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DAWN WIRE SERVICE

------------------------------------------------------------------- Week Ending : 04 October 1997 Issue : 03/40 -------------------------------------------------------------------

Contents | National News | Business & Economy | Editorials & Features | Sports

The DAWN Wire Service (DWS) is a free weekly news-service from Pakistan's largest English language newspaper, the daily DAWN. DWS offers news, analysis and features of particular interest to the Pakistani Community on the Internet. Extracts from DWS can be used provided that this entire header is included at the beginning of each extract. We encourage comments & suggestions. We can be reached at: e-mail dws@dawn.khi.erum.com.pk dws%dawn%khi@sdnpk.undp.org fax +92(21) 568-3188 & 568-3801 mail Pakistan Herald Publications (Pvt.) Limited DAWN Group of Newspapers Haroon House, Karachi 74400, Pakistan TO START RECEIVING DWS FREE EVERY WEEK, JUST SEND US YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS! (c) Pakistan Herald Publications (Pvt.) Ltd., Pakistan - 1996 ******************************************************************** *****DAWN - the Internet Edition ** DAWN - the Internet Edition***** ******************************************************************** Read DAWN - the Internet Edition on the WWW ! http://dawn.com Pakistan's largest English language newspaper, DAWN, is now Pakistan's first newspaper on the WWW. DAWN - the Internet Edition will be published daily (except on Fridays and public holidays in Pakistan) and would be available on the Web by noon GMT. Check us out ! DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS

CONTENTS

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NATIONAL NEWS

Army may be called out to curb terrorism $3.74bn spent on defence during 1995 Bonino narrates ordeal Ehtesab chief on clarification mission to Switzerland Ehtesab chief starts proceedings against PM in copter case COMSATS to set up software college PM vows to protect judiciary's independence Deportees whose ship never sailed in finally disembark ---------------------------------

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

HBL writes off Rs 2.75bn debts in 1996 Bhutto-related Swiss accounts would be difficult to retrieve The ever-elusive necessity of shelter Financial sector reforms: a case for consumer credit agencies CBR's successor to be armed with vast powers News of forward cover fails to create buying euphoria ---------------------------------------

EDITORIALS & FEATURES

Madness Ardeshir Cowasjee As walls go higher Hafizur Rahman Was the PM's visit a non-event? Shaheen Sehbai Who is responsible for academic loss? Sarfaraz Ahmed Our colonial heritage Irfan Husain -----------

SPORTS

Lahore match belonged to Ejaz Ahmad Aqib, three others, left out of first Test team Row kicks up on replaced ball Tickets at Rs 3,000 Pakistan beat Argentina to gain 5th spot Jansher Khan pulls out of World Open

