Brazilian energy model

I WRITE this on behalf of Pakistan Development Foundation (PDF) — an informal non-profit, non-political body with senior government and private sector participation devoted to the concept of sectorwise development in Pakistan since 1971.

A newspaper report (Dawn, July 14) says that the government is finalizing a plan to mix locally produced ethanol with petroleum. Technical difficulties, however, are reported to be delaying progress. The PDF has been sending memorandums to governments at different times with suggestions to reduce dependence on imported fuel. This subject was also discussed at the 123rd meeting of the PDF a few years ago. The meeting was attended by representatives of the World Bank and nominees of different ministries, including senior officials of the energy wing of the planning commission and the finance ministry and involved threadbare discussions on alternative energy sources such as new technologies of gasohol and bio-diesel perfected in Brazil.

Deliberations of our meeting were sent to the then prime minister. The Brazilian energy model — with researches dating back to the late 1980s — specifically attempts to estimate likely petroleum consumption and establish master guidelines for a strategy based on three main points: one, energy conservation and fuel economy by rationalizing consumption and increasing efficiency of energy supply; two, increasing domestic production through investments and techniques; and, third, substitution of petroleum products by domestic alternative sources such as alcohol and/or charcoal.

It is learnt that the Brazilian government has made several offers of these technologies over the last many years. I would urge Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to consider this important matter on a priority basis.

MAHMUD IQBAL BAIG
Chairman, Pakistan evelopment Foundation,
Islamabad

Bad symbol to market?

THE other day, while travelling by PIA from Karachi to Islamabad, I noticed a peculiar object advertised in the airline’s in-flight magazine. It was a cigarette lighter with a price tag in US dollars, bearing the name “Karachi bus”.

The picture inscribed on the lighter was that of a decorated minibus — a typical Karachi vehicle, lavishly painted with flowers, birds, beasts, fighter aircraft and women. Even the windows and windscreens were not spared.

Some people might consider the decorative artistry on these minibuses as something to wonder at or be amused, but under the law these vehicles ply in total violation of traffic rules and passenger safety regulations. The law prohibits putting anything on the front, rear and sides of the vehicle that could hinder the driver’s visibility.

However, the standard practice in Karachi is that every possible measure is taken to reduce or distract the driver’s view. These include profusely colourful figures and patterns on the windscreen, dashboard and all over the vehicle. The driver may not be able to see a passenger getting down and drive on.

There are pressure horns, obscenely-placed mirrors, flashing lights, deafening music and vulgar cassettes, hysterically shouting conductors and all sorts of other nerve-wrecking gadgets. It’s unfortunate that the traffic police department is unable to stop this violation of traffic rules which is costing the public heavily in terms of physical and mental health. On the other hand, some creative wizard at PIA has come up with the brilliant idea of marketing this symbol of lawlessness on city streets as a souvenir.

AFTAB IQBAL
Islamabad

Nara as another Ramsar site

THE Nara wetland, under discussion these days, should be declared a Ramsar site. Biodiversity in Pakistan is becoming worse with every passing day. Other Ramsar sites in this country are not in good shape either. Once a certain habitat is declared as a Ramsar site, vigilance is tighter and chances of degeneration are reduced. The Nara wetland has all the necessary factors that can turn it into an ideal Ramsar site — deforestation, destruction of habitat and shooting or trapping of wild animals.

The only reason for the Sindh wildlife department not taking over this area as a Ramsar site is lack of funds and supervising staff. The government, particularly the finance ministry, loves revenue-earning departments which the Sindh wildlife department is not. It has to fight tooth and nail to earn some revenue to show to the authorities that it is not a liability, revenue-wise.

Since the department earns less than it spends, it is not seen with kindness. It, therefore, gets less allocation. If Nara is declared a Ramsar site, the department will be constrained to exert more to protect this additional burden. The department is already creaking at the joints by financial fatigue. It cannot, therefore, afford to go for this new responsibility without more money.

The Sindh government must loosen its strings for the sake of the province, and, in the long run, for the nation’s biodiversity as continued neglect of this heretofore rich area will turn it into a semi-desert and then into a total desert.

Fifty-two per cent of Pakistan’s land is waterlogged, saline and infertile. These additional few hundred kilometres of desert will make it worse. The dreaded Right Bank Outfall Drain is advancing with its teeth and fangs open for devouring Sindh.

Give some money for this site, even if by begging, borrowing and stealing from other surplus departments, and save nature that lashes back at every insult to its natural resources. Nara is a precious gift; preserve it for tomorrow.

DR A. A. QURAISHY
Founder president, Wildlife Conservation of Pakistan,
Karachi

Appeal to NWFP PSC

THIS is to draw the attention of the NWFP government and the chairman of the provincial Public Service Commission towards a problem faced by agriculture graduates of extension.

All over Pakistan, the agriculture field is divided into two parts — research and extension — as the work of the two areas is different. Therefore, on a federal basis, and in the other three provinces, recruitment for agriculture graduates is divided on a research and extension basis.

