| November 19, 2006 | Sunday | Shawwal 26, 1427 |
To send a letter to the Editor
Click here
The ideology question
Hasba Bill and justice
Squandering of public money
Fair elections
Fighting crime collectively
Imbalanced statement
Supporting gender equality
Victory in Sukkur
Stealing children’s playgrounds
Lahore airport cabs
Lost friend
Readers are requested to restrict their comments to a maximum of 400 words. We reserve the right to edit letters for reasons of clarity and space. Letters, including those by e-mail, should carry the complete postal address of the sender. The views expressed in these columns do not necessarily reflect the views of the newspaper.—Editor
IN his column ‘Seeking forgiveness’ (Nov 15), Hafizur Rahman has emphasised the need for taking initiative to improve our relationship with Bangladesh. He says that it is more difficult to placate an estranged brother than making friends with a sworn enemy and, if it were for him, he would have taken a large representative delegation, along with the three service chiefs, to Dhaka to formally seek Bengalis’ pardon at Paltan Maidan for thrusting our imperialism on them.
Most Pakistanis foster similar feelings of contrition, but I tend to disagree with the mode of public apology that the writer has suggested. Service chiefs have nothing to do with political matters. If the public servants were to apologise for the misdeeds of the government, he would have to include all the civil servants, posted to East Pakistan for a quarter of a century, in his delegation.
The 1971 tragedy did not befall all of a sudden. It was the culmination of political mishandling of East Pakistan during the entire period of its existence. The first and foremost responsibility falls on the shoulders of the first Constituent Assembly, which failed to give the country a constitution for seven years and after losing their representative character tried to perpetuate their life.
A constituent assembly elected to frame a democratic constitution is accountable to the people or its electors. It became clear that after East Bengal elections of 1954, in which the Muslim League could get only 10 seats out of a house of 309, there were wide differences between the East Bengal Muslim League and the United Front about important questions such as separate electorates and the national language.
By holding on to power the Muslim League members of East Bengal wanted to impose a constitution against the wishes of the majority province. After East Bengal elections of 1954, the Constituent Assembly, having lost its representative character, lost its mandate to frame the country’s constitution.
Secondly, it was the West Pakistani politicians who could not stomach the numerical majority of East Pakistan and brought it down on parity with West Pakistan by devising the scheme of One Unit.
Thirdly, it was the government policy of defending East Pakistan from West Pakistan, keeping all the defence and financial institutions’ headquarters in West Pakistan, denying an equitable share in civil and military services to East Pakistanis. In short, the entire responsibility falls on the political leaders who ruled the country during that period. The present parliament and the government, being their successors, should consider offering the apology in a proper manner.
FAQIR AHMAD PARACHA
Peshawar
APROPOS of S. A. Hairat’s letter (Oct 23), there is no confusion in the ideology of Pakistan.
The All-India Muslim League carved out the division of the country on the basis of the two-nation theory as affirmed in the Pakistan Resolution of March 23, 1940.
Muslims of the minority provinces’ supported the resolution, knowing that Pakistan would not be formed in their region but they were happy that an Islamic state was going to be established in the Muslim majority provinces. The first speech in support of the resolution was by Chahudhry Khaliquzzaman. The Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind opposed the Pakistan Movement because they belonged to Nanutivi Deoband school of thought who had issued a ‘fatwa’ of ‘kufr’ against Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. Syed Ahmad had sought Muslims destiny in learning English, science and technology. Maulana Abul Ala Maudoodi was out of picture during the Pakistan Movement. He indulged in politics after the partition.
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad in India Wins Freedom confessed. After 10 years he realised that Mr Jinnah’s concept was on the whole right (pp 185-187).
Mr Jinnah in his inaugural address at the historic session of March 23, 1940 said that Hindus and Muslims belonged to two different religions, philosophies of life, cultures, ideologies and rites. Muslims believe in God and Islam, they should have a separate homeland of their own. His Constituent Assembly speech of Aug 11, 1947 is misinterpreted.
It was in conjunction with the innovation of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) when on the establishment of the first Muslim state of Madinah, he assured Jews safety of their place of worship, life and property, Mr Jinnah reiterated: “You are free to go to your temples, free to go to your church and mosque.”
The Quaid wanted Pakistan to be a true democratic state as contemplated in the Objective Resolution presented by Liaquat Ali Khan in the constituent assembly on March 12, 1949 — now a part of the 1973 Constitution.
However, the Quaid was against a theocratic state run by clerics.
SAEED SIDDIQUI
Karachi
IT is really daunting to hear the NWFP government has finally managed to pass the Hasba bill in the assembly on Nov 13. In short, the bill will procreate a religious police whose main aim would be ‘propagation of virtue and preventing the vice’. A very subjective aim, I must say. While going through the text of the bill, everything seems the usual histrionic version of religion interpreted by the mullahs, until you come to clause 25, which is as follows:
“25. Restriction
(1) No court or authority shall be competent to question the legal status of the proceedings before a mohtasib.
