caretaker government on the dissolution of the National Assembly, and similar discretion vests in the governor after seeking the approval of the president. A plain reading makes it evident that from dismissing the National Assembly to the appointment of the caretaker government, the president acts without any check or restraint.

Under Article 59(b) and (c) the manner in which the senators from FATA and the Federal Capital are to be elected will be prescribed by the president. Article 71(4) stipulates that the president may in consultation with the speaker and chairman Senate formulates the rules for the mediation committee, which is a committee of both houses. It is a departure from the tradition that a committee of parliament should have its rules formulated by the president to the exclusion of the houses and its presiding officers.

The National Security Council alters the basic structure of the Constitution. Under Article 152-A the president presides over the NSC. The gambit of the presidential powers goes beyond Article 243(3). The president has the discretion in the appointment of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Services Chief and in determining their salaries and allowances this is in addition to the appointments to be made by the president to other constitutional offices and statutory bodies as conferred by other orders, ordinances and notifications. All these acts and actions taken are seeking validation under a new Article 270 AA in the LFO.

Article 260 has been amended and no advice is binding on the president. Through Article 268 (2) and Schedule VI an unjustified restraint has been placed on parliament and the provincial assemblies wherein certain laws specified cannot be amended or repealed without the prior consent of the president.

If the offices of the president and the COAS vest in one person, then you are combining the offices of the: (i) the president, (ii) the supreme commander of the armed forces, (iii) the chief of army staff, (iv) the chairman of the NSC and (v) the chairman of the national command structure into one. Is this diversification of power?

Let me now refer to another argument of the government, i.e. the LFO is of no concern to the common man. Article 270 AA is the mother of all articles. It seeks validation of all president’s orders, ordinances, CE orders and all other laws made between the October 12, 1999, till date. It also seeks validation of all orders made, proceedings taken, appointments made including secondments and deputations. On record since October 1999 the following ordinances have been promulgated, 1999 — 24 ordinances, 2000 — 66 ordinances, 2001 — 67 ordinances, 2002 Jan to Oct — 72 ordinances and since the assembly came into existence, i.e. Oct 10 to Dec 2002 — 65 ordinances have been promulgated. There is a plethora of other legislations that is to be validated including IRO 2002, economic laws and laws effecting the human rights of the common man.

SENATOR MIAN RAZA

RABBANI

Karachi

World Environment Day

CAN the humans enjoy life to its fullest without causing harm to the environment? Questions like this are raised on the occasion of World Environment Day that falls each year on June 5, but the challenges such questions pose are there to stay for long.

The increasing world population, rapid industrialization and slow development of cost-effective eco-benign technologies are putting great pressure on the resources of the earth. To carve out newer settlements for the world population, forests are being cut and wetlands flatten. To generate employment, national parks and other areas having protected animals and plant species are being made the target of industrialization, mining, oil and gas exploration, etc.

To feed the burgeoning populace, more and more grasslands and savannas are being converted into agricultural lands. Fresh water bodies like streams, lakes and rivers have either got polluted or started drying. The global forest loss estimated by the satellite technology for the period 1981-1990 comes to 170,000km per year. Global warming, changing weather patterns, frequent floods are just a few manifestations of the things to come.

The stability of the earth and the ecology of its natural systems are fast nearing critical threshold. Due to the over-exploitation of resources, the possibility of the earth becoming inhospitable to any kind of life cannot be ruled out. Gradual shrinkage in the carrying capacity of our planet may lead to the disintegration of those very conditions that once made possible the origin of life here. It seems that the insatiable greed of humanity for the earth resources will leave nothing to live on or even to survive for the generations to come.

At the World Summit of 1992 at Rio de Janeiro, 152 nations signed a convention for conservation of biodiversity and to ensure its benefits reach all. The nations of the world will have to launch joint efforts to arrest the amount of the strain being put on the earth ecology by human activities.

Social scientists, economists, ecologists the world over have started to question the validity of existing consumption-driven economic growth as the panacea of our needs. The concept of sustainable development and socio-economic system, environmentally and globally fair lifestyles and eco-friendly cost-effective technologies need to be put into practice.

ARIF-UZ-ZAMAN

Karachi

Heritage buildings

I READ an article (May 21) by Mr Mansoor Ahmed about rescuing heritage buildings. This is absolutely correct.

At present, in Russia there are some famous heritage buildings in Petersburg which are being preserved and protected. To celebrate their existence for the past 300 years, the country is arranging shows and other musical programmes. It is not selling its heritage buildings, as is being done in Karachi.

