| June 07, 2008 | Saturday | Jamadi-us-Sani 02, 1429 |
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A different spade
Being environment friendly
When hell broke out
Pensioners’ woes
Utility stores
Selecting tree species for plantation
Bush support
Runaway train
Fewer ministers, not more
Islamic School in Australia
Kalabagh dam
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
This is with reference to suggestions given by Isha M. Kureshi in her letter (May 20) regarding reorganising the Sindh Public Service Commission, which especially were very pertinent after restoration the chief minister’s authority over such a vital institution.
However, the news as regards appointment of a new chairman, as well as members (May 27), was shocking. As the commission, under the Act of 1989, is a recruiting body of grade 16 to 22 officers, its chairman should be a person having vast and varied experience.
The list of members also shows that no person of eminence in any scholarly field has been appointed on the committee. Even the law has been violated in a few cases. According to sub-section (3) of Section 3 of the said Act, the members shall be the persons who have held office in the service of Pakistan for not less than 20 years, including at least five years service in grade 20 or above, with outstanding career and eminence in their profession.
Strangely, one retired additional secretary, a retired conservator of forest and a retired DIG, all grade 19 officers, have been appointed in contravention of the mandate. Surprisingly, one member is even a retired resident director of Radio Pakistan, again a grade 19 officer. As rightly pointed out by Ms Kureshi, in in the early 1970s eminent scholars like Dr Muhammad Ali and Dr Akram Ansari served as members of the SPSC. Even Shahmul Ulma Allama Dr Daudpota, an outstanding scholar, served as it member. Thus the appointment of members not having basic qualification, i.e. minimum five years’ service in grade 20, is ab intio illegal and void in the eyes of law.
Under the provision of section 3 (4) of the Act 50 per cent (five) members are required to be taken up from amongst the eminent persons with minimum age of 45 years, representing liberal arts and science and professionals having a bachelor’s degree with sufficient practical experience in the relevant filed. From the list of appointees, it is evident that none of the members are from the private sector which obviously is in clear violation of rules.
Public Service Commissions are the highest constitutional bodies formed under an act of Parliament to conduct tests and interviews and select officers of grades 16 to 22 from amongst the most suitable candidates. For such extremely vital organisation people of high competence and qualifications are required, that is why the act demands people of outstanding career and eminence in their profession: in case of retired government servants at least five years’ service in BPS 20 or above and from the private sector people representing liberal arts and science.
I agree with Ms Kureshi that a pubic service commission plays a significant role in attainment of good governance by selecting suitable officials for the administration. The government must revise its decision and appoint right people.
DR MUSHTAQUE AHMED QURESHI
Islamabad
THIS is apropos of Capt. S. Afaq Rizvi’s letter, ‘Let’s call a spade, a spade’ (June 2). The letter is full of erroneous assertions. While Mr Rizvi is correct when he states that the deposed chief justice took the oath under the first PCO in 1999, he should realise that the Pakistan of 1999 was a very different one from the Pakistan of 2007.
The Pakistan of 1999 was an ignorant Pakistan; the country was accustomed and attuned to authoritarian rule and bore all kinds of injustices lying down.
Judges are part of society; they have the same weaknesses as the common man. Fast forward to 2007-08, today we are living in a different Pakistan that is fed up with military dictators and wants to establish civilian supremacy for all times to come. Society has undergone change and so have the judges led by Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.
The fact is that Mr Musharraf had no problems with Justice Iftikhar till the time the deposed CJ interfered in the loot sale of national assets and tried to give justice to missing persons.
Now that he is no longer in office, families of thousands of missing persons have given up hope of ever finding their loved ones.
Mr Rizvi asserts that the deposed CJ has turned the whole country upside down to get his job back.
The country has indeed been turned upside down, but not by Mr Iftikhar Chaudhry, but by Mr Musharraf who was the one actually trying to save his job by dismissing the judges and proclaiming emergency, which turned the country upside down.
Mr Iftikhar Chaudhry may have committed mistakes but the good he has done for the country far outweighs any wrongs he may have done.
Whether it is saving a vital national asset like Pakistan Steel Mills from underhand privatisation or his verdict on the New Murree Project, or cancellation of the mini-Golf Club plan in Islamabad on a public park (the list of beneficiaries of such deals all belonged to the then ruling clique’s close circles), or his questioning of the cantonments being established in Balochistan, or the missing persons’ case, his landmark verdicts are too many to be counted here.
Thankfully most Pakistanis think differently from Mr Rizvi. This is why, in a recent Gallup poll, 81 per cent of respondents stated that Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, with rest of the judges, must be restored and an extra-constitutional act must not be given any legal cover.
AMNA NASEER
Karachi
RAPIDLY increasing demand of petroleum products put enormous pressure on an economy as this demand results in the price hike of petroleum products. During the last two months these prices have almost doubled and the trend still continues. Price hike of fuel consequently increases the price of consumer goods in a multiple manner.
