Growing ties with Russia
Pakistan's less than friendly relations with the USSR/Russian Federation have always been cause of regret for some Pakistanis. Most of them blame Pakistan for this and think that it all began with Liaquat Ali Khan who "decided to fly west instead of north" (Nov 17).
Since I served in Russia as an ambassador (1997-2000), I would like to set the record straight. It is absolutely incorrect that Liaquat Ali manoeuvred an invitation from Moscow to get one from Washington and when the latter was received, he shunned Moscow.
A very detailed account of this story is given by Hassan Zaheer in chapter four of his book, The Times and Trial of the Rawalpindi Conspiracy 1951. So, I will only mention two crucial points of this story:
1. It was Moscow that had cancelled the visit sine die and,
2. The US invitation was received after Moscow had called the visit off. The Russian foreign office records of the period, which were declassified while I was in Moscow, do not either put the blame on Liaquat Ali, though they indicate Moscow's irritation at the highly anti-communist tone of Pakistan newspapers.
Of course, the Russian FO records do not corroborate Hassan Zaheer's surmise that Moscow had called off the visit because it knew, or at least had an inkling, that a coup against Liaquat Ali was in the offing and did not want him to be there when it happened. A few more facts:
a. Prime minister Nawaz Sharif, then the chief executive, had paid an official visit to Moscow in April 1999, held an hour-long meeting with president Yeltsin, and talks with prime minister Primakov.
b. The current improvement in relations between Islamabad and Moscow is mainly due to post-9/11 changes in the region and President Musharraf's decision to join the war against terrorists, many of whom were/are Chechens.
It has nothing to do with India's ties with Washington. India continues to enjoy strategic relations with Moscow, which till today has not agreed to sell any advanced weapons system to Pakistan.
c. Building roads, hospitals and schools did not give the Russians the right to occupy Afghanistan nor deprive the Afghans of their right to fight occupation.
d. Yugoslavia's disintegration was caused by charismatic Tito's death and Serbian chauvinism under Milosevic, not by the meltdown of the USSR.
e. The cold war did offer the Third World comfort, but little else. The independence of 15 Soviet republics, freedom of East Europeans from Soviet shackles, the reunification of Germany and the flow of more aid to the Third World have, I think, compensated for the cold comfort of the cold war to developing countries.
MANSOOR ALAM
Former ambassador, Karachi
KDA property supermarket
I recently went to the Civic Centre, Karachi, to get the excise and taxation department to correct a wrongly issued property bill. I was surprised to see a huge crowd gathered on the ground floor even though there is no department located there.
The ground floor used to have several counters for the collection of different challans, but today there is only one, the information desk, which generally remains unmanned.
When I asked why so many people had gathered there I learned that they all worked for the KDA. They were all loudly bargaining and making noisy business negotiations for the buying and selling of land, mostly KDA schemes and properties.
I was told that this lobby was exclusively used by KDA staffers who now act as traders and estate brokers for land belonging to their own department. It is now allotted to either the staff members or the public, and if this is the service they are supposed to deliver, then they are doing a great job.
The floor looked like a busy stock exchange. Only the absence of desks and computers made it look different. They were scrutinising documents, exchanging files and making comments on their authenticity as openly as if this trading was part of their job. Even payments were made on the premises.
I was shocked that government servants were engaged in business during working hours in the same building where the honourable nazim's office is located. It is ironic that lawlessness, in discipline and something just short of a civil crime is taking place there and needs someone's immediate attention.
Someone has to make sure that the floor is used for the purpose it is meant for, rather than bidding for property and financial transactions by those who should be serving the citizens of Karachi.
If what I have said goes unnoticed, I will involuntarily be benefiting parties interested in buying and selling land. I hear KDA's Hawkesbay Scheme is going like hot cakes on the floor. Get in for a lifetime bargain!
A CITIZEN
Karachi
Higher currency notes
It is disheartening to know that the government has decided to print 5,000-rupee notes. Sir, the higher the value of notes, the more corrupt the government is, and vice-versa.
I had protested earlier during the premiership of Mohammad Khan Junejo when 500-rupee notes were the highest currency notes, but his government still introduced the 1,000-rupee note.
It is shocking that now, though the government claims to minimize corruption, it is facilitating both the briber and the corrupt government functionary who still have many discretionary powers in the matter related to the government's interest and its sources of revenue.
It is ironic that every successive government has had praise for the friendship between Pakistan and the People's Republic of China, but has failed to learn from the successes of China which achieved independence a year after we did.
On gaining independence in 1948 China's great leaders, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, and other comrades-in-arms, took the following important decisions to get rid of the feudalistic and corrupt culture of Chinese society:
1. They demonetized higher-value currency.
2. They banned people from wearing gold ornaments.
3. They banned costly imported clothes and instead made blue cold-proof dungarees for both genders compulsory.
4. They did away with land ownership in both rural and urban residential areas.
These laws were enforced for many years until capitalistic bearings were flushed out of Chinese society.