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NATIONAL NEWS

970929 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Army may be called out to curb terrorism -------------------------------------------------------------------- Raja Zulfikar ISLAMABAD, Sept 28: The government has given its drug enforcement and intelligence agencies a deadline of six months to curb gunrunning, drug smuggling and terrorism, and may assign these duties to the army in case the agencies failed to produce results, a government official told Dawn. "Army will possibly be engaged for anti-smuggling operations and other assignments if the currently adopted measure of the government remains unproductive by the first quarter of the next year," the official added. The official asking not to be named confirmed that the decision to seek army's assistance in some key operations has already been taken. It will, however, not be called out till the expiry of the six-month period. Meanwhile, informed sources said the interior ministry had been monitoring the performance of its agencies on a regular basis ever since the federal cabinet approved the National Action Plan against terrorism in the third week of August. "We would like our agencies to produce result rather than seek army's help for anti-smuggling operations or for eliminating gunrunning," another government official commented. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS* 970930 -------------------------------------------------------------------- $3.74bn spent on defence during 1995 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Shaheen Sehbai WASHINGTON, Sept 29: Pakistan's total military expenditure in 1995 was $3.74 billion, according to the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA). In contrast, China spent $63.51 billion and India $7.83 billion, the ACDA said, in figures released last week. According to the agency, the Pakistan's military expenditure per capita in 1995 was $30, China's $53 and India's only $8. China's armed forces in 1995 numbered 2.93 million against India's 1.265 million and Pakistan's 587,000. In terms of total worldwide military expenditure, India ranked 18th and Pakistan 30th. China ranked 3rd, after the US and Russia. Bangladesh's army with 115,000 personnel is the 38th largest in the world and the estimated expenditure is $502 million. Sri Lanka's armed forces in 1995 numbered 110,000 with an estimated expenditure of $585 million. Pakistan had 4.6 soldiers per 1,000 of its population in 1995, India 1.4 and mainland China 2.5. In terms of expenditure per soldier, the highest expenditure is in Japan � $209,400, followed by Kuwait $174,400, Switzerland $173,600 and the US $171,500. Pakistan spent $6,371, India $ 6,190 and China $21,680. The publication analyses the military expenditure in South Asia separately. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS* 971001 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Bonino narrates ordeal -------------------------------------------------------------------- Bureau Report ISLAMABAD, Sept 30: European Union Commissioner Emma Bonino, who was detained for three hours in Kabul on Monday, has said that her organisation will continue offering increased humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan despite human rights violations there. "This incident which occurred yesterday in the Kabul Polyclinics, and which led to the detention of my delegation in forced custody by the religious police for more than three hours, has its origin of misunderstanding between our press people and local religious authorities. The incident was closed with the apologies of the two members of the Taliban administration, and I do not wish to dramatise or dwell further on it", she further stated. Speaking at a news conference here on Tuesday night, the EU Commissioner pointed out that despite all kinds of harassment and human rights violations, her organisation would not give up relief efforts in the war-ravaged Afghanistan. She regretted that random checks and arbitrary arrests were a fact of life in Kabul and that public beatings for noncompliance of the Taliban's dress code or beard standards had become a matter of routine. Asked whether the European Union would recognise the Taliban government, she said unless the UN conventions on human rights were implemented, there was no possibility to go for the option in the near future. "There is no doubt in my mind that the code of conduct and the style of life imposed by the Taliban was resented by all those Afghans who did not share Pashtoon culture and traditions, as abusive and oppressive. And this includes the majority of Kabul's population", she asserted. Bonino told a reporter that she had met state minister for foreign affairs Siddique Khan Kanjo on Tuesday and discussed with him relations between Pakistan and her organisation. "We also discussed the situation in Afghanistan and Mr Kanjo felt sorry on what had happened with her yesterday in Kabul". She said that the EU and Pakistan did not believe that there could be any military solution to Afghanistan. " Only political solution would work and I would propose my high authorities to further look into issue so that there could be any lasting peace in that war-torn country", she said. However, she regretted to offer any more comment by saying that her mandate was only to supervise relief work and that she should not be asked political questions. She particularly expressed her serious concern over the women population and regretted that they were living in highly bad conditions. "I wish to add here a special thought for women of Kabul, who were not long ago part of an urban and educated community which took an active part in the public life of their city. I met some of them in private, and it was one of the most moving encounters of my life", she added. She said that she was offered the facility to visit by helicopter General Masood or Prof Rabbani or both, but ,"declined the offer as the limited time available was barely sufficient to carry out the planned humanitarian survey". The EU Commissioner said that she did not consider Northern Alliance as a better interlocutor than the Taliban when she visited Faizabad area occupied by forces fighting against the Taliban. To a question, Mrs Bonino pointed out that the EU was still the largest donors of humanitarian assistance in the world. She said that the European Community Humanitarian Office(ECHO) was the single largest donor with an annual budget of 900 million dollars. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS* 971001 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Ehtesab chief on clarification mission to Switzerland -------------------------------------------------------------------- M. Ziauddin ISLAMABAD, Sept 30: Sen Saifur Rehman, chief of the Ehtesab cell, has gone to Switzerland to meet the Swiss authorities to discuss the alleged Bhutto accounts. The visit reportedly pertains to clarifications sought by the Swiss authorities about the evidence linking the accounts to proven corruption. So far the Ehtesab cell is said to have provided the Swiss authorities with no concrete evidence to back the allegations that the so-called Swiss accounts of the Bhuttos contain ill-gotten wealth. Those who know the way the Swiss authorities work in such cases said the Swiss authorities accept on face value such allegations levelled by governments and freeze the identified bank accounts, but put the onus of proving these accounts to be ill-gotten on the accusers. This has been happening for the last 10 years or so because of international pressure which had kept on mounting with stories of Nazi gold and the siphoned off money of third world military dictators being hidden in Swiss banks, the sources said. "Also, the Swiss government's own investigations into such allegations had been very cumbersome and time consuming," the source added. They also said SGS/Cotecna had completed its investigations into the allegations that one of its senior officials had offered in writing to pay an agreed percentage of its fees as a kickback to Asif Ali Zardari. The evidence gathered through this investigation is said to have been provided to the Swiss government. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS* 971002 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Ehtesab chief starts proceedings against PM in copter case -------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Reporter LAHORE, Oct 1: Chief Ehtesab Commissioner Justice (retd) Mujaddid Mirza on Wednesday started proceedings on a complaint against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif filed by the PPP alleging that he bought a helicopter from ill-gotten money and concealed ownership in nomination papers filed for contesting elections to NA-12. PPP counsel Babar Awan submitted before the Ehtesab Commissioner, who held proceedings at his office in the GOR-1, that the assets which were concealed could be assumed to have been created from corrupt means as provided under Section 2 of the Ehtesab Act. He argued that the respondent had contested a case in the Supreme Court to get the helicopter registered in his own name. But this, however, was not mentioned in the assets column in the nomination papers filed through a confidant Asim Nabi. In support of his contention about the machine's ownership, Mr Awan said that Advocate Chaudhry Farooq (at present attorney-general) had in October, 1996 filed a writ petition in the high court seeking permission to get the MI-8 helicopter registered in Mr Nawaz Sharif's name. Permission was refused and the matter was agitated in the Supreme Court which allowed the appeal. Then the Civil Aviation Authority's air-worthiness wing asked for transfer of the possession deed from the previous owner of the machine. Mr Awan said that Sheikh Muhammad Sani, a national of Saudi Arabia owner of the Russian-made helicopter, issued a certificate in Mr Sharif's favour. The machine was finally registered in his name on November 21, 1996. But the fact was not mentioned in the nomination papers filed before February 3 elections. He said Mr Sharif's income tax returns for the same year were Rs16,000 which, he added, could not be true for a person who owned a helicopter. He requested the Chief Ehtesab Commissioner to issue warrants of arrest against Mr Sharif as he had done in some other complaints referred to him. Justice (retd) Mirza adjourned the proceedings till October 6 with a direction to the complainant to produce the record of the case proceedings of helicopter held in the Supreme Court. The proceedings will be held in Islamabad. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS* 971003 -------------------------------------------------------------------- COMSATS to set up software college -------------------------------------------------------------------- Correspondent ISLAMABAD, Oct 2: Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS) plans to establish the first-ever computer software college in the federal capital with an objective to produce skilled manpower. The college will offer short courses in latest software to the computer graduates, Executive Director COMSATS Parvez Ahmad Butt told Dawn. COMSATS has already acquired space at the Constitution Avenue for establishing the college likely to be commissioned by the end of current year, said Mr. Butt. He said the COMSATS would invite experts from around the world for short duration courses of Pakistani software engineers to keep them abreast with the latest developments in the field of soft-ware around the globe. He regretted that the country at present was not producing enough computer graduates as required to keep a pace with the latest development in the computer technology. Bangalore alone was producing over 600 computer graduates every year, he added. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS* 971004 -------------------------------------------------------------------- PM vows to protect judiciary's independence -------------------------------------------------------------------- Staff Reporter KARACHI, Oct 3: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said here on Friday that due importance had to be given to the parliament's constitutional obligation to act as law-giver and to the judiciary's role of interpreting the law, but at the same time the "line of demarcation between interpretation and transformation should not be overlooked. "This is not intended to be, and should not be taken, as a criticism of the judiciary. The judiciary in all our countries has played a constructive role which we wholeheartedly welcome and support", he told a gathering of chief justices from seven regional countries, judges and lawyers, who are attending the three-day conference of Saarclaw, which the prime minister inaugurated on Friday afternoon. It had been and would continue to be an endeavour of his government to protect and strengthen the independence of the judiciary and of judicial institutions, he said. He reiterated his desire and that of his government to "consolidate and promote the rule of law, which is the essence of a civil society and indeed of democracy." DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS* 970928 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Deportees whose ship never sailed in finally disembark -------------------------------------------------------------------- Tahir Siddiqsi KARACHI, Sept 27: Shattered and ill-clad, frustration writ large on their faces, the 735 Pakistani deportees from Saudi Arabia touched the soil of their motherland early Saturday morning when the authorities allowed Egyptian ship Al Madina to berth at East Wharf. It took almost 72 hours for the authorities to let Al Madina berth at the port, which also carries 1,098 Indians deported by the Saudi government for overstaying. After 11 days sailing, Al Madina waited for permission from the authorities at the outer anchorage since Thursday noon. The delay in the ship's berthing was attributed to non-compliance of port clearance formalities by the shipping company's agent. The ship having a capacity of hardly 500 passengers, brought a total of 1,834 Pakistani and Indian passengers, including women and many children. It touched the East Wharf berth at 7:10am and passengers started disembarking at about 9am when the port staff and FIA started the immigration formalities and health check. As the ship touched the port, a Pakistani woman gave birth to a baby aboard. Then other passengers started disembarking and at about 11:20am the bodies of the two, Mehfooz Elahi from Attock and Mehmood Khan from Bannu, were brought down. Mehfooz died on Thursday and Mehmood on Friday aboard the ship when they were about to touch their soil. An Edhi ambulance carried the coffins from the port. Their bodies would be sent to their home towns. Malnutritioned, badly treated and given water on payment of money, almost all the passengers narrated stories of their miseries during the voyage. They said they were not even provided with drinking water by the crew what to say of food. Only half-boiled plain rice with a little curry was served three times a day. The crew members were selling water and other foodstuffs on high prices and only a few could afford the amount the crew were charging.

