| January 22, 2007 | Monday | Muharram 02, 1428 |
To send a letter to the Editor
Click here
It was always Hamara Karachi
Access to Nazimabad
Knowing the unkown
EMI Pakistan
Washing powder gang scam
Islamist militants
Advice to Inzamam
Transferring phone number
Shareholders’ woes
Protecting the VIPs
KESC billing office
The KESC administration is requested to restore the facility to its original place.
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
A NEWS item in Dawn (Dec 22) informed that mercury content in Manchar Lake’s water was 100 micrograms/liter. This is a matter of concern, as mercury is implicated in major human health consequences. Mercury is released naturally from the earth’s crust. Major man-made sources of mercury are chemical plants, combustion of fossil fuels, dry-cell batteries, landfills, fluorescent light bulbs, industrial wastewaters, past use of mercury-containing pesticides, anti-fungal outdoor paints, switches, thermometers and metal-refining operations.
Aquatic organisms convert sediment-bound mercury to soluble mono-methyl mercury or to volatile di-methyl mercury, depending on the pH value of water. Mercury occurs in water as an inorganic salt and, as organic methyl mercury in sediments and fish.
Inorganic mercury is poorly absorbed in the adult GI tract. It does not readily penetrate cells and, therefore, is not as toxic as methyl mercury. However, the absorption of inorganic mercury can be much higher in infants and young children. Organic forms, such as methyl mercury, are readily absorbed in the GI tract and easily enter the central nervous system, causing death. Organic mercury also easily crosses the placental barrier of the fetus.
While worthwhile job has been done by the chemistry experts, technical people, qualified in the field of water and waste-water engineering, should have been associated, because the issue is of water quality, which falls within the purview of water and waste-water engineering. Water engineers could have investigated the sources of mercury. They could have established link of high contents of mercury with other parameters. For example, low pH of lake water (less than 5.5) will mobilise the mercury from bottom sediments. They could have tested the particulate matter and biological materials for the presence of mercury.
The chemistry experts compared the mercury levels of Manchar Lake with the guideline value suggested by WHO for drinking water, which is 1 microgram/liter for total mercury (organic plus inorganic mercury) – WHO, 2004. This comparison is not in order. Lake water characteristics cannot be compared with the drinking water guideline value. Only drinking water quality can be compared with the WHO’s drinking water guidelines. In this case, the finished water quality, being supplied in Hyderabad, should be compared with the WHO’s drinking water guidelines. The US Environmental Protection Agency has set maximum contaminant level goal of mercury as two microgram/liter.
Conventional water treatment plants, like the one established in Hyderabad, do not remove mercury from raw waters. Chemical coagulation of raw water with ferric sulfate can remove some (around 40 per cent) of the inorganic mercury. Mercury can be removed from raw waters by granular activated carbon, lime softening and reverse osmosis, none of which are employed in Hyderabad water treatment plant. This would mean that, if mercury is present in the raw waters, the finished water, produced by Hyderabad water treatment plant, must be tested for mercury presence.
If mercury is present in final treated water in Hyderabad beyond the WHO guideline value, there is no option but to discard the present raw water source. The other remedy is to add costly tertiary treatment units (also known as advanced treatment units), as indicated above, to the Hyderabad water treatment plant. Dilution is no solution.
F.H. MUHGAL
Karachi
THIS refers to the festive fortnight being celebrated by our able local leadership. One cannot help but lament the fact that while on the one hand there is unprecedented rise in street crimes, high rate of inflation affecting prices of goods from pulse to poultry, and under-resourced civic departments (a recent example being the fire department), on the other hand city rulers continue to display their apathy by projecting a ‘soft image’ of broken and flooded thoroughfares, garbage hills and loadshedding in winter.
Who are the authorities trying to befool? Appeasing high-ups of foreign councils by waving flags with them on melodious tunes and enjoying acrobatics will do little good, for it is the vote of the common man that will count come next elections. Today vehicles and mobile phones are being snatched at a rate previously unheard of. The year 2006 witnessed sectarian rioters ruling the roost, while buses fall desperately short of the demands of the ever swelling population with fares rocketing skyhigh no matter whichever route they ply.
Speaking of roads, blocks 1, 15, 16 and 17 of Gulistan-i-Jauhar truly present a picture of Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar’s time. Though blocks 4 and 7 of Gulshan-i-Iqbal do wear a carpeted look, it is only because the home minister has to commute along it frequently. Filth decorates most of Clifton while Lyari remains dark and dry as ever. Who says Karachi lacks good governance?
It is time our leaders recognised that we lesser mortals would not disown the city if such merry-making events were not held. We assess your sincerity more by the provision of basic amenities to the common man and less with carnivals. It is far more important that you deliver on your promises and less that you make new ones. Once in power, it is your loyalty towards the city that is tested rather than ours for London, Dubai or Jeddah. Time will tell if such glittery mega fairs can cover up the present lot’s doings (or undoings) in office.
