| August 31, 2007 | Friday | Sha'aban 17, 1428 |
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A plea for provincial autonomy
Raising road levels
Imran on BBC World
Singing songs together again
Preventing bank robberies
Non-partisan judiciary needed
Futile technology
‘Islam now, China then’
A question to the American
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 response to my article, ‘Vision 2030 -- energy slip - ups’ (Aug 24), Dr Shaukat Hameed Khan, member, Planning Commission, in his letter (Aug 28) has attempted to defend the integrity of energy section in the Vision 2030. His letter is being responded here.
• Regarding uranium reserves, he has not answered the main question about the 2050 deadline for uranium resources to run out. Referring to MIT’s speculative report based upon assumed modelling, he ignores the fact that nuclear power is on a downward trend across the world – the major nuclear powers of the world such as the US, the UK and Germany are all seeing a shutdown of plants and none of them have built any new facility in more than last 15 years. So is the trend across the world apart from a few exceptions. For further insight, I suggest him to see energy policies of the EU and the US.
• Regarding his defence of the 50,000 MW of wind potential he could not provide any independent resource to justify the claim. Saying it is based upon Pakistan Meteorological Department’ data is not an acceptable reference unless it has been published and accepted by the scientific world and the relevant national and international professional bodies, which unfortunately is not the case.
Similarly with respect to the capacity factor claim, he has only managed to deny the facts and figures I provided rather defending the Vision 2030’s claims with any creditable reference. Muddling things up, he refers to a previous work that I undertook three years ago, a totally different entity that has nothing to do here.
While appraising Vision 2030 I have taken into account wind speeds at the coastal areas of Pakistan at heights of 50m and 80m. My questions still stands tall, the amateur and unrecognised data from Meteorological Department are more authentic or the reports from the most respected independent and international organisations/professional bodies which really know the business such as Stanford University, Oxford University, NASA, NREL and UNEP?
• Great potential for solar energy is the key strength of Pakistan and it has been dealt with casually. Irony of the matter is that the very sentence about Jacobabad is extremely vague yet Dr Khan dares to refer to it.
• Also I wonder if Dr Khan would defend the absurd use of wind energy for water pumping as suggested in Vision 2030.
• Regarding energy conservation my concerns remain there that it has only been touched upon very briefly and no real mechanism and framework has been provided. Energy conservation is a much broader subject than what Vision 2030 talks about.
• The concern on lack of attention paid to biomass and its development as a renewable energy option in Pakistan has not been dealt with.
• Lastly, if the references were not needed in this report, why are they provided at all in many other sections of the Vision 2030? Upon my utmost efforts searching planning commission’s website, I have not been able to find any contributor related to ‘renewable energy’, particularly in Thematic Group I. No one is, therefore, bothered about the status and authority of the contributors in the ‘system’ but about their professional standing, research profile and relevance to the subject they are dealing with.
I am not surprised at the letter by Dr Shaukat Hameed Khan as he somehow has to own and defend Vision 2030 but at the weak arguments he has come up.
DR M. ASIF
Glasgow University, UK
MANY people believe that Sindh has been facing a most difficult time, and hold mainly the federal government responsible for all its political and economic ills .
The centre, as ever, wants to run Sindh through remote control.
Politically, it always wanted to install in Sindh a government of its choice to achieve its interests. One example is of the incumbent chief minister who occupies the highest slot in the government hierarchy, though his group has only four members in the Sindh Assembly. For this the CM has expressed many a time his gratitude to the president.
However, there are economic reasons why the centre wants to run Sindh from afar. One, its money is used to help Punjab. Sindh contributes more than 70 per cent revenue to the national pool but, in return, gets only 23 per cent. Sindh thus is not able to resolve many of its problems for lack of funds.
From many years the centre, including the finance ministry headed by the present prime minister, has remained hesitant about releasing funds for the interior Sindh, especially for the revamping of the irrigation system.
It is on record that a Sindh senior minister once complained to the president that the finance minister (now the prime minister) was, despite a dozen reminders, reluctant to release the due amount to Sindh.
Previously, we could also see the step-motherly attitude of the centre when the Keti Bunder project, approved by Benazir Bhutto’s government, was abandoned by the next federal government and the funds shifted to the Lahore- Islamabad Motorway project.
Similarly, the Jam Sadiq Ali government was the choice of the centre at a time when Jam Sadiq had the support of only one member (self) in the house. His policies put Sindh in a financial crisis, and the provincial government had to borrow about Rs12 billion as overdraft from the State Bank of Pakistan.
The only solution to this problem is the enforcement of the provincial autonomy in letter and in spirit. All the big political parties of Sindh, including the PPP, should stand up and force the establishment to immediately grant provincial autonomy and avoid interfering in the provincial affairs. When a province is enabled to look after its own affairs, it is the country that will, in the long run, stand to benefit as a whole.