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BUSINESS & ECONOMY

970929 -------------------------------------------------------------------- HBL writes off Rs 2.75bn debts in 1996 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Dilawar Hussain Habib Bank Limited continued to forge ahead in the key areas even under the difficult economic and financial conditions of the year 1996. The Bank's deposits grew 9.7 per cent to Rs 213.5 billion at December 31,1996 and the advances increased by 10.5 per cent to Rs 131.8 billion. With a network of 1,927 branches in Pakistan (14 new branches added during the year) and 65 branches abroad, the Bank claimed to serve as many as 11 million clients. The bank posted group operating profit at Rs 2.3 billion for 1996, which reflected improvement over the pretax profit at Rs 709.3 million made the year earlier. The 1996 operating profit, however, turned to a loss of Rs 3.4 billion, after provision of a huge Rs 5,672.5 million for bad & doubtful debts. President Shaukat Tareen explained that the Board had taken "a bold initiative by deciding to create significantly large amount of provisions against infected loan portfolio under Prudential Regulations which are time-frame oriented and do not give any weightage to the realisable value of securities/collaterals held by the Bank against the infected loans." In a note to the accounts, it has been stated: "Provision for bad and doubtful debts has been made after considering the expected realisable value of assets held by the bank as security. Provision made during the year for bad and doubtful debts has been deducted from the income under the head of 'interest and discount' for the purpose of consistency in reporting and also in line with the requirements of Banking Companies Ordinance 1962." The expected realisable value of assets held as security, has not been disclosed, which otherwise would have enabled analysts to know the exact amount of outstanding debts taken care of. It is, however, to be acknowledged that HBL has been bold to announce the amount of provisions for bad and doubtful debts, while oddly enough, banks are not required by law to disclose the figure. Balance sheets of all banks, therefore, invariably show the amount of advances with just the remark: "Other than bad and doubtful debts for which provision has been made to the satisfaction of the auditors". The Governor SBP, Dr.Mohammad Yaqub had admitted recently, that this was a shortcoming in the presentation of accounts and that banks would be asked to disclose the figure of provisions in the accounts. Though no directive appears to have been issued yet, it is given to understand that under the World Bank instructions, quite a new format for balance sheet presentation of banks is ready and may be made effective for banks from 1997 onwards. The significant feature of HBL's annual report and accounts for 1996 is also the sum of Rs 2,753 million that the Bank wrote off/waived/reversed during the year, against its infected loan portfolio. The details have been provided in terms of sub-section (3) of Section 12 of Bank's (Nationalisation) Act, 1974. The sum is, of course, not reflected on the face of the balance sheet and the amounts and the parties benefiting are listed in a note to the accounts. The relief provided has been classified under the heads 'write-off' (meaning write off of principal amount due); 'reversal' (meaning reversal of the previously booked interest amount) and 'waiver' (meaning waiver of interest amount that was not booked). M/s Abdullah S.Al-Rajhi Est. of Dammam Saudi Arabia has been mentioned as the largest beneficiary, who secured 'waiver' of Rs 824.9 million and 'reversal' of Rs 102.2 million, which aggregated to relief of over Rs 1 billion. The party though marked as 'non-resident individual', has been grouped with the 'domestic' debtors and not with those listed separately under 'overseas sector'. Nothing more about the identity of the party, which got off with such a colossal sum, has been mentioned in either the President's review or the directors' report that accompany the annual accounts. The aggregate overseas sector write offs/ waiver & reversal amount to Rs 1,032.4 million. These were granted to 36 parties and individuals, mostly from UAE, followed by comparatively lesser sums due from loanees in UK; Rehman Bin Nasir Al Owais, UAE got the largest sum waived/written off, amounting to Rs 160.5 million. Among the domestic debtors, major beneficiaries include: Consolidated Exports Ltd., Karachi Rs 88.2 million; Sindh Road Transport Corporation, Rs 62.4 million; Jan Brothers (Pvt) Ltd, Peshawar, Rs 54.3 million; United Constructors, Karachi, Rs 45.4 million; Abbas Khalili (deceased), Karachi. Rs 54.1 million and Sattar Cotton Ginning Factory, Sakrand Rs 53.1 million. Some of the other parties which secured the write offs/other reliefs are clearly identifiable: Javed Press & Modem Graphic Services, Karachi which owed Rs 2.5 million to HBL; the sum has been 'reversed'. Then there is Rehana Woollen Mills Ltd of Haripur, which lists among its directors Gohar Ayub Khan and his wife Mrs. Zeb Gohar Ayub Khan. The firm owed Rs 5.4 million, of which Rs 0.9 million has been 'reversed' and the balance of Rs 4.2 million 'waived'. M/s Agro Live Stock Corporation of Karachi, lists Mrs Zohra, wife of Bashir Jan Mohammad as the director; half of the sum of Rs 4.2 million due, amounting to Rs 2.3 million, has been 'waived'. Mobile Eye Service of Pakistan, Karachi belonging to Dr T.H. Kirmani got Rs 6.6 million of its outstanding dues 'waived' and Rs 2.0 million 'reversed'. And interestingly, Rs 2.8 million out of the Rs 6.2 million owed by Hussein Lawai has been 'waived'. The entire sum of Rs 2.5 million due from Hashwani Hotels Limited of Sadruddin H.Hashwani has also been written off. The write- offs/waivers/reversals of outstanding debts from parties easily identifiable as thriving individuals or prosperous business groups and who do not clearly fall under the category of the 'sick', is intriguing. The policy also seems in conflict with the SBP's much publicised determination to recover every paisa from the solvent debt defaulters after the expiry of September 5 deadline for debt settlement incentive scheme. Bad debt provisions: HBL's write offs/ waivers/reversals and 1996 provisions together could total to over Rs 10 billion. Mr Tareen had disclosed that of the total banking sector loan defaults of Rs 120 billion, HBL's share was Rs 42 billion. He had also said he expected to recover Rs 17 billion. Reports suggested that loan defaulters of Rs 28.5 billion had agreed to settlement under the SBP incentive scheme that closed on September 5. Of this, HBL's debtors had totalled Rs 11 billion. It is thus likely that HBL may have taken care of more than half of its infected loan portfolio during 1996. Salaries, allowances, bonuses and Provident Fund: HBL incurred expenditure of Rs 5.2 billion under this head, up 6.4 per cent over Rs 4.9 billion in 1995. The total number of employees during the year were noted as 31,099, which produced per employee costs at Rs 0.17 million. Having reduced the staff strength by 7,597 (1,079 forced retirements and 6,500 voluntary golden handshake), the Bank may save about Rs 1.3 billion from next year. Mr Tareen had estimated 10,000 job cuts and saving of Rs 2.3 billion, after paying off Rs 11.5 billion in golden handshake scheme. Total assets and book value per share Total assets of HBL at December 31, 1996 stood at Rs 362.335 billion. It has been disclosed in a note to the accounts that "The bank's properties were valued by independent firm of surveyors and valuers as on December 31, 1996, which revealed a surplus of Rs 3,964 million. This surplus has presently not been incorporated in the financial statements." Including the surplus, total assets would however, increase to Rs 366.299 billion. The total number of outstanding shares in HBL being Rs 240.25 million, each share of Rs 10 would be backed by assets of Rs 1,524.66 million. The reserve fund and other reserves of the bank stood at Rs 4,862 million, which produced the break-up value of the share at Rs 29.60. Given that the MCB was privatised at Rs 56 per share; ABL at Rs 70 per share and 40 per cent of Habib Credit & Exchange Bank was sold in July at Rs 23.25, i.e. 3.3 times the book value of its share, the fair market value of HBL share should be well above Rs 100 per share, even after discounting for the bad and doubtful debts. All of which means, that if even 40 per cent of the HBL stock was to be sold now, it could fetch amount in excess of Rs 12 billion or $300 million. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS* 970929 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Bhutto-related Swiss accounts would be difficult to retrieve -------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr Farrukh Saleem THE GOVERNMENT of Kuwait has spent tens of millions of dollars in its unsuccessful campaign to unearth Saddam Hussain's hidden wealth. The Philippines government has been able to bring back no more than a couple of million dollars after spending a hundred million dollars to uncover an estimated $10 billion stolen by Ferdinand Marcos. In the not too distant past, Chinag Kai-shek, President of the Republic of China for over 30 years, ran away with much of China's art treasures and emptied China's central bank reserves. In 1975, General Ky stole a fortune from South Vietnam while Baby Doc Duvalier looted the Haitian treasury for 15 years. President Collor amassed millions of dollars until the Brazilian House of Representative suspended the president from office and instituted impeachment proceedings. Over the past half a century, most of the $100 billion or so looted by dictators and democratic rulers of the poorest of poor Third World countries is yet to come back to its rightful owners. Part of the problem is complicated international litigation technicalities. Others include lack of evidence, jurisdictional impediments, difficulties in obtaining court convictions, problems with identification of accounts, high legal fees and lack of follow- up. Consider the Marcos case. Over the past 10 years of extensive international litigation and expenses totalling over a hundred million dollars, the Philippine government was successful in identifying a few Marcos-owned real estate properties and around $475 million in two Swiss bank accounts. The properties were auctioned off for over a hundred million dollars while a good 97 per cent of the proceeds went to pay legal and other recovery related fees. The Philippine treasury got back a meagre $3 million. Out of the $475 million that was frozen in two Swiss bank accounts, the Filipino people are yet to see a single penny. A news report from Manila now suggests that "the government has entered into a secret deal with the Marcos family as its most recent effort to recover so- called ill-gotten wealth... The deal is expected to cover an estimated $475 million in Swiss bank deposits." The report states that "in exchange for 70-30 sharing of the Marcos wealth, with the government getting the larger share," the government now intends to clear Mrs Marcos and her children of 'all civil and criminal' liabilities. The exoneration would also cover Mrs Marcos' 24-year conviction on two graft charges. The report adds, "not only would the government abandon all civil and criminal cases against the Marcoses... but that even the lone conviction obtained against Imelda Marcos would be washed away." Imelda, a former beauty queen, won elections and is now a politician. Our own Ehtesab Cell was lucky enough to stumble onto documents that have been lying right here in Islamabad. Documentary evidence has established a link between the three accused � Benazir Bhutto, Asif Zardari and Nusrat Bhutto � and the six shell companies (namely: Capricorn Trading, Dargal Associated, Mariston Securities, Mariston Business, Nassam Inc., and Bomer Finance) that were being used to divert funds arising from kick-backs and commissions. In the absence of such documentary evidence, the Ehtesab Cell would have never been able to get the four Swiss bank accounts frozen. To be certain, for every one account frozen, the Bhuttos must be maintaining at least 10 other accounts for which documentary evidence would never be available to the Ehtesab Cell and, thus, no question of being able to repatriate funds held in those accounts. It is unfortunate that over the past two decades scores of off-shore, tax-heaven jurisdictions have cropped up all over the globe. In common law, off-shore banking jurisdictions confidentiabty arises through: * Specific laws or regulations designed to enshrine banking confidentiality; * By the special relationship that exists between a client and their professional advisers; * In an express contract; and * By virtue of the law of tort, whereby, for example, valuable information with commercial value is protected against unjustifiable use. In simpler terms, the laws enacted in a number of off-shore jurisdictions such as in the Isle of Man, Mauritius, Nevis, Niue, Panama, Seychelles, Turks & Caicos, Uruguay, Vanutu, Western Sarnoa, Jersey, Labuan, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Madeira, Malta, Netherlands Antilles, Cayman Islands, Cook Islands, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Belize and Bermuda, allow formation of companies with nominee directors acting as front-men, provisions of bearer shareholding and hidden beneficial ownership. An outsider is explicitly barred under the law of these jurisdictions to try to uncover the ultimate beneficiaries. At times the banks where such off-shore companies maintain accounts are not even aware of the eventual beneficiaries. There is a whole cobweb of dummy companies, front-men, nominee directors and bearer shareholders that tracking down real owners becomes almost next to impossible. The uncovering of the Bhutto-related accounts in Switzerland is actually a two dimensional event. From a purely economic perspective, it does not mean much at all. Almost anybody who can afford to have a Swiss account has one. Perhaps, none of our parliamentarians who maintain assets abroad have declared their holdings either in the wealth tax returns or their election declarations. No significant amount of repatriation is expected neither is this uncovering going to discourage anybody from looting the treasury and diverting funds to overseas accounts. >From a political stand-point, the Ehtesab Cell has pulled a fast one. Benazir Bhutto is going to have an awfully difficult time getting out of this one. In the words of a leading columnist: "PPP's goose has been cooked." Here is an instance where a specific link has been established between four bank accounts and a particular group of individuals. The real challenge now lies in proving "beyond any reasonable doubt" that funds held in the bank accounts have actually been 'illegally amassed'. This is exactly where most Third World governments have failed in the past. The problem is that corrupt leaders almost always belong to countries where corruption is widespread and investigative agencies are mere tools for domestic political victimisation. Corrupt leaders are often followed by more corrupt leaders who are interested more in political damage rather than safeguarding the national economic interest. International litigation, on the other hand, is awfully expensive, exhaustively demanding in terms of evidence and indeed a time- consuming undertaking. Corrupt investigative agencies often fail to gather appropriate evidence. Third World courts are known for their lethargy and inaction. Frozen accounts could, therefore, remain frozen for years if not decades. On a more positive note, the public opinion in Switzerland and the recent anti-corruption statements by James D. Wolfensohn, the World Bank's current President, are all expected to have an impact on how bank regulators in Switzerland and elsewhere used to look at leaders of Third World looting their national treasuries and depositing it into banks under their jurisdiction. If the Government of Pakistan (GOP) plays its cards right, the Bhutto-related disclosures can actually become a test case for the World Bank to prove its anti-corruption stance. The Pakistan treasury, as a consequence, may even get some of what has been stolen back into its coffers. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS* 970929 -------------------------------------------------------------------- The ever-elusive necessity of shelter -------------------------------------------------------------------- Noman Ahmed HOUSING in the urban areas is becoming inaccessible to the masses, especially the lower and middle income groups. It is an irony that the possibilities of acquiring shelter have gone beyond the reach of the majority of people. One of the reasons is the declining number of available options. On an average, the cost of an 80 square yards plot in a remote housing scheme in a large or medium city is at least Rs. 100,000.00. An equal amount is needed to construct the most rudimentary abode over it. Similarly acquiring a basic shelter in a fringe squatter approximately costs Rs. 100,000. Both the options are unaffordable for the vast majority of the urban low income groups. Theoretically, housing is of two kinds, owned and rented. These two options are calibrated on the basis of socio-economic characteristics, locational and geographical advantages, and the process of housing development itself. Whether in the public sector, housing schemes, the squatter settlements, the trend of owned housing is towards the rise. For a majority of the households, the only lifetime investment is buying or constructing a house. This investment