To date, has Pakistan made rules and laws compatible with such revolutionary changes? If we go deep into the short history of Pakistan, after the first political assassination of one of its founding fathers, no successive government has cared to adopt similar laws or rules in order to make the country a welfare Islamic republic.
It is, therefore, advisable that the government drop the scheme to introduce the 5,000-rupee note and instead demonetize the 1,000-rupee note. The government should do this if it is sincere about ending corruption. Pakistan is still among the first five of the most corrupt countries in the world.
SYED MOHAMMAD ZAKERYA KAZMI
Karachi
Not enough millwrights
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said at his recent meeting at Governor House in Lahore that people have degrees but don't have jobs. He went on to add that "we have to give them skills to absorb them in the local industry, which lacked skilled manpower. We have to restructure the educational system to produce skilled manpower" (Nov 17).
We have a dearth of millwrights (normally called field machinists). There is not a single school or technical training centre in Pakistan that imparts this skill, which is in great demand not only in Pakistan but also in the Middle East.
Millwrights are the people who can inspect, test, install, align, commission, repair, maintain and troubleshoot sophisticated machines like gas turbines, hydraulic turbines, steam turbines, engines, generators, pumps, compressors, gear boxes, fans, blowers and other machines used by the oil and gas, petrochemical, chemical, fertilizer, power generation, sugar, cement and textile industries.
We are expecting one billion dollars in defence aid from America. If only 10 per cent of this amount is spent one time on international training, equipment, training aids, technical literature and other necessary tools for quality training in this field, it will help Mr Aziz fulfil his desire.
He can consider making this a part of the deeni madressah curriculum for enlightened modernization. The infrastructure is there since there are thousands of deeni madressahs that operate in the country. Try visualizing a graduate from a deeni madressah with these skills:
a. He will not be dependent on mosques alone for his livelihood.
b. The stranglehold of different organizations would loosen on this individual.
c. He could get a reasonable job or start his own business.
d. He would enjoy reasonable status in society, where maulvis have no standing.
e. For once he could dream of going to the Middle East to earn petro-dollars.
S. NAYYAR IQBAL RAZA
Karachi
Shortage of skilled labour
Institutes like the Punjab Vocational Training Council (PVTC) are doing a laudable job to produce skilled labour, but only 17,000 skilled persons have graduated from the vocational training institutes set up by the PVTC, which is a small drop in the ocean.
The idea of utilizing Zakat funds to offer technical training to the Mustahqeen-i-Zakat has worked quite well and many youngsters have turned into bread winners since the inception of the PVTC.
But still, the number of students emerging from these institutes is not enough to fill the gap of skilled labour in the country, and the government should do more.
This is all the more urgent because local industry, especially the value-added industry, is going to face strong competition soon after the implementation of the quota-free regime where quality would be the name of the game.
This is why most textile millers are worried about the lack of skilled labour in the country in order to compete with the emerging challenges of the post-quota free regime.
The government urgently needs to involve the chambers of commerce and industry, as well as other associations, in the growth process of skilled labour. It should be mandatory for them to immediately establish technical training institutes to produce the required number of skilled labourers in their sectors.
HARIS WASEEM
Lahore
Recycling hospital waste
In Pakistan hospital waste is not safely disposed of. Hospital waste is either dumped at community waste sites, 'kuchra kundis', or sold directly to junk dealers.
Scavengers, driven by extreme poverty and ignorant of the risks, sort and handle the infected materials at community waste sites. They pick up anything worth reselling, and syringes and infusion and blood bags are their favourite items.
Scavengers and sweepers at healthcare facilities also sell this waste to junk dealers. The plastic-ware industry is the biggest buyer of used syringes, infusion and blood bags.
Any hospital waste left by scavengers is either taken away in open trucks by municipal authorities for final disposal or burned, thereby polluting the environment. And before this stage, dogs, cats and birds in search for food at community waste sites spread the infectious materials to the neighbourhood.
It is ironic that the local government, which has a major incineration plant, is unable to run it to full capacity because it does not get enough waste from hospitals.
According to an estimate, in Karachi, out of 8,000 tonnes of refuse generated every day, 0.5 per cent is hospital waste, generated by well over 400 hospitals, clinics and laboratories. According to an Environment Protection Agency study on hospital waste, 20 per cent of hospital waste generated every day in the city is infectious.
On average scavengers report three to five needle stick injuries in a day. Similarly, junk dealers also get needle stick injuries quite frequently. The unsafe disposal of hospital waste may be one of the reasons we have a high prevalence of hepatitis B and C in the country, particularly among healthcare workers.
A study conducted in Karachi among healthcare workers reported a high prevalence of hepatitis B, reaching 20 per cent in the sweepers of a medical centre. This is alarming. While some of the larger hospitals do have waste disposal facilities, every hospital and clinic cannot afford incinerators.