S. TALHA
Karachi
IBN Sina Road is the main access to Nazimabad from Hassan Square. This road has been dug up from Gharibabad to the Nazimabad Chowrangi since last May.
This project was conceived to provide a select few a fast signal-free route from SITE factories to the airport.
But the construction of it has been much delayed and has made the ordinary commuters a perpetual misery for seven months now.
Meanwhile, the flyover at Hassan Square and Stadium Road has been completed and it provides at least some benefit to the commuters from and to Nazimabad.
The city management in their usual overreach has claimed to complete the project in four months. First there was the excuse of the rains that caused the delay, as no adverse weather was anticipated while planning the project.
Then with all the usual fanfare, one part of the underpass was opened but it soon developed craters and the fresh tarmac surface lifted, creating a hazard for normal traffic. The underpass was duly closed to traffic.
Another opening was inaugurated at the end of last year as an Eid gift to the people but this too was quickly closed due to a burst drain-pipe.
So far no further progress on the project can be seen, nor have the mounds of debris been removed to provide relief to commuters.
The commuter’s misery multiplied when the unbelievable ambition of the city management to dig up roads and subject the daily movement of citizens took another turn when in mid-December the other main access to Nazimabad and beyond, serving nearly half of Karachi, Business Recorder Road from Gurumander to Lasbella, was dug up and closed for traffic.
The present road improvement project in these locations is not the first, but certainly the most expensive so far and also the least coordinated in terms of planning and traffic management and, therefore, a cause of great misery.
This is an unacceptable state of affairs as the city government is now under the control of those who know these areas well and claim that the ordinary Karachi citizens’ welfare is their first and foremost priority.
OWAIS HASIN
Karachi
“PRESIDENT Bush vowed to boost defence measures in the Middle East to promote stability throughout the region” (Jan 12).
Historically speaking, the news item is like a goldmine for writers as never before: the West has destabilised the Arab world ‘peacefully’ but has mostly desired to stabilise it through its or its better-half’s wars. They, the West, destabilised the region through their self-made rules and regulations, treaties, mandates, declarations: initially they did so for about four decades: with examples too numerous to mention, a few are: (a) British government planting spy-activist Lawrence of Arabia (1910), (b) the notorious Skykes–Picot treaty which divided the then about eight Arab countries into 22 to weaken them (1916), (c) the Belfour Declaration for the establishment of the state of Israel on Palestinian land where the Jews’ population was only 6 per cent (1917), (d) the British manoeuvred and obtained the Palestine mandate from the then League of Nations (1922) and the American Caesarean operation at the UN for the abnormal birth of the state of Israel.
Great Charles Caleb once said: “We hate some people because we do not know them: and we will not know them because we hate them.”
Not to be left behind, the UN passed to forget as may as 600 amazing resolutions for Palestine up to April 2002.
Z.A. KAZMI
Karachi
YEARS after being closed down in Pakistan in 1994, after losing battle to and bearing heavy losses due to piracy, EMI Pakistan were heard to be making a comeback in the Pakistan music scene with the Peshawar-based duo Sajid and Zeeshan’s all-English debut album ‘One Light Year at a Snail’s Speed’ in June 2006.
It’s January 2007, and we’re still wondering what country they’re focusing on, as the CD doesn’t seem to be quite available in most parts of Pakistan itself, even after several months of its official launch date.
Are we supposed to look for the album in specific shops of specific cities only? What’s the deal with EMI anyway? Are they working under new ways of hitting the market or what? So far it seems that EMI Pakistan is on paper only, as we cannot see any traces of them being back.
The problem quite evidently lies at EMI’s end, where they have not been able to do much as far as their marketing and the distribution of a much awaited album is concerned and leaving one with not much option but to give in to some sort of piracy here. And then we wonder what this will lead us to.
MURIUM JAVED
Karachi
I would like to bring to the notice of the general public the scam of washing powder gang.
This type of gang is at present active near shopping areas like the one near the Clifton Centre. A seemingly innocent but actually very smart guy appears before you and says that he is working for such and such company which has introduced this new washing powder and they are giving it for free as a promotion.
You try to resist but he insists that you have nothing to lose as the product is a free sample with a lucky coupon inside. When you accept the free sample and start to leave, he insists you to open the sample box in front of him so that if there is a gift inside, it would be redeemed immediately.
He also refers you to somebody at some distance who has just got a gift. You open the box and for sure there is a gift. He acts as if you are the first lucky one who found the gift from the box that he has been offering to people since morning and asks you to accompany him to a Suzuki van at some distance to take your gift.
When you reach there he says you will have to make partial payment for the gift and in the same breath he offers you to open a second 'special' box and if you get a gift in that one, you will have to make no payment at all.
Meanwhile, the other guy, to whom he had earlier referred, approaches to redeem his second gift and he again refers to him to show that everything is genuine.
If you refuse to open the second box, he hands over to you your original gift against a partial payment which is a hefty amount as the gift he gives to you is fully packed and you cannot check that it is a counterfeit product.