trend leaves little room for any other productive utilisation of the already scarce capital. It obviously stagnates the living standards of the people. The need of shelter can also be catered through rental housing. However in Pakistan rental housing has yet to acquire any significant role in the shelter sector. Status of rental housing: rental housing has had a weak tradition in the country especially in urban areas where it usually flourishes. For example, in Karachi, which is the largest and perhaps the most speculative land market, the rental housing has never become an expanding option. Careful estimates show that its current proportion is as low as 5 percent of the total stock. Factors that led to the inadequate performance of rental housing sector are many. They can be traced in retrospect. According to the housing census of 1960. Pakistan possessed a total housing stock of 7.795,166 units (1,685.214 in urban and 6,109,950 in rural areas). Of this figure, 646,620 were rented (545,890 in the urban and 100.730 in the rural areas) aggregating to 8.29 per cent of the stock. The housing census of 1981 showed a further decline. A total of 6.5 per cent of the housing was in the rental category. Although no census was held afterwards, it is estimated that the figure has not crossed the 5 per cent mark. This fact establishes that no significant change is expected to occur in the rental housing sector. It is also important to note that the National Housing Policy of 1994 has not assigned any role to the rental sector. Besides, the figures of informal housing which account for 35 per cent of the total stock, are no different. For instance in Karachi, the profile of squatter settlements prepared by the Karachi Development Authority shows that 95 per cent houses are owned by the residents while the remaining are rented. Rental housing is the domain that is underscored by the concerned set of actors. It is found that public sector institutions contribute marginally in the growth of rental housing. Instead of generating a conducive environment where rental accommodation can expand as an enterprise or devising attractive conditions for the other actors, the public sector confines its efforts to providing a few units to some of its employees. The Pakistan Estate Office and the Public Works Department develop and allot housing to government servants. However, the net proportion is negligible across the demand. Other government departments also provide housing to their employees at a very small scale. The cost incurred in the process is very high as compared to the number of housing units produced. The private sector contribution is also minute and disorganised. Only individual entrepreneurs undertake purchase of housing which is rented out in the market on a piece-meal basis. Besides, cooperatives have also remained a dormant factor in this regard. In the usual practice, the cooperatives only attempt to acquire land, sub-divide, and finally deliver it to the members. No worth mentioning project has been launched for a rental enterprise. Few social welfare and philanthropic organisations have catered to the rental housing. Aga Khan Development Network and the philanthropists of the Parsi community are prominent in this regard. Issues There are several reasons that did not let rental housing become a prominent housing option. One of them is the obsolete and incongruent set of laws and regulations. Major laws that govern the rental housing include the Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act 1947, NWFP House Control Act 1947, Sindh Rent Restriction Act 1947, West Pakistan Urban Rent Restriction Ordinance 1956 and Cantonment Rent Restriction Act 1963. Whereas the detailed contents of each of these regulations are different, they are the same in their letter and spirit . The regulations provide greater security to tenant in comparison to the landlord. In terms of conflicts, tenants enjoy greater leverage. The laws do not encourage periodic increase in rent rates across the rising inflation and decreasing value of the currency. Most of the regulations hold the landlord responsible for all the major repairs and maintenance. Besides, in an environment where the over all conduct of the parties does not show respect towards the laws of the civil society, the tenancy pattern tilts in favour of the more powerful. increasing violence in urban areas is also a major hindrance in the expansion of rental housing. In such circumstances when the investment is not safe from curses like extortion and hijacking, the respective capitalists obviously opt for safer options to avoid public dealing. Similarly the tenants also find it a precarious solution since the dictums of the contract are not able to safeguard their rights There are many procedural drawbacks also. The existing institutional set-up is unable to standardise the rental ceilings along any guideline. In a culture where bye-laws are only meant to be by-passed, no stable mechanism for a rental enterprise emerges out. In squatter settlements, the rental accommodation can only be obtained through personal assurances. This creates disputes which further hamper in the increase of the rental housing option. Besides, as most squatter dwellers are occupants without titles, they seldom prefer to rent their abode to any unknown party due to the fear of losing the property itself. The regulatory framework that governs the tenancy is obsolete and does not take into consideration the apparent realities that exist in the society. For example there is a provision of raising of raising rents up to rents 10 per cent. In some cases, the rate of inflation simply overtakes the rental return which becomes a perpetual loss oriented enterprise. In the contemporary scenario,the public sector is constrained to directly invest or facilitate in any domain of housing. Thus, rental housing becomes a remote possibility, The Eighth Five Year Development Plan has not envisaged any direct investment in the housing sector. Besides, for private sector, buying and selling property is a more profitable business with lesser risks and a high rate of return . Cooperative and informal sectors are not adequately prepared to undertake this tasks. Unless drastic changes in the contractual and administrative setup are incurred, less change is expected to come. Another significant factor is the relationship of rental housing with land prices. In urban areas where residential land use prevails, land prices are rising rapidly. Thus the cost of construction makes it an all the more costly affair. When a property unit is built and fails to offer even a meagre 0.5 percent as its rental value, the feasibility of the enterprise weakens. For instance, in Defence Housing Authority Karachi where an average property unit of 3000 square feet costs Rs. 7 million, the maximum rent per month that it can draw is Rs. 30,000 which is even less than 0.5 per cent of the investment. lf the same owner sells this property in the market after one year without renting it, the probable return that may obtained can be as high as 20% on the original investment. Same ratio is valid for apartments end smaller residential units. Absence of monetary incentives and subsides also restrain the investment in rental housing. No financial option that encourages investment by the private sector in the rental housing exists. In a situation where annual housing demand is 875,000 units per year, the paralysis of rental market is a grave consequence. Only shanty towns, sub-standard housing and squatter settlements will continue to result. Scarcity of rental housing can also be gauged as a development indicator. The societies in which residence / property ownership and consequent trading is high and regarded as a factor of security, are apparently less developed in nature. Most of the urban centres of the developing world display this scenario. Contrarily the societies where rental housing is adequately available show the stability of civic institutions and the over all prospects of prosperity. This is a factor which is common in most of the developed countries and is also spreading in the urban centres of newly industrialised countries. The excessive investment in property market is an indicator of the reduced number of opportunities available for investments. It also shows the relative insecurity and instability of the economic environment and absence of mutual trust between a trading partner. Unfortunately this is the scenario which prevails in Pakistan. The country has experienced some of the most shaking financial scandals has not only taken away the trust of common people from other investment options but also magnified the managerial lacking of the government to safeguard the people's capital. Rental housing is a viable option for shelter which is least explored by our policy makers . It has the capacity to provide