| January 19, 2006 | Thursday | Zilhaj 18, 1426 |
To send a letter to the Editor
Click here
Indian anthem & Sindh
Complaints against banks
‘Truth behind Cindy Sheehan’
Breath of fresh air
Bajaur attack
Tobacco use
Marco Polo sheep
Reappointment of VCs
KPT fountain
Cricket parking
Unqualified doctors
Customs rip-off
Garbage dump
Incorrect
Gas outage
ENGR Fateh Ullah Khan, ex-chairman of the Indus River System Authority (Irsa), in his letter (Jan 15) has tried to prove that under Section 8 (1) (f) (g), 8 (2) and 8 (2) and 8 (3) of Irsa Act XXII of 1992 and para 6 and 13 of the Water Apportionment Accord 1991, Irsa is fully competent to appraise the viability of a project. The text of the above-referred clauses/paras is reproduced as below:
Sec 8 (1)(f): Settle any question that may arise between two or more provinces in respect of distribution of river and reservoir waters;
Sec 8 (1)(g): Consider and make recommendations on the availability of water against the allocated shares of the provinces within three months of receipt of fully substantiated water accounts for all new water projects for the assistance of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council.
Sec 8 (2): Any question in respect of implementation of the Water Accord shall be settled by the authority by the votes of the majority of members and in case of an equality of votes the chairman shall have a casting vote.
Sec 8 (3): A provincial government or the Water and Power Development Authority may, if aggrieved by any decision of the authority, make a reference to the Council of Common Interest.
Para 6: The need for storages, wherever feasible on the Indus and other rivers, was admitted and recognized by the participants for planned future agricultural development.
Para 13: For the implementation of this accord the need to establish an Indus River System Authority was recognized and accepted. It would have headquarters at Lahore (shifted to Islamabad) and would have representation from all the four provinces.
Keeping these in view, the readers can ascertain Irsa’s powers and duties being contested by the ex-chairman.
ENGR. SHAFQAT MASOOD
Chairman, Irsa, Islamabad
THIS is with reference to Mr Fayyaz Muddasir Mubeen’s letter “Indian anthem” (Jan 11) in which he wrote that Sindh is included in the national anthem of India. Recently, there were detailed discussions in India on the subject and the matter was taken up to the Supreme Court of India pleading that “Sindh” should be replaced with “Kashmir”. Sindhi jurist and former Indian minister Ram Jethmalani and others took a strong plea that when Tagore wrote the anthem, no geographical limitations were in sight.
The following is a loose translation of the anthem originally written in Hindi: “Thou are the ruler of the minds of all people, dispenser of India’s destiny. Thy name rouses the hearts of Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat and Maratha, of the Dravid and Orissa and Bengal; it echoes in the hills of the Vindhyas and Himalayas, Mingles in the music of the Yamuna and Ganga and is chanted by the waves of the Indian Sea. They pray for thy blessings and sing thy praise. The salvation of all people is in thy hand, thou dispenser of India’s destiny. Victory, victory, victory to thee.”
The Supreme Court of India after detailed hearing rejected the plea for replacing “Sindh” with “Kashmir”. It is not out of context to mention here that “Sindh” and “Hind” were sovereign and well-known countries for centuries.
Allama Iqbal has a poem in Urdu titled “Sarey jahan sey achhaa Hindustan hamaara”. Can we change “Hindustan” with “Pakistan”?
Even if “Sindh” is mentioned in the anthem, no one will snatch Sindh from us till we get it separated like East Pakistan. If “Kashmir” is not mentioned in it, it strengthens our claim to it.
IMRAN KHAN SIAL
Karachi
WE have read Mr Ali Akbar Esmail’s complaint (Jan 10) against a bank. In the past also, similar complaints have appeared in your esteemed newspaper.
In response to such complaints, we have, through these columns, informed the general public of the establishment of the Banking Mohtasib Pakistan, an independent institution set up by the government of Pakistan exclusively to deal with such matters.