It is surprising that in Pakistan old and heritage buildings are being sold and converted into commercial complexes. According to a government notification, the heritage property cannot be sold or demolished. But the land mafia is doing this with the help of some corrupt officials.

ONE WHO KNOWS

Karachi

Intelligence mechanism

A TRICKY, clever and cunning offer from Mr Yashwant Sinha, foreign minister of India, for joint intelligence mechanism is to drag Pakistan into a trap before the meeting of the two ‘bigs’ of Pakistan and India. The sole objective of giving such a statements is to create more and more misunderstanding between the Kashmiri leadership, Pakistan, and the Jihadi groups so that their attention can be diverted from the Kashmir problem for a long time.

Mr Sinha knows very well that by creating a misunderstanding before a summit meeting, Pakistan will have weak, confused and unclear views about the Kashmir solution. So, it is necessary for Pakistan to be very careful about such statements from the Indian side.

In my opinion, the Pakistani leadership should keep silent about the joint intelligence mechanism.

NAZIM ALI HOTHI

Karachi

Understanding the Iraqi Shias

THE article on the above subject by Mr Murtaza Razvi (May 17) is very educative and illuminating.

I find that the line drawn by the Iraqi Shias between the spiritual and the temporal affairs of the community/state is most realistic and pragmatic. Look at what we have landed ourselves into by giving to the clergy the right to put forth and try to enforce the brand of Islam and Shariat of each individual school of thought.

Can’t we learn from others, or will we continue proclaiming that we are better Muslims than those in the rest of the world?

DR BUSHRA ALI

Lahore

PCB regional clinics

THE recently-launched PCB Imran Regional Cricket Clinics are a step in the right direction, for it is likely to help improve the standard of cricketing in the country, provided that these efforts continue without any let or hindrance.

That Imran Khan has bounced back to rebuild the infrastructure of the Pakistan cricket is heartening, specially against the backdrop of the poor cricket the national team played in the World Cup 2003.

Equally welcome is the PCB’s pledge to help develop the regional infrastructure of the game. I wish Imran Khan, Ramiz Raja and the PCB chairman best of luck.

MANSOOR AHMED KHAN

Karachi

MMA’s Islamization drive

THE recent diktat issued by the MMA in the NWFP throws light on the abysmal lack of knowledge prevailing among the mullahs and their MMA cohorts. In an attempt to Islamize the irrelevant, they have made a laughing stock of themselves. Anyone with the least sense of history knows that the shalwar (shawol) and kameez (qamis) are essentially non-Arab, non-Islamic dress forms, that originated in Parthian Iran (248BCE-224AD).

The words shalwar and kameez are both from the Pahlavi language, a Middle Iranian language that developed from Old Persian, the language of the Zoroastrians of Iran. The use of the shalwar and kameez as a national Iranian costume can be seen from Parthian times and the best known examples are the large bronze statue from Shami in southwestern Iran dated late 1st century BCE and found in the Tehran Museum; and the statue of the worshipper from Hatra in Iraq, depicting a shalwar and a belted kameez.

Similarly, the statue from Bard-i-Nishandeh from southwestern Iran, 3rd century AD, depicts a royal Parthian personage wearing the shalwar and kameez. In fact, this early Zoroastrian Iranian dress became so popular that it was later widely adopted by non-Arab countries from Central Asia to the subcontinent.

If anything, the shalwar-kameez is a Zoroastrian Iranian national costume, and despite the Arab invasion of Iran in the 7th century the Parthian shalwar-kameez prevailed as a dress code in most of these countries. This can also be seen by its continuous usage for over 2,000 years in the villages of Kurdistan, Azerbaijan, Yazd and Luristan in Iran.

I wonder what the mullahs of the MMA have to say over them making it mandatory to adopt a dress code, which is essentially as non-Islamic in origin as is the trouser and shirt.

F. ALI

Karachi

A tale of two cities

TWO news items published in your issue of May 14 are worth noting: one refers to paucity of funds because of which the city government’s development work has come to a halt.

The report says that all development activities by the city government and all the 18 town municipal administrations (TMAs) have almost come to a halt owing to the short payment made by the federal government under the head of matching grants and the transfer of funds by the Sindh government under the head of property tax.

The matching grant is provided to the city district government by the federal government in lieu of octroi which was abolished in July 1998, but owing to the continuous short payments, a amount of Rs2,161.929 million has become outstanding against the federal government.