In these circumstances, use of fuel and other petroleum products has not only become an issue for a thriving economy but also an environmental issue as this is one of the major contributing factors of greenhouse gasses, resulting in the global environmental change.
These changes include climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, loss of biodiversity, changes in hydrological systems and the supplies of freshwater, land degradation and stresses on food-producing systems and changing pattern of rain and droughts.
Keeping in view these irreversible impacts of human activity, one must think and realise his or her responsibility. In relation to the use of petroleum products, I would suggest to the authorities concerned to work on car pooling or ride-sharing. It involves the use of one person’s private or company vehicle to carry one or more fellow passengers, either by using one car or rotating cars.
Car pooling has a number of benefits. Some direct benefits are cost-sharing, reducing traffic congestion and volume, especially in cities like Karachi, reducing the amount of exhaust emission, reduced number of traffic accidents, reducing mental stress, imparting better traffic management, improved urban air quality and further opportunities to strengthen social contacts among the citizens.
Car pooling should be encouraged at all levels wherever applicable, this is easier and suitable for office colleagues, at school and university level and where there is a considerable population working together.
One can also make a car pool of his or her neighbours and friends other than office colleagues. We can make a sizable difference towards environmental improvement just by adopting this environment-friendly activity.
NASAR U. USMANI
Karachi
IT happened recently at three in the morning. The airconditioner in the children’s room caught fire. I had just returned to my room after switching off the AC in the children’s room. After eight minutes my son, who is 11, with his younger sister, came running into our room, shouting ‘Fire’.
The fire drill and first-aid training that my husband and I had given them proved fruitful on that hellish day. Zain, my 11-year-old son, was brave enough to wake up Aiman, who is seven, and forced her to run outside along with him, although the fire was only two feet away from their bed.
Zain, instead of panicking and running out alone, first saved his sister and then us by informing us quickly. I dialled 16 to call the fire brigade while my husband started to put out the fire with a water hose. The fire brigade arrived way after the fire was put off and that too without their equipment. They had no lights or gas masks etc.
I would like to advise and emphasise that all citizens should train their family members and keep fire extinguishers and other safety gears handy because you can only save yourselves if you are well-equipped. I thank you my son, for saving us all. You are my hero.
SHEHLA RAHAT KHAN
Karachi
EVERY year when the budget is submitted, the government manages to forget the plight of pensioners. A majority of these people are in miserable condition owing to limited pension in these hard days of life when they are suffering from diseases which usually befriend old people.
A retiree’s requirements never retire. On the contrary, these go on increasing in multifarious ways. There are pensioners who have no houses of their own or earning member in their family. We have been hearing about a lot of encouraging packages for the last so many years, but the ground reality is zero.
Such lofty announcements appear just like a voice in the wilderness. There are such pensioners as have been suddenly reduced by unforeseen circumstances from a state of respectability and comfort to want and misery and what adds more to their grief is that they cannot sustain a hope that they shall ever be relieved from a awful pressure of poverty.
The government should pay heed to these people.
LALA FAZAL AHMED BELAEE
Hyderabad
TODAY the world, as well as Pakistan, is facing the shortage of essential commodities, leading to abnormal rise in their prices. The hardest hit are the poor and the lower middle class who simply cannot meet the ends. The need is to empower all those departments that can provide some relief to the poor.
Our utility stores can play a very important role of providing essential commodities to the poor and other needy people if the government enhanced the number of such stores in the country. At present we have 4,580 utility stores working in the country.
The government should not only increase the number of utility stores but also provide subsidy so that people may keep getting commodities on cheaper price.
UMAR FAROOQ
Rawalpindi
WHILE it may remain to be found out whose wisdom was it to plant hundreds of date palm trees on Peshawar-Burhan Motorway, most of which have died (April 14), it is commendable that the NWFP forest department is now planting indigenous species on this part of the Motorway. At least in one part of our country some sensible foresters/horticulturists are present.
One may only hope that the city of Karachi would ever get a sensible horticulturist, not wallowing in self-praise and sane enough to pay heed to the opinion of those who know things better. Planting of more than 10,000 trees in the city (April 22) does not deserve a medal if the selected species is not environment-friendly and becomes a hazard in the long run.
The example of paper mulburry in Islamabad should be more than enough to refrain from planting anymore alien species if one has a grain of wisdom.
There are a number of indigenous wild species that could be developed into avenue trees with a little effort, such as tecomella undulata with magnificent orange flowers, Acacia nilotica with a number of medicinal properties and good timber, Acacia senegal which produces the precious gum Arabic, Prosopis cineraria (locally called kandi), Salvadora oleoides, Salvadora persica, etc.