The establishment commenced operations on May 2, 2005 and numerous complaints are being received and resolved.
Complainants are encouraged to send in their grievances in writing to the Banking Mohtasib Pakistan secretariat located on the 5th Floor, Shaheen Complex, M. R. Kiyani Road, Karachi. Regional offices are located within the State Bank of Pakistan premises in Lahore, Quetta, Peshawar and Rawalpindi. The Karachi secretariat’s contact numbers and other related information is given below:
Phone: 9217334-39
Email: info@bankingmohtasib.gov.pk
Website: www.bankingmohtasib.gov.pk
Complainants are requested to follow the simple procedure detailed on the back of the prescribed complaint forms available at all scheduled bank branches in Pakistan and also downloadable from our website.
All scheduled banks in Pakistan also have on display in their banking halls Banking Mohtasib posters both in English and Urdu, detailing our services and providing guidance on how to lodge complaints with us.
AZHAR HAMID
Banking Mohtasib Pakistan
Karachi
This is with reference to the letter “Truth behind Cindy Sheehan” (Jan. 15) by Col. (retd) George L. Singleton.
The letter is nothing but a PR exercise aimed at tarnishing Cindy Sheehan’s anti-war stance. If Mrs Sheehan’s activism is “propaganda”, what does Mr Singleton have to say about the lies spoken by the Bush administration and the Republican Party to justify the invasion and continued occupation of Iraq?
Instead of talking about the substance of Mrs Sheehan’s principled stand against the war, the correspondent chose to call her “an ultra liberal Democratic party activist”. Others have called her “traitor”, “enemy sympathizer”, “Bush-basher”, and for what? — because as a mother of a fallen soldier, she demanded to meet the president so that she could ask him why her son died.
It is true that she did meet President Bush in Seattle which she never denied but that meeting took place long before the lies and deception of the Bush administration about the war were well known and hence that meeting had no meaning.
It is also utterly wrong to say that Cindy Sheehan is out of touch with mainstream America. If that were the case, 58 per cent of Americans would not have been against the Iraqi occupation today. The truth of the matter is that Mrs Sheehan is a grieving mother of a fallen soldier who has cut through the abstractions of war and showed us reality as it is, in the process galvanizing the anti-war movement.
KHURRAM HANEEF
New Jersey, US
IT was like a breath of fresh air, reading in Dawn (Jan 15) that the Sindh governor and the Karachi city nazim visited various areas of the city on Jan 13 to earmark plots to be developed as parks and playgrounds.
This city is crying for open spaces and parks, it needs to breathe and such open recreational facilities will help ease tensions of the city. Unfortunately, open spaces are constantly eyed by people as plots to make megabucks out of by selling them for concrete structures. I recall an Englishman who once told me that when he looked at the Karachi skyline, it was to him a European’s vision of hell — so much concrete, so little open space.
While the city fathers are looking for spaces to develop, I would like to draw attention to what we at present call the “ganda nullah” or “Nehr-i-Khayyam”. A filtration plant should be set up to clean the water, after which the canal could be a very attractive site offering pedal boat trips up and down its length for the public, and even rowing races for different school teams.
Alternatively, if it is covered, it could be turned into a walkway filled with green plants, with nurseries, offering roadside art and sculptures for sale.
If we have found the money for the chief minister to purchase a plane for Rs800 million, and for the KPT to build a water fountain for Rs225 million, I am sure funds can be found to develop the nullah as an open space for the public good.
SOHAIL OSMAN ALI
Karachi
This is with reference to the shameless statement of US Senator John McCain regarding the deaths of innocent women and children in Bajaur Agency in which he said that this was no guarantee that the US would not do something like it again. I wonder if the senator would have made the same statement if one of his own family had been killed in this manner in the so-called war on terror.