decent and compatible residential alternative to the emerging lower and middle classes . Certain basic steps have to be taken by the respective quarters to make this option deliver the goods. They are as follow: Direct incentives should be allocated for investors and entrepreneurs who intend to develop and manage rental accommodation. Philanthropic organisations and charities may also be contacted for the purpose. The concept of public private partnership must be explored for its available options. As housing provision / facilitation is a continuous process, innovative ways and means must be sought. Public sector organisations such as House Building Finance Corporation may extend support to cooperatives and NGOs who intend to develop and manage large-scale rental housing projects. Similarly the municipalities in cities that experience housing shortage must be made a partner. Contractual modifications are utmost important to make such enterprises work in the overall respect. Pilot projects based on these concepts should first be tried. Laws and regulations must be revised and made compatible with the conditions in which rental market operate. It must create enough room to accommodate the private sector with its limitations. However these steps shall require an unabated commitment on the part of the government to fulfil its responsibility to improve the civil society. Lest the proposed suggestions will remain a remote possibility. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS* 970929 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Financial sector reforms: a case for consumer credit agencies -------------------------------------------------------------------- Mansoor H. Khan At times, one cannot help, but envy the present decision makers of Pakistan. No doubt immense problems have surrounded us, however, many of these problems only require simple commonsense solutions! No one will deny that we need a sophisticated financial system that allows quick business and where transactions are executed rapidly with minimal transactional costs. Unfortunately, the existing financial set-up of the country does not allow this and days even weeks pass by only to verify the identity and the financial standing of the parties. Even this lengthy due diligence fails to provide any real protection as it is mainly conducted to satisfy the requirements laid down in some manual which in almost all the cases do not make any financial or legal sense. This laxit~ becomes monumental in case of small transactions involving consumers or consumer credit issues � for a new telephone connection, PTC requires an affidavit to the el'fect that the subscriber will make the bill payments on time! A need arises to check the identity and the financial standing of a person when credit is extended in some form, either directly through a bank or indirectly by a utility like WAPDA, KESC, PTC or some gas company. In Pakistan, for these smaller unsecured credits, the system is completely outdated, and at odds with the demands of modern business. This article will briefly discuss: (i) why the institutions in Pakistan are unable to extend unsecured credit; (ii) what issues and proble~ms have arisen because of this inability; and (iii) how consumer credit agencies will help in facilitating unsecured credit business in Pakistan. (i) Inverse Robin Hood Phenomenon Institutions are reluctant to extend unsecured credit mainly because there is no inexpensive and effective method for its recovery in case of a default. The only avenue available is that of recovery through law courts, however, experience indicates that f'or the recovery of small unsecured credits, resort to law courts is never a viable option for any institution � invariably, the institution ends up paying several times more in legal fees than the amount originally lent and even alter all this hassle it does not make a full recovery. Most importantly, even after a favourable decree is awarded by the court' there will be no collateral that could be attached. I'he same defaulter, during the pendency of the law suit and thereafter, rips- ol'f several other institutions and continues doing so through out the rest of his or her life, as there is no system in place whereby one bank could check what has been the experience of the other banks with a certain individual. This and similar shortcomings, translate into a restraint on the ability of financial institutions to provide unsecured credit to people without collateral, something I would term "Inverse Robin Hood" phenomenon. While the liability side of all the commercial banks mainly consists of savings of small depositors, the doors of these banks are closed to the same small depositor in case they need an unsecured loan for starting a small business. The State Bank of Pakistan's Prudential Regulation No. III confirms this apprehension where it specifically disallows banks from extending unsecured credit the value of which exceeds one hundred thousand rupees. Under this regulation no bank can extend unsecured credits the aggregate value of which exceeds the total capital and the general reserves of that bank. This directive of the State Bank, though objectionable from a public policy stand point, however indicates that unsecured credits have traditionally been at greatest risk in Pakistan. On the one hand, banks cannot be forced to make available clean facilities when the past experience shows that there is a very little chance that the banks will ever see that money again. However, on the other hand, as a matter of public policy, all avenues should not be closed to an entrepreneur if he does not possess an adequate collateral. Therefore we need a strategy where the institutions could advance unsecured credit but at the same time are adequately protected against defaults. (ii) Speed of Business Studies have now found a correlation between the time it takes to install a new telephone line and the overall economic development of a country. The following discussion would try to explore the basis for this correlation. PTC for instance, requires 9-10 documents for the approval of a new telephone connection or for the up- gradation of an existing telephone line � this includes a copy of the title deed of the property where phone has to be installed. Though PTC has a legitimate right to cover itself against the future risk of non-payment by its subscribers we need also to keep into account the loss the whole country suffers in terms of wasted productive hours when people waste time going from one office to another while getting new phone connections instead of working on their jobs. PTC or WAPDA or the gas company may have saved a few million by insisting on some totally useless documents or affidavits we should however rest assured that the country on the whole loses billions on account of delays cased by similar requirements. Another example of this waste is the way utility bill payments are made. PTC has 2.8 million lines in service, which means that each month, if it takes an average of one hour to make a bill payment by actually visiting the bank and making a cash payment, on average 2.8 million productive hours are wasted every month or 33.6 million hours every year. If we also include the time wasted on bill payments of WAPDA (9.07 million customers in 1994) and the gas companies, the annual wastage would come close to 200 million hours. If the same payments are made by way of bank cheques which are then mailed to the respective utilities all this time could be saved. (iii) Consumer Credit Agencies In an efficient financial system, people who show a consistent record of financial responsibility are rewarded while those who fail in this respect are disciplined by excluding them from the net of credit worthy individuals. In this context, the consumer credit agencies can effectively identify financially responsible individuals. These agencies basically maintain records or credit histories of individuals and make them available to authorized institutions or individuals. They receive information about individuals from the institutions that they visit while applying for a credit. Slowly and gradually, they collect all the vital information about an individual which is stored in computers in a central data bank and is available on line to other financial institutions to evaluate whether an individual who has applied for a credit from them is a good risk or not. In this respect, these agencies play an important role by cleaning up the system by excluding people with bad credit histories either because of previous defaults or late payments or bad cheques that they have written. Following information forms part and parcel of a consumer credit agency's data on any individual: 1. Present and all the past addresses; 2. total income and its source; 3. Iiabilities, like number of dependents, house rent etc.; 4. total credit