All of these species have medicinal properties and can be grown with least amount of water and little tending. Important thing is that they have been around since centuries or even millennia, thus they constitute the identity of our land; and our generations have lived with them without experiencing any ill effects. Filling our landscape with alien or exotic species is tantamount to destroying our identity.
Many environment-friendly species that were cultivated in the past have now been abandoned by the parks and horticulture department for the reasons best known to them, such as amaltas (cassia fistula), shisham (dalbergia sissoo), siris (albizia lebbeck), rain tree (Albizia saman), saimal (bombax ceiba) and many more, in favour of any one species galore.
The fast growing exotic species like eucalyptus and conocarpus not only exhaust the groundwater resources but also pose many unforeseen risks. If one may recall, I wrote much in these columns in mid-1990s about the risks of eucalyptus but to no avail.
Now the full-grown eucalyptus have been chopped off after realising the problems caused by them. When paper mulburry was planted in Islamabad some 40 to 50 years back, it was praised for its fast growth and greenery. Over the years its pollen allergy problem attained enormous dimensions, becoming life threatening for the sensitive persons.
In spite of these examples, the current darling of our horticulture department is the exotic conocarpus which has a known potential of pollen allergy leading to respiratory problems and asthma.
One can imagine the magnitude of the problem when the city-ful of conocarpus trees will be in full bloom a few years from now and the city atmosphere will be saturated with their pollen.
Maybe the issue of public health is another absurd thing for our able director of parks and horticulture.
PROF (DR) SURAYYA KHATOON
Department of Botany, University of Karachi
APROPOS of your editorial, ‘The Bush support’ (June 2), it is interesting to note that former foreign secretary Najmuddin Sheikh, writing recently in a section of the press, has drawn an ominous parallel between the recent 25-minute telephone conversation of Presidents Bush and Musharraf and an earlier one in 1979, when Jimmy Carter called the Shah of Iran during the last dying days of the Pehlavi dynasty.
Mr Carter’s call was intended as a gesture of support and goodwill for the Shah at a time when his regime was tottering, but it served to not only further antagonise anti-Shah forces in Iran but to also increase hatred for the US which was uniformly perceived as providing succour to the Shah, who had already been branded vociferously by the Ayatollah and his followers as an enemy of the Iranian people.
The lingering antipathy towards the US survives to this day in Iran, and continues to sour relations between the two countries.
Will Bush’s telephone call to President Musharraf spawn rabidly anti-US governments in Pakistan as well in the decades to come?
ASAD SIDDIQI
Lahore
IT would appear that despite the election of a parliament according to the will of the people, a handful of lawyers want to run the country their way.
All the rallies and long marches for the benefit of the sacked chief justice are organised by the PML(N) with their banners on open display.
The media having lost millions in revenue during the emergency measures are bent on revenge, inciting public disorder over the issue.
The corruption of the judiciary in Pakistan has been an open book that has been ignored. Is it any wonder that Pakistan looks more and more like a runaway train?
ANIS AHMED
London
THIS is with reference to the editorial published on May 29 regarding another stumbling block to good governance rather than presenting viable solutions to the prevailing problems being faced by the masses.
This reflects no wisdom on the part of a government, which claims to be a people’s government, to have two and three ministers for a department which is run by one provincial secretary.
Arrangements of having more ministers than needed coupled with a brigade of staff (both officially assigned and non-official associates) are nothing but a burden on the exchequer and tools of extortions.
The leadership of the present government should, therefore, concentrate on taking positive measures to help mend the situation instead of aggravating a bad one.
ABDUL SAMAD
Karachi
IN response to K. Chaudhry’s comments, let me inform that Australia is a very tolerant society and people are free to practise what they preach.
There are no ‘minorities’ in this great democratic country and no one is classified or marginalised according to their religious beliefs, unlike what is widely practised and accepted in Pakistan.
The decision to reject the proposed Muslim School in Camden was a popular decision by the local council and its residents. It was a transparent and fair decision and should be respected.
Malik Fahd School is heavily funded by the Saudi government and its good results are due to its selective policy. Students with high academic achievements are allowed to undertake HSC examinations.
With Saudi funding and selective policy you would expect above average results at least.
L. AHMAD
Sydney
THE recent decision to shelve the Kalabagh dam project is extremely shortsighted. Electricity requirements no doubt can be met by other projects, but there is no alternative to the Kalabagh dam for the storage of surplus water, which flows into the sea during the rainy season.
Only 28 per cent of Pakistan’s land surface is under cultivation. The bulk of the area (72 per cent) remains uncultivated for lack of water. We need every drop of water to meet the food requirements of our growing population.
Otherwise, food prices will rise, causing unbearable hardship to the poor of Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan and the NWFP. Does the government intend to wait till the price of wheat flour rises to Rs100 a kilo?
ASAFALI SHAH
Lahore
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