Speaker’s ruling: legal or illegal?

YOUR editorial headlined “Speaker’s ill-advised and ill-timed ruling” (June 17) has indeed correctly dealt with material aspects of the ruling of the Speaker of the National Assembly, Chaudhry Amir Hussain, announced all of a sudden by him on June 14.

While holding that the LFO was part of the Constitution of 1973, the three-page ruling categorically and unambiguously stated: “The amendments made in the Constitution through LFO, 2000, remain within the parameters laid down by the Supreme Court and do not violate any of the salient features identified by the apex court.”

Ironically and regrettably, the ‘coalition of the opportunists’, led by the king’s party, had, in fact, a walk-over in the National Assembly the same day, taking undue advantage of the absence of all the opposition members and against the democratic norms and parliamentary traditions, by manoeuvring to pass a so-called “unanimous” resolution reposing their full confidence in the leadership of General-cum-President Pervez Musharraf, who is most likely to boost his bargaining power during his meeting with President George Bush at Camp David (where the late President Sadaat of Egypt also had a disastrous meeting with another president of the United States), and speeding up the passing of the national budget without a single “no vote”.

It may be re-called that when the military government itself was shy of telling the whole truth and hid its real motives and intentions behind the 1973 Constitution from the public in general and the MNAs in particular, even at the time of administering the oath to the newly-elected members of the assembly, it so happened that Chaudhry Amir Hussain, soon after his election as Speaker, himself made comments in a press interview to the effect that the LFO was part of the Constitution. Consequently, Mr Liaquat Baloch showed his concern on the contradictory words and deeds of the military government and raised a point of order in the assembly on the uncalled-for comments of the Speaker on Nov 27 last year. But the Speaker slept over the point of order for the reasons best known to him. He, however, woke up after six months only to take the entire nation by surprise by his “uncalled-for and partisan ruling”, nay an illegal and void ruling, obviously made under duress in the circumstances, aggravating the already deteriorating confrontation between the military president and the combined opposition to the detriment of national unity and political stability.

You have rightly and aptly said that “the LFO is not an issue merely between the ruling party and the opposition. It is a national issue in which the lawyers’ associations, intellectuals, human rights activists and political elements outside parliament are equally involved.”

Without going into the legality and validity of the LFO or otherwise, suffice it to say that under the 1973 Constitution the functions and powers of the Speaker of the National Assembly are to preside over the meetings, control the debates impartially, preserve order in the house, provide fair opportunities to the members of all the parties without discrimination, participate in the proceedings and give rulings on the rules of procedure and conduct of business on the questions and issues as and when they arise in the assembly.

Under the Constitution, the Speaker is not invested with any such authority or judicial power to interpret the Constitution and Constitutional provisions and the amendments/additions therein and/or to adjudicate and give his findings/rulings on the questions and issues, raised in the assembly by way of points of order or otherwise, if so related with the Constitution or the law of the land.

It is the judges, who have the powers and functions to adjudicate, interpret and declare and give rulings/findings what the law is, although they do not make law. They have often declared that the defects or lacunas in legislation can only be cured by parliament.

Hence the ruling of the Speaker declaring and confirming the legality and validity of the LFO and the same being part of the Constitution is, it is most respectfully submitted, beyond the scope of his authority and power and as such void ab initio and of no legal effect, notwithstanding the success or failure of the no-trust motion, filed by the opposition against the Speaker.

SYED IQBAL AHMAD

Karachi

IT has been almost more than seven months since the elections were held. These elections were held under the LFO and with the president in uniform. All the parties participated in the elections, and their participation shows that they accepted the rules of the game.

The assemblies were called for to function and the people of Pakistan were hopeful that their problems would be discussed to reach some solutions. Unfortunately, this could not happen as the opposition started protests against the agreed circumstances. The question is, how long will this protest continue?

Now their leaders have tabled a no-confidence motion against the National Assembly speaker while they do form a simple majority in parliament. The defeat of the motion is obvious and nothing will be achieved by this action except that it has created disappointment, uncertainty, and unhappiness among the people of Pakistan.

MRS TANVIR KHALID

Senator,

Islamabad

Health-care regulations

IT is quite interesting to find comparable observations after the bitter experience as narrated by Mr Ayaz Amir in his column of May 17.

Health is an issue which was never taken seriously in our part of the world. When a queen dies following her 10th delivery, the king builds the Taj Mahal. In comparison, a Scandinavian king starts safe motherhood plans after the death of a commoner’s mother. As a result of such measures, there is zero maternal and infant mortality, as compared to 20,000 maternal deaths each year here — the highest infant mortality with 12 million or more morbid children because of malnutrition.

Moreover, there is continuous flooding of pharmacy market by the novel, expensive and dubious drugs associated with aggressive and unmonitored marketing technique, adopted by both multinational and local firms. Some unscrupulous elements exploit the uninitiated causing grievous harm to the profession and society.