IMRAN KHAN SIAL
Karachi
I WOULD like to bring to the attention of the authorities concerned in the DHA, Karachi, the extraordinary height of the roads being constructed these days in Phase V111. Construction of houses in the first three belts of Phase VIII of the DHA started in the year 2000 and more than 100 houses have now been built in this area. The gate and plinth level of these houses were set from the road level as per the DHA by - laws. These heights were strictly adhered to by the DHA and in case of any excess above the approved level were demolished.
For the past few weeks reconstruction of streets and roads has been going on . Layers after layers of sand and gravel are being laid which has raised the level of streets substantially. The level in some areas has already exceeded two to three feet above the existing roads while carpeting on these roads is still to be done This has resulted in the gates and driveways of the constructed houses to be much below the road level and in some instances the plinth level of these houses is likely to go below the new road level.
The residents of Phase VIII are horrified at the destruction which would be caused when the rainwater, mixed with sewage, floods their houses and also contaminates the drinking water in the underground tanks, which would be a major health hazard. Horrified examples of destruction by rainwater recently are still very much evident in Phases IV, V, and VI of the DHA, and we fear the same is going to happen to us in the future.
As the gate and plinth level was set with the DHA approval, it will be unfair to the residents, who have already constructed the house by now, to have their houses below the road level. It is also a clear legal violation of the approved plans of the constructed houses. Where were the engineers of the DHA when these houses were being built and the plans were being approved? Why did they not act at that time or is it an afterthought which means lack of planning and vision on their part?
We, the residents of Phase VIIII, would urge the DHA to direct their planners and engineers concerned to construct the roads of the area in such a way that these are at least below the gate level of the houses already constructed.
DR NAJMUL ISLAM
Karachi
THIS is in response to Aamer Intsar’s letter, ‘We are our own enemies’ (Aug 25).
The writer says it was unfortunate to listen to the remarks of Imran Khan on the BBC World when he did not reflect on the positive achievements and regretted that the country had not performed to its full potential during the past 60 years. The writer goes on to add that the forum was not appropriate for expressing such views and that too on our Independence Day.
As a matter of fact, for any democratic country there cannot be a greater achievement than to strengthen the democratic institutions of the country. Whereas, how can one extol the merits of a country where national institutions have been repeatedly undermined by military usurpers, as well as by elected authoritarians? The so-called saviours have come and gone but the end-result is that even today Pakistan cannot boast of having democratic institutions and a workable constitutional framework. Unfortunately, today’s Pakistan is a victim of political and constitutional ad hocism.
What we need is to get rid of the ostrich syndrome and face the grim reality. Whatever Imran Khan said on the BBC World was simply a home truth. About our ‘positive achievement’ during the 60-odd years Pakistan has already been drawing flak from within and without both.
By any standard of rational judgment, of course, when hardly an institution is intact, the task ahead is no less difficult than one can imagine. Still, all is not lost. At least Imran Khan has not lost hope in the potential and the future of this great nation.
WAQAR AHMED RAJA
Media Coordinator
Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf
Islamabad
THANK you for the column by Irfan Husain, ‘Fast forward to 2047’. How can I respond to the suggestion that “Radical nationalist groups in India harbour hopes for a ‘Greater India’ encompassing Pakistan and Bangladesh”?
I do not know about ‘radical nationalist’, but there is always a yearning for the ‘Old India’ which is a 5,000 years’ old culture, perhaps the India of the ‘British Raj’.
Luckily for me there has been a contribution to the ‘Letters to the Editor’ column by a wonderful citizen of that old India, Captain S. Afaq Rizvi, captioned, ‘Games historians play’, and I quote: “I am perplexed as to how to apply the ‘Two-nation’ theory to these melodies that have elated millions from the decade of the late 1930s to perhaps the 1960s, when they started dying out slowly as partition began to assert itself. This ‘What if’ game I sometimes play with a lump in my throat, even though I am no historian.”
I have a lump in my throat too. When will we sing songs together again?
GOPAL
Auckland, NZ
THIS refers to the news, ‘Rs 9.7 million looted in two bank robberies’ (Aug 17). In one of these robberies, Rs6.5million was looted from a branch of Dubai Islami Bank in Gulshan - i - Iqbal, Karachi, in which the guard of a private security company posted at the bank was involved.
The second incident took place on the same day in PICIC Commercial Bank, Saudabad, Karachi, in which the robbers looted Rs3.2 million. Thereafter, just after three days another news of bank robbery in a branch of the MCB in the Pabbi town near Nowshera (NWFP) was reported (‘Armed men take away Rs1.3m from bank’, Aug 21).
Prior to these, another robbery had taken place in MCB branch in Karimabad, Karachi, on Aug 11 in which Rs11.4 million was looted, according to a report in a section pf the press.
Incident of bank robberies is increasing day by day. According to reports in the press, 42 bank robberies took place in the country from March 2004 to August 20, 2007 in which a total of Rs296.1 million was looted. Out of these, 32 bank robberies took place in Karachi alone, of which the last eight robberies took place in the current year.