Three to four people are sitting in the Suzuki van and similar number are standing around the van and two others appear as the other selling boy and other lucky winner who is actually a dummy lucky winner.
Thus, this is a gang of about a dozen people and they speak simultaneously and in quick succession, not allowing you to think that you are being trapped. It is only when you somehow manage to get out of their circle and go back to your vehicle or reach your home that you realise what a fool you have been made.
If our police are not involved with this gang, they should catch them but till that time, at least your newspaper should spread the news to save innocent people from falling in the trap of this gang.
A victim
Karachi
THESE days the phrase ‘Islamist militants’ is widely being used in newspapers and the Dawn newspaper is not an exception (editorial, Jan 18). I cannot understand why the word ‘Islamist’ precedes the word ‘militants’. Militancy should not be associated with any religion as no religion teaches militancy. Then why write Islamist militants?
We should not succumb to the propaganda of western media as the terms like Islamic fundamentalists, Islamic extremists and Islamist militants have been coined by them. But it is our responsibility to use words carefully. I have not heard or seen phrases like Christian militants or Jewish militants anywhere, nor do they make sense. Message can be conveyed equally well without putting ‘Islamist’ before ‘militants’.
I think its use hurts the 1.3 billion ‘Islamists’ around the world. Journalists bear more responsibility in any society and play an important role in opinion-making. They should choose use every word with care, especially those pertaining to religion.
HAMMAD A. CHEEMA
Lahore
IT’S high time Inzamamul Haq realised that he should not be bringing his personal likings to the game. Poor Asim Kamal is constantly being neglected for the only reason that Inzamam doesn’t like him as much as he likes Faisal Iqbal and Muhammad Hafeez.
In recent times it has been seen that the team captain is involving his personal likings in the selection of the team and the result is that there always remain loopholes in our playing eleven. Muhammad Hafeez is purely a one-day player and we are just wasting him by playing him in Test matches. Inzamam did his best to ensure that Muhammad Hafeez justified his selection by bowling 12 overs at the expense of another victim, Shahid Nazir, who would have used the old ball much better than Hafeez.
I have no personal grudge against Hafeez or Faisal, but Asim Kamal surely deserves a place in the team.
Kamal’s averages 38 in Tests whereas Faisal Iqbal only averages 26. Though Hafeez averages 41, we should not forget that he has played a few Test matches against Bangladesh.
Yasir Hameed should be made to open the innings and Asim Kamal be accommodated in the lower middle order.
I hope that the team management and Inzamam will realise that by playing their favourite players, they are playing with the careers of some youngsters who really have the potential to raise Pakistan’s name in the cricketing world.
M. LUQMAN RAFIQ
Karachi
AFTER moving into my new house in January 2005, I applied for shifting of my existing telephone number 5852198 and also applied for two new connections in the name of my wife and son under application no. 584/T-0658/2005 and 584/T-0659/2005 to DHA (Misri Shah) telephone exchange. Although a considerable time has since elapsed, no action has been taken to provide me the requested telephone connections.
The inordinate delay in this matter on the part of the authorities concerned has caused inconvenience to me and my family, especially non-availability of reliable Internet facility. I request the relevant authorities to look into this matter and do the needful immediately.
WAJIHUZZAMAN SIDDIQI
Karachi
I HAD applied for 500 shares of Rs10 each against initial public offering of the above company in March 1992. Ever since I am shareholder of this company which is no more traceable now.
Like mine, thousands of its shareholders' hard-earned money has gone with the wind. The market value of its share plummeted from Rs10 to as low as 40 paisa by the year 1999 when it was declared defaulter and de-listed and, subsequently, written off the books of the KSE, without caring for the plight of small investors who suffered huge losses.
Is it that easy for the sponsors in our country to get away with the millions of subscription money without being accountable before any authority or rather the bigwigs are given free hand to commit robbery in a legal way.
The SECP is believed to be working in the interest and for the safeguard of small investors, then how could such a thing happen right under their very nose?
RAUF SOZER
Karachi
I AM writing with reference to Sher Baz Khan’s report (Jan 16) regarding the recruitment of 650 policemen for VIP security. This drastic measure appears to have been necessitated by Gen Musharraf’s concerns regarding the worsening law and order situation not only in the federal capital but also in the provinces.
It is amusing to note that the worsening situation had escaped the notice of police authorities until it was pointed out by a personage no less than the president of the country, who certainly has no occasion to face the difficulties encountered by the citizens on a day-to-day basis. It is further amusing to note that the ‘responsible’ reaction of the authorities to this observation is the beefing up of VIP security.
The disregard of the government towards the security and comfort of the citizens could not be made more apparent than it has in this news report. Instead of the root causes of the problem of law and order, the government is more focused on providing a cosmetic cover and instead of looking after the welfare of ordinary people it is preoccupied with protecting the VIPs.
AMBER DARR
Islamabad
MUHAMMAD ASHRAF & RESIDENTS
(Block G & adjoining areas)
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.