Sitting thousands of miles away in another land and continent, I could feel the pain of the death of innocent men, women and children as US missiles tore into pieces the fragile bodies of five- and 10-year-old children. What was their crime? Were they the part of so called Al Qaeda? It is because this kind of total disregard for human life that so many people all over the world hate the US.
ARSHAD SHARIF
London
THE government has taken some measures for tobacco control in the country by introducing the Prohibition of Smoking Ordinance, 2002. Along with other measures, the ordinance banned smoking at public places as well as in public transport, and also put restrictions on tobacco advertising. Unfortunately, very little follow up was subsequently made to implement the law on a wider scale.
One of the biggest barriers to tobacco control in the country is the perceived need and reliance of the government on the revenue generated from the tobacco industry. In 2003, the amount generated was Rs.32.36 billion. Pakistanis burn away Rs.56 million every day in smoking cigarettes. In addition, approximately an equal amount of money is spent on using smokeless tobacco in the form of ‘paan’, ‘gutka’ and ‘naswar’. There is no data available to measure the cost of health care needed for the treatment of diseases caused by tobacco. Our government must realize that tobacco control is highly cost-effective as a basic public health package and it compares well with other interventions like child immunization.
Educating the public on tobacco and its hazards is the first step toward tobacco control in any country, but unfortunately, the marketing and advertising budget of tobacco companies in Pakistan is far greater than the total health promotion budget of the government. For example, the total tobacco-related health education budget allocated by the ministry of health in Pakistan was Rs.2 million in 2002, whereas a tobacco company spent over Rs61 million on its campaign.
The government must raise taxes levied on tobacco products and stop allowing tobacco companies to sponsor sports and musical concerts. All tobacco billboards must be removed. Seminars should be arranged in all educational institutions in which special emphasis should be on educating youth against the dangers of smoking. Smoking cessation clinics should be established to guide smokers who wish to quit this powerful addictive substance.
JAVAID KHAN
Karachi
I WAS quite amazed to read Sultan Mahmood’s article on his recent hunting expedition in the Dawn magazine of Jan. 15. While I have no doubt that the hunt itself may have been quite exhilarating, the picture of the dead Marco Polo sheep shown in the article was in bad taste. Besides, the writer was constantly referring to the magnificent animal as a ‘trophy’.
It was Gandhi who said “the greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man.”
Then again this nation of ours has yet to end cruelty on man by man, so perhaps ‘trophy hunting’ as a means of conservation makes perfect sense.
ALI SHAH
Canterbury, UK
THIS is with reference Dr M. Yaqoob Bhatti’s letter “Reappointment of VCs” (Jan 8) in which he correctly highlights the adverse effects of the reappointment of retired military officers and bureaucrats as vice-chancellors of universities.
Thanks to military rule in the country, according to one study, out of a total of 52 vice-chancellors, 12 are retired generals or bureaucrats. Since they have crossed the age of superannuation, they prefer persons of their own age group as their subordinates.
In one case, a non-academic vice-chancellor has been gracing a university for his third consecutive tenure. A “scholar”, who is a devotee of a pir, has wished that the “grand vice-chancellor” might guide this university for the fourth term (2009-2013) and beyond. In this university, from Grade 20 down to Grade 17, retired persons hold almost all important management positions. Many of them are visiting professors as well. These retired gentlemen are apparently running the whole show.
The net result of this sate of affairs is that some individuals are benefiting at the expense of the institution. Thus, civil society, especially the faculty and graduates of those universities that are being run by overage VCs, must raise their voices against such appointments.
DR MEHTAB ALI SHAH
Sindh University,
Jamshoro
I FULLY endorse the theme of your editorial” Between glamour & essentials” (Jan. 15). You have rightly taken the KPT to task for spending Rs225 million to build a fountain that shoots water over 600 feet in the air. This while it found difficult to mobilize funds to build silos for imported coal lying at the port and which spews black dust polluting the environment.