In the total of 42 robberies mentioned above, guards of private security companies deployed at banks were found involved in 20 bank robberies. This shows that either the management of the security companies did not bother to verify the character and antecedents of their guards by the police/relevant agencies before detailing them for security duties at banks or they were careless in selecting the right types of guards, especially for duties at banks.
It also indicates that either the bank officials were careless or they were lacking knowledge about the security requirements of the bank. Some time, bank robberies are also committed with the connivance of bank staff. It is also pertinent to note that banks are also providing opportunities to guards for their involvement in bank robbery by making them to stay inside the bank, both on duty and off duty, after closing time of the bank.
This not only provides temptation to guards but also provides an opportunity to them to break open the bank’s vault/strong room for taking away cash, valuables, etc. This has actually happened many times that the guards who were performing duties inside the bank at night had taken away the entire cash by breaking open the bank’s safes and lockers.
The following measures are suggested to help prevent robberies in banks:
a. Banks should formulate bank security standing orders, which should be read, understood and signed by all bank employees for strict compliance.
b. Lectures on security awareness related to bank security should be arranged for bank employees from time to time.
c. Bank officials should not fraternise with the security guards and should not ask them to do anything other than security duties for which they are detailed.
d. Security guards should not be allowed to stay inside the bank whether on duty or off duty, they should perform the duty outside the bank’s building after closing time of the bank.
e. Banks should consider use of advanced security device, such as, ‘dye pack’, currently used in the US and many other countries to foil bank robbers non-violently
f. Security companies should detail only those guards at banks whose character and antecedents have been verified by their local and hometown police.
g. Security companies should ensure suitability of their guards for performing duty at banks from all angles.
Banks will always be a lucrative target for criminals. But careful security planning, constant vigilance and good coordination between banks and security companies can reduce the risk of robberies.
SQN LDR (r) S. AUSAF HUSAIN
Karachi
EVEN as popular Bollywood stars are handed stiff jail sentences for poaching and carrying illegal weapons, it seems our erstwhile political saviours Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto are going to receive political/legal immunity for all that they did during their tenures, so they can gloriously lead us (once again) to the promised land of democracy.
I fervently hope that our newly-empowered judiciary will bring those who engaged in corruption, embezzlement, and nepotism to justice. Anything less would open up our apex courts to suspicions of partisan activism. Pakistan’s liberal elites should not forget mansions in Surrey, Asif Zardari, the14th Amendment, and the thuggish storming of the Supreme Court.
I would also, in turn, appeal to the president to avoid a ‘deal’ with politicians that would absolve them of accountability. Mr President, give up your uniform with honour, send the army back to the barracks for good, and help bring Mian Sahib and BB to justice or keep them out! Your legacy can still be saved.
ATIF J. KHAN
Mardan
WE have spent billions of dollars to develop our nuclear arsenal and continue to spend billions more in developing missiles to deliver these nuclear warheads presumably at Indian cities. When the nuclear bomb was tested in 1998 we were told that we now possessed the ultimate deterrence. Yet almost 10 years on we continue to build and test more missiles. What use does this technology possess? How is it going to benefit our people? Are we as a nation learning anything from it and is it going to make our lives any better?
It seems an enormous waste of money since India is not stupid enough to attack a country it shares a border with and which possesses nuclear weapons. We are not able to sell these missiles, so what’s the point? We need hospitals, universities, roads, electricity, clean water, fire engines and food. Let’s give the people what they need and not just more weapons and missiles which serve them no purpose. We have intentionally been led into thinking we will be attacked and unfortunately have naïvely poured all our resources in development that helps no one.
I request the Pakistani government to reconsider its decisions and use our scarce funds wisely to benefit the masses.
NASIR SIDDIQUE
Karachi
SHAHID Alam’s investigative article, ‘Islam now, China then: any parallels?’ (Dawn Encounter, Aug 18), was really enlightening and revealing for the discerning minds. He has a style of starting with specific data and then undertaking analytical review through critical evaluation to arrive at logical and well-founded inferences.
He is not driven by any emotional upsurge or fanaticism but his thinking is triggered by objective realities. What could be logical answer to his concluding question addressed to the world at large: can the US or Israel or both be prevented from starting a conflagration involving the entire Muslim world?
To me, it appears, the rational answer is through regime change which none has the power or guts to bring about except conscientious-minded and mentally-emancipated people of these countries which, no doubt as per my judgment, are in majority in both the countries, only a charismatic, dynamic and mentally-emancipated leader is required to materialise this change.
Let’s hope someone worth his salt emerges for the good of humanity at large, particularly future generations.
M. SALEEM CHAUDHRY
San Jose, CA
THIS has reference to Pete McKenna’s letter, ‘Fighting Taliban: an American view’. May I ask Mr McKenna why incidents like Lal Masjid started happening only after the so- called war against terror? The term suicide bombing has now become familiar even to the common man. As for Gen Musharraf, what he knows matters very little. He is just trying to remain in power by obeying Uncle Sam.
MUJTABA SIMAER
Sukkur
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