(2) No court or authority shall have the power to pass any injunction or any interim or a stay order with regard to any matter under consideration of the mohtasib.
(3) No suit or legal proceeding shall lie against the mohtasib or his staff for anything in good faith done or intended to be done.”
How can one single body act as an unaccountable judge, jury and executioner? This is simply beyond comprehension. This defies the basic law laid down by the Holy Quran, i.e., unhindered justice and accountability for all. Blaise Pascal said: “Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical.”
DR YASIR ABBASI
Nottinghamshire, UK
THE Hasba bill should not be made into law. The president has to keep his word on fighting Talibanisation and growing extremism in Pakistan. I want to remind him that actions speak louder than words.
The Hasba bill would institutionalise the clergy, and even if a liberal or moderate government comes to the NWFP in the future, it would be bogged down by the religious police that the bill envisages. Also, the maulanas would have the powers to do anything that they want.
I am surprised by the lack of focus on the Hasba bill by the media. When it was passed the last time the media did its duty by focusing on its absurdity; this should be done again.
The government should challenge the law since it is another Hudood Ordinance in the making. It took the government 27 years to amend the Hudood laws, one wonders how many years it will take the government to amend/repeal the Hasba bill. In Pakistan, even an absurd law takes ages to be amended or repealed.
FAWWAD SHAFI
Lahore
ACCORDING to a news item (Nov 11), (a crowd of) 41 parliamentarians will be proceeding to attend UN General Assembly session in New York. Duration of their all-paid-for stay in the US is two weeks.
The travel package includes club-class tickets, generous travel allowances, stay in five-star hotels at $400 per night and chauffer-driven luxury cars. As per official estimates, the entire trip would cost Rs70-80 million The tax-payers would foot the bill. Recently, the president visited the US (for launching of his book?) along with 78-odd members of the delegation, including 10 federal ministers, and stayed there almost three weeks, thus incurring a huge expenditure paid out of public money (Dawn, Sept 25).
Earlier, the prime minister, along with a team of 40 people, including three ministers, five MNAs, his staff and some media people flew to New York in a chartered plane to attend a one-day meeting at the United Nations. The objective was to study how the UNO’s operational work could be carried out more effectively. Interestingly, on way back home, the team had a stopover in Madrid, Spain. This is how the rich rulers of the poor masses behave, unmindful of the consequences on the national economy. In fact, the rulers lack moral honesty. They deceive the masses with the false promises. They produce flawed statistics heralding economic turn-around and reduction of poverty, etc., but one is unable to observe any improvement in socio-economic structure on the ground.
On the contrary, more people are being pushed to poverty due to rising prices of commodities which go beyond the reach of the masses. There is no one to stop the rulers from loot and plunder of public money except the Supreme Court which may take suo motu notice of the situation.
ABDUL SAMAD KHAN
Karachi
IT was most disturbing to read the situation regarding Supreme Court Bar Association elections. I have nothing to do with this association but the worrying point relates to our bad luck regarding outcome of any sort of such democratic activities in our country. May it be the elections of arts council or any other body, the end result is always the same.
One party not accepting the results due to one reason or the other. Just imagine about the level of education of our learned bar members. If they cannot hold their elections in a dignified way with a respectable outcome, how one can expect the best results from a nation with literacy rate just around 40 per cent.
Their association is in the forefront for the cause of democracy. How they can fight for this cause if they cannot have a good example of it within themselves.
DILAWAR HUSAIN
Karachi
VARIOUS letters continue to lament the deteriorating security environment but tragically many still don’t realise the lawlessness until a near one falls victim. People need to be proactive before the event and not when a criminal’s gun is pointed at us when it is too late.
We must realise that there are no messiahs coming to deliver us from our present state of affairs. Due to failure of institutions the only way forward is for concerned citizens to spare time and become activists.
And those who cannot be active should support them. The CPLC is one institution which can play a key role as it has 17 years of experience in fighting crime.
As the Holy Quran says: “Allah only helps those who help themselves.” We are, therefore, joining the CPLC to introduce the neighbourhood care and watch concept in our area where community-supported security has reduced crime in small localities.
Now we will introduce this concept for a larger area with the help of the CPLC. Volunteers will work with policemen who will be given an extra allowance and area patrolling done. Our office is complete on the main Beach Avenue on the land given by the DHA which has generously given financial help to build the office where CPLC mobiles and motorcycles will be stationed. Software will be installed whereby on a phone call your address, phone number and that of your neighbours will be displayed, enabling a CPLC mobile along with the police to be sent to help.
Patrolling will also be done by policemen on motorcycles and mobiles. Cameras will be installed for unobtrusive security and 24/7 surveillance.
We know that increasing a street’s security is better than securing an individual’s house and similarly securing a locality is even better. Being a collective system, it will be economical due to economies of scale once a large number of houses join in. All registered members will also be extended help in solving their civic complaints.