The regulatory authorities may take the following steps immediately to check unethical practices:

1. Enforce regulations for good clinical practice guaranteeing the rights, safety and interests of the patients disregarding their personal interests.

2. No new drug should be introduced in the country without strictly following the technical requirements for the registration of pharmaceuticals for human use. These are provided by international conference on harmonization (ICH), comprising six countries and commissions (recently adopted by India).

3. Commissioning the central registry as ‘med watch‘ or pharmaco vigilance for reporting the adverse drug reactions and compensation to those who are affected.

4. Planning patient empowerment in terms of extensive health education to bridge the gap between ‘info haves‘ and ‘info have- nots.’

DR GHULAM ASGHAR

CHANNA

Karachi

Indo-Pakistan peace talks

INDIA is inching to have peace talks with Pakistan to settle the old unresolved issues.

Let them pick up old threads not only from the Simla talks but the Agra summit may also be taken into consideration to remove differences. The men and material wealth that have been wasted owing to hatred could have changed the fate of millions of poor people who are wallowing in poverty in both the countries. Both should now show flexibility and accommodation to have a meaningful dialogue and not let it end like all the previous attempts.

Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee should not be subdued by the extremists of his country. They must be made to realize the need for peace and good relations with the neighbours. India is a secular state and there is need to bring about a change in its internal and external policies and to ensure safety of its minorities.

Restriction on trade, travel by air, rail and road need to be relaxed and the Khokrapar route should be reopened. There should be an exchange of the intelligentsia, journalists, scientists, students, poets, writers, TV and cinema artistes and sportsmen to make a fresh start in reviving cordial relations. Both countries should consider bringing out commemorative stamps, postal rates be reduced, and exchange of all kind of books and periodicals be allowed as a goodwill gesture on this historic occasion.

Sanity demands that we should look ahead and not remain engaged all the time in illusions, wasting precious resources on fighting without any end-results.

M. SHAFIQUE AHMED

Karachi

Lahore railway station

WHENEVER one visits the Lahore railway station, one comes across heaps of garbage all around. The traffic mess makes it impossible for a person to park his car. The whole station gives a look of a fish market.

At the station there is no organization or proper coordination between the various railway departments. There is no arrangement for any security, considering the prevailing law and order situation.

The government should look into these matters to renovate and improve the platforms at the city and cantonment railway stations. It should also set up modern reservation and booking counters and remove unauthorized stalls.

MAJ-GEN (R) TAUFIQ AMIR

Lahore

Rights of old pensioners

THIS refers to a letter by K. A. Mulk of Chitral (June 18). He states that the government has disregarded the decisions of the Supreme Court and the Shariat Court owing to financial constraints. Can the government offer the same reason to its Pakistani and foreign debtors and postpone repayments? The answer can only be a ‘no’.

The old pensioners are being ignored only because they cannot take to streets or resort to any other means. We hope that Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, being a representative of the people, would direct the ministry concerned to bring the old pensioners’ pensions at par with those of the new pensioners, at least with effect from July 1, 2003.

AN OLD PENSIONER

Karachi

Plea to police

AS a person living near Gole Market, Nazimabad, I was shocked to notice the behaviour of some policemen in the area. One of them, especially, was treating push-cart owners and other shopkeepers brutally and demanding money. He was threatening them, brandishing his rifle butt at those who refused to pay him in cash or kind and abusing them — as if getting money or fruits and other things free was his right as a policeman.

I request the Karachi police chief to send plain-clothed men to the area to see things for themselves, ask the shopkeepers and push-cart owners about what is happening and take action against those of the cops who are abusing their authority.

JAMEEL ZAHID

Karachi

HBFC interest rates

THE house building loan by the government agency or bank is an instrument of facilitating the citizens to have a dwelling of their own as a part of social sector. Hence the interest rate should be simple and minimal, whereas the interest and mark-up charged by the HBFC is exploitative, ranging between 30 and 50 per cent, with the threat of auctioning of property mortgaged with it, even if some instalments are not paid on time.

On the basis of the formula devised by the corporation, the loan is to be repaid in 20 years but by that period the loanee would have paid three times more than the actual amount of the loan received.

Will parliament, the prime minister, the finance minister and the State Bank of Pakistan look into this serious matter and save the middle class and salaried people from such an oppressive rate of interest?

K. M. SHARIFF

Karachi

Contaminated water supply

A NUMBER of houses in Karachi’s Banglore Town are receiving contaminated water supply. The matter, reported to the Union Council office, has been receiving a good deal of attention but there is no engineering support. As a result, it has not been possible to locate the source of contamination, though several weeks have elapsed since it was detected. A life- threatening situation has arisen from such contamination.

The matter is being brought to the notice of the authorities concerned through your columns.

DR MUHAMMAD ILYAS

Karachi

Blaming Islam

MR Cowasjee may be a respected scholar in his field but he fails to impress in his articles about Islam and Shariat.