As long as our rulers, enlightened or otherwise, are comfortable with the massaging of their inflated egos, sycophants will stick to their wrong priorities at the cost of the poor nation. Unfortunately, it is likely that your editorial will fail to cause any stir. Such things cannot be expected to jolt those with inflated egos.
M. SALEEM CHAUDHRY
Karachi
I WOULD like to congratulate the Karachi Port Trust for the fountain at Clifton beach. But I would like to draw attention to what seems to be ill-conceived planning which has led to the building of a wall all along the newly-opened beach park.
As one drives along the beach past what used to be the casino building, there in not a single point from where the fountain can be seen. For that one has to park the car, then enter the park and see the fountain — and this defeats the whole purpose of a drive along the beach. The fact is that the beach park has spoilt the beauty of the beach.
RAFAY AHMED
Karachi
YOUR sports correspondent in Lahore reported in the issue of January 16 that PCB-appointed contractors were charging exorbitant rates for car and motorbike parking. The Punjab government is responsible for parking areas and awards contracts for parking lots, etc., located outside the Qadhafi Stadium.
ABBAS ZAIDI
Director, Board Operations, PCB,
Lahore
In the Punjab health department, it is a pre-requisite that any doctor who is to be posted to any administrative post like executive district officer, medical superintendent or additional/deputy MS must possess a post-graduate degree or diploma in public health.
For the last few years, some doctors possessing fake degrees of master’s in public health (MPH) from unrecognized institutions are being posted by the department against such positions and that too in large numbers. The institutions which award unrecognized or fake degrees do not have any proper curriculum or qualified faculty. They have started degree programmes simply to make money. The irony is that some doctors who do have degrees from recognized postgraduate institutions are in positions subordinate to those who have un-recognized or fake degrees.
Clearly, this is very frustrating for doctors with genuine degrees. The Punjab health secretary needs to take notice of this and remove all such doctors from their posts who are proved to have fake MPH qualifications. The PMDC should also take notice of this.
DR SHAHID MAHMOOD BUKHARI
Old Fatima Jinnah Hospital Multan
ON Jan 13, my brother was travelling to Manchester from Lahore via flight PK 709. He was taking a rug with him. At Lahore airport he was informed by customs that he would have to pay export duty on it, although he pointed out that the rug was old and that he was taking it to the UK because it had sentimental value. He was told that this made no difference but if he was willing to pay Rs2,000 he could take it with him. My brother felt he had no choice and handed over the “ransom” demanded for the rug.
I would like the Central Board of Revenue to please clarify whether the customs staff at Lahore airport is correct in saying that export duty must be paid on all rugs, regardless of whether they are old, new or meant for a passenger’s personal use. If such a duty does not exist (as I suspect) then could the CBR please take the Lahore customs staff to task for extorting money from passengers?
BARRISTER SADIYA CHOUDHURY
Lahore
I WOULD like to draw the attention of the Karachi DHA and the Clifton Cantonment Board towards an empty plot on 16th South Street in Phase II which has become a ‘free-for-all’ garbage dump.
The garbage lifting from this spot is totally inadequate with the result that the trash is littered all over it. Also, two large openings in the main sewerage drain at the intersection of 17th South Street and South Central Avenue need to be provided with removable or permanent covers to contain the stench.
M. I. HYDER
Karachi
The article “Rebuilding the left in South Asia” (Visitors’ Log, Jan. 16) says that Noor Sajjad Zaheer is Indian actor/politician Raj Babbar’s wife. This is incorrect. Raj Babbar’s wife is Noor’s elder sister Nadira.
NUSRAT VOHRA
Karachi
THE residential area along Manzar-i-Alam road in Karachi. gets only a trickle of gas from 10am to 4pm, forcing the residents them to use LPG cylinders. Complaints have resulted in no improvement.
SHAHID DEHLVI
Karachi
You can also send letters to the Editor
Just send your message to the following address: letters@dawn.com
Make sure you include your full name, postal address, e-mail address, and in the case of Pakistan your day-time telephone number.