The government must set up centralized disposal points for hospital waste in major towns. In Karachi, the city government provides a disposal service that collects and incinerates waste from hospitals for a fee. Despite this, most hospitals prefer to dump their waste in the open.
Most important of all, the authorities must crack down on the trade in recycled syringes and impose stiff penalties on those who profit from these deadly practices.
We also need to implement a law for safe hospital waste disposal. It will establish legal control and will also allow the responsible agency, particularly the ministry of health, to apply pressure.
We need to identify ways to safely dispose hospital waste without harming the interests of low-income people who are self-employed and the plastic-ware industry.
DR AYAZ AZHAR SIDDIQUI
Karachi
Girls not women
Throughout Pakistan all government colleges for girls bear one and the same name: "Govt. College for Women". It is necessary to change these names to Govt. Girls College for the following reasons:
A girl can disagree with being called a woman, because the word 'woman' suggests an older person. One day, my uncle, who is a professor, was delivering a lecture to a class of girls when they all suddenly started to talk.
This behaviour annoyed him and he said to them that "women are talkative by nature". The girls stood up and reacted by saying, "Sir, we are not women, but girls". The professor replied, "I am not saying this on my own. Go to your college's gate and look at the board that says 'Women'."
The girls had no answer and their helplessness pained me too. But on the other hand, across Pakistan, government colleges for boys also uniformly bear the same name: Govt. College for Boys. This reflects a grammatical contradiction because they are not called Govt. College for Men, which would be the equivalent of Govt. College for Women.
I appeal to the government to change 'Govt. College for Women' to 'Govt. Girls College' and Women's University to Girls' University to abolish social discrimination and prejudice against girl students.
PROF. S. MAZHAR HUSSAIN RIZVI
Lahore
Re-employing army men
I have observed that while quite a few civilian officers are re-employed in the civil services after reaching the super annuation age of 60, there is no such provision in the armed services where both officers and Jawans retire rather early in their thirties or forties. Their training and experience is wasted and they are left to fend for themselves in a small job market.
I propose that after they retire both officers and soldier cadres of the armed services be inducted to police service after a three-month orientation course at police academies.
This would help improve the traditional "thana" culture and make use of members of a disciplined and highly trained force to fight crime and terrorism. President Gen Pervez Musharraf ought to give this serious thought in the national interest.
DR M. YAQOOB BHATTI
Lahore
Muslim society
This refers to Mr Anwar Syed's article "Women in Muslim society" (Nov 21). He has quoted many verses from the Holy Quran but not any Hadith. I am sure the Holy Prophet (PBUH) must have elaborated these verses as he was assigned to teach the Book, i.e. Moalim-ul-Kitaab. We must keep his sayings in mind to understand the meaning of the Book.
I request the writer to throw some light on this also.
MOHAMMAD ASHRAF
Karachi
Expensive passports
Passports have now become more expensive since the government stopped making the manual ones at the old office in Saddar. A manual passport valid for five years cost Rs1,500. But a new machine-readable passport being issued from Awami Markaz costs Rs2,100 and it is valid for the same timeframe, five years.
On the other hand, people get two options in India, as a passenger from Bombay reported the other day: (i) Rs600 for a passport valid for 10 years and, (ii) Rs1,000 for a passport valid for 20 years. According to this scale, our passports should cost Rs8,400 to be valid for 20 years, but we cannot imagine this in the case of a green passport.
Needless to say, the freedom of movement in India has made it possible for its citizens to travel around the world in search of opportunities, which is why there are so many Indians in every nook and cranny of the world. You are the best judge of which government encourages travelling.
A. RAUL SOZER
Karachi
A suggestion on Kashmir
With reference to Anu Soman's letter (Nov 17), it should be noted that militarily superior India withdrew from East Pakistan after the 1971 war. However, I agree with the numerous correspondents who have pointed out that the question of Kashmir is for its own people to decide.
The 2002 Jammu and Kashmir elections were deemed fair and without any voting fraud by neutral and international observers, including the then US ambassador to India, Robert Black will.
If the Hurriyat Conference and Pakistan are so confident that Indian Kashmiris don't want to stay in India, they can participate in and win elections. After wining the elections Hurriyat Conference representatives can resign from the Jammu and Kashmir legislature, demonstrating to the world that Indian Kashmiris don't want to be part of India.
PROF ARUN KHANNA
Indianapolis, IN., USA
Why this PCB mess?
This is with reference to Mr Omar Kureishi's comments on the recent signing of the contracts with the players by the PCB. He has rightly observed that the criterion adopted is "seniority" and apparently no weight has been given to performance.
But why does that come as a surprise to him? After all, the PCB chairman, Mr Shaharyar Khan, comes from a bureaucratic background, where performance is never the criterion for promotions and this is one of the major reasons for "bad governance" in Pakistan.
NAZIM F. HAJI
Karachi