Anyway, we do not need to learn Islam from him as this is the duty which falls upon our Islamic scholars.

As far as his comments on the MMA’s adopted Shariat in the NWFP are concerned, Mr Cowasjee should bear in mind that purdah and ban on music are among the commands of Shariat. The pictures of women on display as are prevalent today are also banned by Islam whether it is to someone’s liking or not.

Please stop blaming Islam in the name of prosperity as it is the only way we can achieve it spiritually and materially.

ABDUL WAHAB

Karachi

Literature and vulgarity

THIS is with regard to a news item, captioned “Purging English literature of vulgarity” (May 23).

Being a student of English literature, I am in utter amazement at the sudden discovery of obscene and vulgar material in the syllabus of English literature taught at the postgraduate level in the University of Punjab. The syllabus has been found containing vulgar and immoral words like ‘wine’, ‘vodka’ and ‘sex’. The authorities concerned have been urged to take such words out of the syllabus.

These words might appear obscene or vulgar if used literally but the situation would be different if we notice in what context they are used and why. For example, the word ‘rape’ is held highly abominable. But the title of the poem, from where it is taken (Rape of the Lock), removes many doubts. Since it serves as a tool in the poet’s hands to criticize and ridicule the shallow standards of the 18th century English society. John Donne is also criticized for his love poems which are as playful and dramatic as those of Mirza Ghalib.

These words have not been referred repeatedly in our syllabus and whenever they are used, apparently the writer’s intention is not to pollute our minds. Rather, to use them on an informative scale. And if the university authorities still think the other way, why has the English literature been offered as an optional subject for such a long time?

Don’t we come across these words daily through numerous other mediums? If it is so, what can be said about Urdu literature which is not devoid of these terms?

FARAH SIDDIQUE

Lahore

Improving higher education

THE responsibilities of the CPSC, PMDC, PEC and HEC are more or less identical except that we often hear and read about the first three disaffiliating institutions, cancelling or suspending their degree-awarding status.

The CPSC, headed by Dr Sultan Farooqui, has done a good job in suspending the facility of allowing some of the very much known public and private sector hospitals to serve as teaching institutions for specialization. The PMDC too has boldly protected its right to impose minimum standards, and the institutions owned by some of the most influential persons have been denied recognition or their recognition has been suspended.

It is a known fact that the Pakistan Engineering Council also has and implements prescribed qualities and standards.

It is time the higher education commission came forward and ensured that:

i) the institutions offering degree programmes on sale with no market value are closed down.

ii) those not having qualified faculty, libraries and laboratories cease to function forthwith, and

iii) strict care is taken to check the proliferation of unauthorized institutions of higher learning.

If the HEC does not have the authority to do all that is stated above, it should be given that power and Dr Atta-ur-Rehman will surely see that the mess is set right. Education Minister Zubeida Jalal needs to act without further delay if the sanctity of our degrees is to be restored or kept at a reasonable level.

JAHANZEB KHAN

Islamabad

Muslims and 1946 polls

MUCH has been said about and written on the “MMA’s Islamization drive” in Pakistan, particularly in the North-Western Frontier Province. However, I would like to analyse the issue from a different angle.

The emergence of the Muslim religious parties, under the name of Mutahidda Majlis-i-Amal, after the general election in October 2002, was not unexpected. The religious parties of today have their roots in the Indian politics of the forties when the Muslims were struggling to achieve Pakistan.

Had the All India Muslim League asked the Muslims during the general election held in India in 1946 to vote for carving out an Islamic state in the subcontinent, the Muslims, particularly those belonging to the Muslim minority provinces, would have retorted: “Are we not Islamic?”, and abstained from a favourable franchise. Besides this, the religious parties like the Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind, the Jamaat-i-Islami and the Majlis-i-Ahrar, already opposing the establishment of an Islamic state at the behest of the All India National Congress, would have had created a rift among the Muslims on the pretext of deciding at first the form of Islam or fiqh (jurisprudence) to prevail in Pakistan.

To avoid embarrassment and conclude logically, Mr Jinnah fought the general election on national grounds, secured almost all Muslim seats in the central and the provincial assemblies and compelled the British government and the All India National Congress to divide India on the basis of the two-nation theory, into two sovereign states as “Hindu” India (Bharat) and “Muslim” India (Pakistan).

The words of Mr Jinnah that the Constitution of Pakistan was laid down in the holy Quran have been misunderstood as his intention to make the country into a theocratic or semi-theocratic state. Actually, he wanted to see Pakistan as a Muslim socio-democratic country and the Muslims following the injunctions of the Quran and Sunnat with wisdom and not blindly as dictated by the clerics.

Contrary to the ideology and visualization of Pakistan by Mr Jinnah, the Mutahidda Majlis-i-Amal is introducing Taliban’s Islam in Pakistan.

S. A. HAIRAT

Karachi