Graduates with research as their major study are recruited against research posts while graduates with extension as their major subject are recruited for extension posts. But in the NWFP this is not so. Dozens of vacant posts are advertised for research graduates who are also given posts of extension graduates.

In the first quarter of this year, 19 posts of agriculture officers were advertised in the extension wing for which all graduates, i.e., those belonging to research and extension, were allowed to take examinations, in violation of the criterion prescribed at the national level. When the results were announced, the funny thing was that nearly all the graduates belonging to research were shortlisted for interviews — scheduled to be held in the coming month — while candidates who had studied extension as a major subject were not called.

We, unemployed agriculture graduates belonging to the extension wing, request the authorities concerned to review their decision by appointing candidates who have studied extension as their major concern.

ANWAR WAZIR & OTHERS
North Waziristan

Hasba bill

BEFORE the Supreme Court’s decision, the Hasba bill had hurt Pakistan’s already tarnished image in the world. It was considered a parallel law which was to regulate people’s personal and political life.

Faith and a people’s way of life are their own affairs. No government should have any right to interfere with the nation’s already traumatized life. Your editorial ‘Verdict on Hasba bill’ (Aug 6) correctly says that the Supreme Court has nullified the highly controversial and retrogressive Hasba law, but it is a partial victory for either side.

It remains to be seen what the MMA’s next move will be. They have already indicated that the bill will be tabled again in the NWFP assembly. They seemed to have sensed its fate well in advance.

No sane person can disagree with your view that the basic principle behind the Hasba bill was flawed as public morality cannot be legislated. It becomes oppressive rule if morality is tried to be enforced by the police. What good was earned by the Taliban when they formed a ‘vice prevention squad’ in Afghanistan?

I agree with Justice Javed Iqbal who said that the Hasba bill would not constitute ‘a positive change’; instead, it would shake the people’s belief in Islamic values. What he left unsaid was that with such laws you would proliferate injustice in society which is already deprived of justice and fair play.

S.M. KAZIM NAQVI
Karachi

Kidnapping for ransom

ACCORDING to a press report from Dera Ghazi Khan (Dawn, Aug 5), some PARCO employees and others were freed after paying ransom.

The kidnappers have been identified. The persons who brokered the deal are known. They are said to be the additional secretary-general of a political party, a businessman, a contractor and a landlord. The report further states the law enforcers were reluctant to interrogate the brokers. The report is disturbing. This is organized loot and plunder. How is that the culprits have not been arrested. Doesn’t the government’s writ exist there?

ABDUL SAMAD KHAN
Karachi

Dubai interlude

YOUR editorial (August 3) on the deportation of Maulana Fazlur Rahman by the UAE authorities, when seen in the light of the unfolding events since 9/11 in general and post-7/7 in particular, appears to over-emphasize our government’s needed response. The pedantic Maulana’s role, initially as a teacher and preacher of archaic religious and jihadi dogma to the erstwhile Taliban at madressahs ostensibly under his control and subsequently through providing active and overt support to them, is a well documented fact, widely known throughout the international community.

After the 7/7 incidents in London, there was worldwide condemnation, followed by re-evaluation of the role played by madressahs as breeding grounds for demented extremists as well as the clerics who operate these. The spotlight naturally was on Pakistan when it was discovered that three of the London bombers had visited and spent some time at various madressahs in Pakistan prior to their action.

It must also be noted that the Al Qaeda network (the guiding force of the Taliban) has declared that the ruling dynasties in the Arab world are the major hurdle towards Islamization of their societies, having accepted the dictate of the West mainly for safeguarding their rule and also for personal gains. Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Jordan have already been targets of extremist action, with others also under threat.

As a consequence of the world opinion on madressahs as it has crystallized, as well as the perceived threat to their rule, the UAE rulers may understandably have become apprehensive, particularly towards allowing entry to radical clerics, including leaders of religious political parties who are identified as having had any form of connection with extremist organizations. Maulana Fazlur Rahman’s image internationally has been further radicalized by his propagation of the Hasba bill and indirect support of disenfranchisement of women in some districts and tribal areas of the NWFP.

MIKAEL SAYED
Via e-mail

WHEN Maulana Fazlur Rahman was deported from the UAE, he remarked: “I don’t know why an Arab Islamic country has treated me this way.” Earlier, Maulana Samiul Haq was treated in a similar way at Brussels and the Senate’s foreign relations committee delegation, of which he was a part, had to cancel their parleys with the European parliament.

Will our mullahs ever understand the realities of international politics and stop indulging in activities that bring a bad name to Pakistan?

UROOJ KAMAL
Toronto, Canada

IT was shocking to read that the leader of the opposition, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, was deported from Dubai airport allegedly for being blacklisted as an extremist. Earlier it was Maulana Samiul Haq, another MMA leader, whose inclusion in the Pakistani delegation of the Senate’s foreign relations committee led to cancellation of talks with the European parliament in Brussels.