received, from ail the sources; 5. complete data if the individual has ever been 30/60/90 days delinquent in loan payments; 6. if he has ever defaulted; 7. if the individual has ever filed for personal bankruptcy; and 8. if his cheques have ever bounced. These agencies normally keep records for upto seven years. A bad entry in a record literally deprives the individual of any and all the credit in the next seven years. This deterrent has proved more effective than resort to law courts for recovery of small amounts and brings in financial discipline and responsibility among consumers. Though its not illegal for banks to provide credit to an individual with a bad credit history�the credit officer would have to come-up with a very good explanation in case the creditor with an existing bad credit history defaults. A credit check with one of the credit agencies should be a regular practice amongst the financial institutions before approving a credit. (iv) Conclusion Once we have similar credit agencies in place in Pakistan, the approval process for consumer credit in Pakistan will become much simpler. Instead of producing all those voluminous documents for new phone or gas connections all that would be needed would be a credit check. Utilities and other institutions will be more willing to accept payments by cheques as records of bounced checks will go into the credit histories. These agencies will also make positive contributors towards the tax system in due course by encouraging documentation of transactions. In the presence of these agencies the banks will have no excuse in denying credit to an entrepreneur without a collateral but with a good credit history. With these agencies new laws would have to be introduced which guarantee the right to equal credit and also ensure that a certain percentage of a banks' assets is reinvested in the community where the bank does business under the community reinvestment plans. The national identity card system needs to be computerized too so that it gives out reliable and accurate information. If the identity card system is faulty, which it is at the moment, it would be very easy for individuals to change their identities by using fake identity card numbers. International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, has reportedly done some studies in this area and IFC's technical assistance could be obtained for the setting up of these agencies in Pakistan. The banks in Pakistan can pool financial resources for the setting up of an agency which would benefit them indirectly by lowering the default rate in their loan and credit card transactions and will also make profit for them as these agencies work on fee basis. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS* 971002 -------------------------------------------------------------------- CBR's successor to be armed with vast powers -------------------------------------------------------------------- M. Ziauddin ISLAMABAD, Oct 1: The proposed Pakistan revenue service (PRS), the new corporate name for the Central Board of Revenue (CBR), will have three federal secretaries and perhaps an equal number of private sector representatives. Federal Finance Secretary Moin Afzal is likely to serve as secretary of the PRS. Federal secretaries Afzal Kahut (Establishment) and Mian Tayyab (Cabinet) will be itsmembers. The PRS will have its own service rules providing for summary dismissal of corrupt and inefficient officials and quick rewards for honest and efficient employees. The private sector representatives on board are likely to be technocrats � everyone coming from a specific discipline, like information technology, law etc. A former senior vice president of the World Bank, Syed Shahid Hussain (likely to be appointed PM's adviser on economic affairs), will be made in charge of the process of corporatization of the CBR. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS* 971004 -------------------------------------------------------------------- News of forward cover fails to create buying euphoria -------------------------------------------------------------------- Staff Reporter KARACHI, Oct 3: Stocks recovered across a broad front on Friday on active short-covering triggered by news of relative calm on the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir and some rethinking by foreign investors about the likely impact of the recently restored forward cover on share business. News of city violence and fear of law and order in other parts of sensitive areas should have prompted hasty selling by jobbers and weakholders but they held on to their positions, telling bears that they could absorb negative news if there are matching positive corporate developments. The market did not witness a buying euphoria on news of forward cover but those who could interpret its provisions correctly made massive buying on some of the MNCs, notably Hub-Power and others, analysts said. If all goes well on the political front, including peace with judiciary, there is nothing to prevent the market to respond bullishly to its technical demands, they added. "The market is looking for an opportunity to rise to its pre-reaction levels and now the moment seems to have come and release of first tranche of IMF credit line could provide the much-needed push to it," dealers said. The weekend profit-selling, largely coming from the day traders, did push the KSE 100-share index from the early high level of 1,863 points to 1,858.81 points as compared to 1,852.14 a day earlier, clipping the initial gains to only 6.67 points. The underlying sentiment showed that the rally could be carried on to the next week. The market's firm stance was also well-reflected by a fresh increase in the total market capitalization, which surged Rs 1.842 billion to Rs 562.197 billion as against Rs 560.355 billion a day earlier. Energy shares led the market rally under the lead of Hub-Power, which finished the week's highest level amid massive trading. Indications are that it could hit its previous peak level of Rs 62 on the strength of its working results for the first quarter. Along with PSO and Shell Pakistan, which finished higher despite weekend profit-selling, Japan Power and Southern Electric, both foreign-based shares, also joined the list of most actives on heavy buying at the lower levels. KESC and some others including S. G. Power, which came out with a good dividend of 25% for the last year, followed them, finishing with good gains. Bank shares also remained in active demand at the lower levels as most of them have a tremendous potential to rise from the current lower levels on the strength of higher earning for the first quarter. MCB, Askari Bank, Bank Al-Habib, Faysal, Schon, Prime and some other banks also tended higher. Chemical shares after early fall under the lead of Fauji and Engro Chemicals came in for active support later and managed to finish partially recovered. FFC-Jordan Fertilizer followed their lead and so did BOC Pakistan despite weekend recovery. Glaxo-Wellcome Pakistan, Packages, 20th ICP Mutual fund, Burshane Pakistan, IGI and some others managed to finish partially recovered. Pakistan Refinery, National Refinery, Pakistan Tobacco, Rafhan Maize, Parke-Davis, Lever Brothers, Fateh Textiles, Reckitt & Colman, Adamjee Insurance, PIC and Dewan Salman remained under pressure and could not fully recoup early losses. Modarabas, mutual funds, leasing shares and most of the textile shares showed fractional price changes amid alternate bouts of buying and selling. Trading volume rose to 42 million shares from the overnight's 40 million shares, thanks to massive activity in Hub-Power. Gainers maintained a fair lead over the losers at 88 to 66 with 52 shares holding on to the last levels. Hub-Power topped the list of most actives, up Rs 1.15 on 19.283 million shares, followed by PTCL, easy five paisa on 7.533 million shares, ICI Pakistan, lower five paisa on 4.217 million shares, Japan Power, up 20 paisa on 3.547 million shares, FFC-Jordan Fertilizer, lower five paisa on 1.510 million shares. Other actively traded shares were led by Dewan Salman, easy 10 paisa on 0.544 million shares, followed by KESC, lower also 10 paisa on 0.418 million shares, Engro chemicals, up one rupee on 0.369 million shares, Packages, higher Rs 3 on 0.267 million shares, and Fauji Fertilizer, up Rs 1.25 on 0.645 million shares. There were some other notable deals also. DIVIDEND: S. G. Power, cash 25 per cent. ------------------------------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE TO HERALD TODAY ! ------------------------------------------------------------------- Every month the Herald captures the issues, the pace and the action, shaping events across Pakistan's lively, fast-moving current affairs spectrum. Subscribe to Herald and get the whole story. 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EDITORIALS & FEATURES