The other report was about mega uplift projects in Lahore. It said the Punjab government would soon launch a number of multi- million-rupee projects in Lahore in an attempt to outmatch the previous government in performance. Financial commitments for the proposed projects have already been obtained.

Actually this has been the fate of Karachi since the first successful coup in 1958. I would not like to comment further, otherwise, I would be accused of treason and separatism.

SYED SAJID ALI

Karachi

Defaulters of bank lockers

A FEW public notices have been issued by the Sargodha region branches of the National Bank of Pakistan, calling upon the locker-holders, most of whom have not paid the rent for the last over 20 or so years, to pay off their outstanding dues. They have been warned further that if they fail to do so within seven days, the bank would break open their lockers, and confiscate the contents, if any.

The question arises, why did the bank not take notice of the default on the part of the locker-holders for such a long time? I wonder if the officials concerned have been taken to task to avoid repetition of such serious lapses, which are taking place because of lack of accountability so rampant in all institutions, including the nationalized banks.

DR NISHAT AFZA

Lahore

Hill Park

BEING a regular visitor to the Hill Park, I would like to highlight some of the problems faced by the people like me.

Unfortunately, the park lacks maintenance. The roads are broken and in a pitiable condition. It is difficult to walk on them. There is also the menace of pye-dogs who roam about freely and are a source of constant inconvenience to the people. Then there are teenagers who play cricket in open spaces. Several elderly people have been hit and injured by cricket balls.

I request the Sindh chief minister to rid the park of pye-dogs and cricketing and ensure repairs of the roads.

K. MURAD BEY

Karachi

Health care in Pakistan

I WAS horrified to read Ayaz Amir’s column titled ‘Health care in the Islamic Republic‘ (May 17).

It was disheartening for me to be equated with a jailer and my workplace to be derided as being worse than a prison. Why are some of our health facilities in this abysmal state? The blame lies squarely on the shoulders of our political masters, policy planners and the so-called intelligentsia. These are the very people who, at the slightest ache or pain, make a beeline to fly abroad for investigation or treatment. If they were to use these facilities on a daily basis, I am sure they would recognize the shortcomings and then great improvements would take place.

While I accept that corruption and acceptance of perks are prevalent in the medical profession, specially in its higher echelons, measuring everybody with the same yardstick is not correct.

MOHAMMED SAEED QURAISHY

Karachi

Evaluation of teachers’ performance

THIS refers to Prof Roedar Ahmad Khan’s letter titled “Evaluation of teachers’ performance” (May 25).

I do agree with his comments that “all over the world, with the exception of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal and maybe a couple of other small countries, there is no country in the entire world where teachers, whether working in primary schools or in universities, are not subjected to students’ evaluation at least once every six months. The teaching grade point average is then used in the retention, promotion and confirmation of the teacher concerned”.

His suggestion to introduce the “teaching grade point average” system in Pakistan is one of the steps that can bring an improvement in the falling standard of education in the country. But, for the successful implementation of any new system, it is always good to learn from similar experiences.

I am not aware of other universities of Pakistan but such a system was introduced in the Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro, in 2001. The idea was strongly resisted by the university teachers’ association, as it was felt by the teaching community that the vice chancellor would take advantage of that system to deprive the teachers of their due promotions and other benefits whom he did not like. Also, the teachers who were not performing their professional duties properly did not favour such an idea.

There was another view that students were not mature enough to judge their teachers’ performance and they might give poor grades to the teachers who had been taking regular classes and gave a number of assignments. Therefore, it is much better to ask top 10 students of the class to evaluate the performance of a teacher and their comments about the subject improvement.

As the vice chancellor was determined to implement that system, an understanding was reached between the vice chancellor and the association not to consider teachers’ evaluation by the students for promotions and confirmation. All the students were provided with the evaluation sheets without printing their names on the day of their first examination paper. This exercise was conducted by the teachers of other departments to maintain the system transparent.

On the basis of such evaluation the teachers were provided with the grade points they received from the students. I was one of those teachers who received students’ comments. One thing I realized was that the students were mature enough to make good decisions. Although they might not be happy with the teachers who kept them busy during the session, in the end they decided to award good grades to such teachers.

Therefore, it is the need of the hour to introduce a teachers’ evaluation system in our academic institutions gradually. To make it acceptable, a criterion should be developed. Initially, the teacher receiving poor grades must be informed by the head of department with some warning, and if there is no improvement, then he/she should be deprived of some benefit.

MUKESH MATHRANI

Edmonton, Canada