This party of clerics is not only a problem abroad but it is also at home. Qazi Hussein Ahmad of the same group stated a few days back that if the government takes any anti-Hasba bill step, the people of the NWFP have “deadly weapons in their homes”. The statement clearly implied rebellion and bloodshed. Pakistan is already suffering due to their adventures in the neighbourhood in the name of Islam. Will these souls ever learn to be more responsible?

SADIA REHMAN
Islamabad

Nadra’s anti-car theft system

ON July 19 the Sindh governor gave approval to a vehicle monitoring and interception system (VMIS), a project designed and developed by the National Database and Registration Authority. According to a news item published in Dawn on Aug 4, Nadra is all set to launch the system in Karachi in September at a cost of Rs578 million.

For VMIS, according to details, a Rs1,000 fee has been fixed for vehicles and a monitoring chip called vintage will be given to vehicle-owners. At least 20 points will be established by Nadra from where the vintage chip will be issued to car owners, and each outlet will have the capacity of registering over 1,000 vehicles in a day. There will be a chip reader at all the focal points, and any car that will not have a chip will be interrupted by the police.

Surprisingly, there is no mention of vehicles already having heavily paid car-tracker devices as to whether they are exempted from acquiring VMIS or not.

I request the authorities concerned to make a timely clarification in this regard.

RASHID ASHRAF
Karachi

Police snap checking

THE police checkpost located opposite the KFC restaurant in Karachi’s SITE area has virtually become a nuisance for the general public, commuters and loading transport vehicles. All the time police personnel can be seen extorting money from Suzuki drivers, motorcyclists and motorvehicle owners. All this is being done in the name of snap checking and no doubt everybody in the top police hierarchy and civil administration is well aware of these excesses.

The police have become a tool to collect ‘bhatta’ and to swell the wealth of their high-ups. This practice has been going on for the last 58 years and nobody can dare touch these money-minting blackmailers. The police should devise some updated and hassle-free snap checking system at least for industrial areas, especially for the largest one, i.e., SITE.

FAROOQ AHMED
Karachi

Chaudhry Rehmat Ali

Chaudhry Rehmat Ali is buried in Cambridge because that’s where he chose to live instead of Pakistan. It is an act of brutality to exhume a body for reburial, especially so when there are other grave issues to be dealt with, which the executors of the plan must attend to and let his soul rest in peace.

It is best that his bones rest where they lie. Cambridge is certainly more peaceful and his mortal remains, whatever of them maybe left, can continue to enjoy the town’s serene surroundings.

SIRAJUDDIN AZIZ
Karachi

Holiday

THE Sindh government has declared several places as “sensitive” in the province owing to the local body polls and has requested the army to help the local administration in maintaining law and order on election day.

The Sindh governor is requested to declare election day as a public holiday in the province so that people are able to fully participate in the polls.

SYED A. MATEEN
Karachi

Ties with China

REFERENCE Mr Anwar Mooraj’s article ‘Strategic ties with China’ (Aug 1).

The nuclear ‘deal’ Mr Mooraj is referring to was never a strategic and political agreement. It was a contract with a Chinese firm for building Chashma-2. It is true this accord was not signed during President Musharraf’s visit in 2003. But it was signed later, and work is now in progress.

I would request Mr Mooraj to study the Pakistan-China agreement signed when Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao visited this country in April. There were two extraordinary clauses in that agreement: one, neither side will join “any alliance or bloc which infringes upon the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity” of the other country; two, neither side will conclude a similar agreement with any other country in the world.

If Mr Mooraj wants to know the difference between the agreements Mr Wen signed in Islamabad and in New Delhi, he should go to the Internet and read the texts to realize that the kind of relationship China has with Pakistan it has with no other country in the world.

RIZWAN YASIN
Karachi

1965 revisited

AIR Marshal (retd) Nur Khan has said in a recent interview that “only the president, commander-in-chief, division commanders and a ‘clique’ within the government were involved in decision-making in 1965. The air force and navy were not informed. The top decision-makers were mistakenly self-assured that the theatre of operations would be restricted only to Kashmir”.

Gen Musa in his “My Version” confirms that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had assured president Ayub Khan that India would not attack across the international border. Bhutto also stopped the GHQ from moving troops to the forward positions. Gen Musa, fearing an imminent attack by India, ignored the foreign office directive and on his own initiative moved his troops to their forward positions on September 4.

Just imagine, if this had not been done, Lahore would certainly have been overrun on September 6, thanks to Mr Z. A. Bhutto.

KHURSHID ANWER
Lahore

NS schemes

ONE fully agrees with Col (retd) Tahir Mashhadi. The government is collecting billions of rupees through the hard-earned investments of old and retired personnel.

One is unable to understand why the government is ignoring them by denying revised rates to bearers of certificates purchased prior to July 1, 2005. The authorities are sincerely requested to issue a notification to all centres to implement the revised rates for all beneficiaries.

GHULAM MURTAZA
Gilgit