As the majority of people living in Karachi are educated, they know that any deterrent to catch criminals, specially those indulging in street crime, will help since criminals try to avoid places where they can be caught. We hope that people will avail themselves of this opportunity being provided by the CPLC and register by giving their addresses and phone numbers by calling on UAN number 111-222-345 or 5683333.
AZIZ SUHARWARDY
General Secretary,
Defence Associations Coordination Committee,
Karachi
THREE important things have happened in the recent past in as far as Pakistan-Britain relations go. One, a successful visit by Prince Charles who was thanked publicly by many Pakistanis for visiting us. One of them said if the prince visited us every year, our cities would begin to look cleaner and brighter.
Two, the appearance of a survey report that established that Pakistani visitors are the
highest per-capita spenders
in Britain among all the foreigners.
Three, the printing of a statement (Dawn, Nov 11) by the head of the British MI5 chief Dame Buller to the effect that 1,600 British-born Muslims are being tracked by British domestic spy agency and that some of the terrorists are being directed by Al Qaeda in Pakistan.
Maybe she knows where Al Qaeda is located in Pakistan . If she knows the location and the addresses of AI Qaeda establishments in Pakistan, she should send them at once to President Musharraf . He will be glad to receive them.
It appears that her statement was engineered to spill a dull colour on an otherwise bright picture. It holds Pakistan in an unfavourable light. I do not know if Dame Buller has visited Pakistan or how much she knows Pakistani society. I would recommend an orientation course for her.
Some years ago, I was talking to a British engineer in Balochistan. I said: "You and your British friends go all the way to Karachi on weekends without any security" . He said: "Which security? What security? We don't need one." This should be a food for thought for Dame Buller. Although I admit that security parameters have altered a little.
Things may not be the same that they were before but they are still on a level that can be graded 'somewhat satisfactory'. Imbalanced statements are hurting a beautiful nexus that has existed for centuries.
AZMAT ANSARI
Karachi
I WOULD like to convey my thanks and appreciation to Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP) of Mehmood Khan Achakzai for supporting the Women’s Protection bill in the National Assembly. In fact, like any other society, in Pashtoon society too there has been going on a relentless struggle between the forces of darkness, obscurantism and religious extremism on the one hand and that of democracy, social liberalism, human rights and moderation on the other. If the MMA represents the former, the Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party has the credit to represent the latter.
Keeping in view the strength and vast support of the MMA in somewhat conservative Pashtoon society, the PMAP rightfully deserves to be commended and supported in its struggle for promoting liberalism, unadulterated democracy, genuine provincial autonomy, gender equality, sectarian harmony, peace and human rights.
GHANI DOTANI
Denmark
THE opposition should not feel too good about the victory of PPPP in the bye-election of Sukkur. There are two intriguing angles to it. First, the opposition accepted Musharraf in uniform. Second, Chaudhry Shujaat will quote this victory as scoring-point in the event of the opposition’s defeat after the expected rigging in the general election of 2007.
DR GHAYUR AYUB
London
THE stealing of children’s playgrounds is another form of theft. This is becoming a norm in Islamabad, particularly in areas where low-income families reside. Till last year there was a small park with swings, etc., in street 14, G7/2, which was as made as per the master plan of Islamabad. It was well utilised by children of whom there were many, as there are three schools around and this is congested low-to-medium income area . Then one day a mobile company occupied the playground altogether and started to demolish the children’s play items. The company was challenged by local residents, and worshippers at the mosque tried to stop this project.
Instead of helping the community, the Aabapra police arrived and helped the mobile company construct its tower which is illegal as per CDA regulations. The very tall and totally illegal tower was constructed, but to keep it ever well powered, a large fuel tank was put right next to the mosque and other electrical wire system. Now who can allow such an illegal steel construction with explosive fuel system plus high-tension wire right in the middle of a park and next to a mosque?
These types of relay systems are known to interfere with medical devices’ readings, and PIMS children hospital is 150 yards across the road. High-tension wires are known to cause leukemia in children. If this excess by the mobile company, helped by the Aabpara police and neglected by the CDA, continues, it is only a matter of time that all children playing places in poorer localities of Islamabad shall be lost to one phone company or another. The children are playing on roads now, and the CDA does not bother.
M. SHAIKH
Islamabad
IT is beyond me, a frequent traveller, to understand why the radio and metro cabs operating from Lahore airport charge more than the same services do at Karachi and Islamabad.
The minimum fare charged in the case of Lahore is Rs350 by one cab service and Rs300 by the other, even though the terms and conditions governing their contracts are the same, i.e., Rs15 a km for anywhere.
If the system is working in the two other cities, why can’t it work in Lahore where passengers are being ripped off for no extra service or comfort?
Is it simply a case of greedy contractors running the two cab services in Lahore?
S. SAMIUDDIN
Lahore
THROUGH your esteemed daily I would like to find a long lost friend. I am looking for Sohail Pirani from Karachi. I last heard that he and his brother (Asif Pirani) moved to Dubai in 1999. I would appreciate it if somebody could provide his contact information.
ALI MUHAMMAD
Al-Hasa, Saudi Arabia
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.