970928 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Madness -------------------------------------------------------------------- Ardeshir Cowasjee THOSE that are half-mad are infinitely more dangerous than the mad. The mad can be certified and put away; the half-mad are free to live amongst us and are allowed to get away with unquantifiable harm, which, when regarded in comparison with the quantum of poverty and misery that this country faces, is in itself madness. Last week, the Senior Minister of Sindh, MQM's Farooq Sattar, with some of whose convoluted logic at times one can stretch oneself to compromise, or even agree, came visiting, together with his new-found friend, Shahida Chishti whose card introduces her as "Associate Secretary, 26th National Games and Special Representative on Sports and Culture to Minister, Local Government, Sindh." She lives in Islamabad but flies down to Karachi on a regular basis. Their plea was that they needed the people's help to keep open whatever open spaces there still are, to preserve the few playgrounds for people to play upon, to nurture the parks for the people to relax in, to save the trees, to stop the concrete rot. An applaudable cause, I agreed, in which the people will support them. The main item on their agenda was a handkerchief-sized open square, designated as a park, in the congested, badly-planned, and even more badly built-up, Gulshan-i-Iqbal which had been violated by the construction therein of a women's swimming pool and a women's gymnasium, both on a grandiose scale, both of which had been left uncompleted by the previous government. This government, strapped for funds, was unable to undertake any further construction, and, in any case, no money was available to administer and maintain such schemes. So, their logic dictated, what had been built must be demolished, regardless of the millions already spent, and the open square restored to its former dilapidated glory. Their next item was a half-built olympic-scale indoor sports stadium in the Kashmir Road park and sports complex area. Again, millions had been wasted, and no money was available to complete it, and in the event of completion, to run it. So, therefore, this too must be demolished. Nothing new, nothing strange. My initial reaction was to tell them that we the helpless people were neither 'shocked' nor 'grieved', having endured workings of many a warped, half-mad mind. Sher Shah Nawaz Suri embarked upon a motorway-building project in the middle of the country connecting no end to no end, which was shelved by Benazir Bhutto merely because it was Nawaz Sharif who had initiated it. But she was not that mad, and did not destroy what had already been built. Merely because the previous government had embarked upon a misadventure was certainly no reason to throw money down the drain. One must find ways of saving whatever had been built or half-built, and put it to some use that required no further major expenditure. No sane man can agree to support destruction. What stands must be salvaged. My suggestion was that the environmental NGO Shehri's engineer, Roland de Souza, other like-minded citizens, and I would visit both sites and see what could be done. Roland is variously called John, George, Ronald or David by the officials of the KMC and KDA who have not so far come across this strange name and cannot get it round their tongue (Roland is not perturbed, he was known as Tom in his old college, the NED). Roland and I set off for the Gulshan square, traversing miles of pot- holed roads, many of which were covered by overflowing sewage. The half-built building we saw in the park truly amazed us. It was obviously conceived and designed by someone totally divorced from the realities of the surrounding poverty and misery, whose sole interest was name and fame. The square is bounded by four narrow lanes, one awash with sewage water. The grandiose columned entrance led into a would-be gymnasium, alongside which was a half-completed swimming pool. The entire built area was to be surrounded by high walls, capped by an imported 'Skylite' dome. Was this really necessary? And what on earth was the point of an indoor jogging track on the first-floor balcony around the pool? A covered pool, a covered jogging track, centrally air-conditioned? What about breathing, what about the cost? The accompanying KMC experts were stoic. Those involved in getting richer wanted the project completed. Those left out wanted the structures demolished. All held their peace, hoping to lean on the winning side. With averted eyes, one of them explained that the chastity of the women had to be protected; they had to be cocooned from the eyes of peeping-toms. In this Gulshan square stood a dilapidated tennis court, which, according to some locals, had been there for over ten years and upon which not a single set of tennis had yet been played. At one end stood a completed strip of what appeared to be a maintained building of the tennis court vintage. It houses a library and a reading-room for women on the ground floor, we were told, and on the first floor an exercise-hall replete with exercise machines, and the administrative offices. Entering the library and reading-room, we found no books, no magazines, no newspapers, just empty shelves, an empty centre-table, and a few chairs. So much for our literacy chase. The exercise-hall was more promising � in good shape and indeed full of machines, but with just two females exercising themselves. The hall could easily hold an aerobics class of, say, a hundred, which means that two classes a day could exercise close to two hundred women badly in need of exercise and physical discipline. However, such is the appeal of fitness and trimness that a mere average of between 20 to 30 visit during any one day. We were told that the membership was around 500, a highly optimistic figure. This being so, what on earth was the point in building another women's gymnasium in the same area? we enquired. Logic, yet again, was defied. Farooq Sattar was very keen to have our assessment and our agreement to the demolition. We told him to hold his horses and to ask his engineers to take their cost estimates and plans to Roland-Henry- George-Ronald-Donald's office where he and his men would assess how much would be required to salvage the construction and how it could be put to some sort of good use. Sattar's men did not turn up at the appointed time and a further meeting was arranged. While all this was going on, Sattar's park man, Hanif Nasir, kept ringing to enquire as to Donald's decision. Sattar then rang to express his disappointment at our not agreeing with his 'bold' (as he termed it) plan to destroy, which he wished to commence before he left for his weekly London rendezvous. He wanted to teach 'them' a lesson. Teach whom? What lesson? We had to remind him that any fool or illiterate (and there are lots around) can destroy, it being such a simple act. The next call came from Roland, very early on Wednesday the 24th, to tell me that Farooq and his underlings had all gone mad. A resident of the Gulshan square had rung to tell him that a bulldozer had arrived with a demolition squad and they were about to commence work. Act, Roland urged. How? I asked. Recheck, I told him. This is unbelievable. Roland asked a colleague from Shehri, Professor Noman, to 'rush' to the site to observe firsthand. He confirmed that action was imminent. Luckily, I managed to get hold of our chief secretary, senior bureaucrat Saeed Mehdi, who so far has proved to be both reasonable and decisive, capable of independent necessary action, and I asked him to do something to help, galvanize his civil servants and get them to restrain the KMC men. He promised to do so before he left to bow and scrape before the President of the Republic who was in Karachi that day. We agreed that until he got his troops going, it would be a good idea to organize a burqa-clad woman to block the bulldozer's progress, Tiananmen Square-style, flay her bosom and wail. The wailing, aided by some sensible men of the area, managed to prevent extensive damage, but not to entirely save the construction. Readers of this newspaper will have seen the photograph published last Thursday showing how a large portion of the front structure has been pulled down. Non-practising healer, physician Farooq Sattar, has let down the side, his old school and mine, the Bai Virbaiji Soparivala Parsi High School, founded in 1859 by that far-sighted good Parsi and livery stable owner, Shapurji Hormusji Soparivala. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS* 971001 -------------------------------------------------------------------- As walls go higher -------------------------------------------------------------------- Hafizur Rahman A district magistrate has prohibited the use of walls for the writing of any kind of slogans, for or against anything. While not wanting to see the writing on the wall is an understandable weakness with us, it seems that short of banning all sorts of walls, this particular DM has thought it prudent to stop people from writing on them. The news report does not specify the walls to which the DM's order applies. Is it applicable to boundary walls or ordinary house walls, and does it cover jail walls and toilet walls? The last-mentioned (their insides at least) are the most favourite writing tablets of graffiti composers and are witness to many a masterpiece that was born in a washroom and died there. If the executive really had the means to stop people from writing on walls, a large number of persons in every city would lose their means of livelihood. You would then not be able to read ubiquitous slogans in Urdu saying "Release Miss Naheed Khan at once" or "Yusuf astrologer: the only reliable knower of your future." There are certain advertising agencies in every city of Pakistan, without posh offices and without pretty girls sitting at reception desks, which specialise in transmitting your message on to bare walls, whether the message is about the need for Islamisation or about a popular washing machine or carries the address of a quack to whom you can turn after dissipating your youth. The practice of writing on walls is so widespread that if the advertisers were to be told that the wall-owner does not like such inscriptions on his property, he might not be able to understand why. In his opinion all walls are public property, and if you can defecate against them why can't you write on them? It is not the advertisers' fault that the number, length and height of walls in the country are increasing day by day. I am not joking. It is a fact. And it is not because more and more houses and other structures are being built. It is because walls provide a psychological protection against social contamination and fear of the unknown intruder, maybe up to no good. I have lived in Lahore's Model Town before partition. At that time you were not allowed to have a boundary wall on the side of your house facing the road. It could only be a green hedge. Now most of the houses there have become enclosed in walls. I see no other reason for this other than a feeling of insecurity. People get frightened by all sorts of things, even when other people look at them from outside. It is not only the citizenry that is infected with fear. The authorities too seem to suffer from unknown dangers. Danger from where? Fear of what? Of the people? Maybe. Look at the boundary wall of Lahore's beautiful Governor's House. In any civilised country the house would be displayed to the public on fixed days. But what do the inmates of this palace do? Every few years they make the wall more and more impregnable. It started in the sixties when the wall was raised by a couple of feet. The time was Ayub Khan's martial law. After a few years the top surface of the wall was treated with broken bottle glass. This was followed by an additional three feet in height in the form of barbed wire. The latest device to protect the inmate was searchlights every twenty yards or so along the wall. Add to this the routine police patrol 24 hours a day and you get the impression that this is not the residence of the Punjab Governor but Fort Knox where the United States Government keeps its gold. Go into any street in any part of Karachi or Lahore or even Islamabad (described as a comparatively safe city) and you will see either new walls being constructed or old ones being given more height. Why this obsession with security? Why do people want to be cloistered, and why this abnormal fear of other human beings? What are they trying to hide? The worry of the rich is understandable, but what's eating the middle class which has hardly anything for dacoits and robbers or for a grasping government? Is it that in the prevailing free-for-all where even the most ordinary family manages to acquire something or the other beyond its normal means, an element of secrecy must be maintained? Is that why there is so much stress on chaardivari, the four walls? It is mutual. You don't peep over my wall and I won't peep over yours. Then, go into the localities where you have big and small bungalows or semi-detached villas. Huge iron gates bar the entry of even the residents who have to honk the car horn for minutes before they are let in. The more well-to-do have a two-way talkie installed at the gate so that anyone wanting to come in may announce his identity. Just like the dens of super crooks that you see in the movies. The only thing now left is to have a password. If Sonny has forgotten the password when he comes in late at night, daddy's not going to let him in. One asks: why this obsession to enclose oneself, and against what? Against whom? I have questioned many friends. "There are no hawkers in this locality, no buffaloes, not even a stray dog; against what evil contingency do you keep your outer gate closed?" There is no plausible explanation. Only a vague answer, "You never know these days." We must ask ourselves about the fears of "these days" that haunt us. We must make a collective effort to get rid of these fears, whether they are real or imaginary. We shall have to have more trust in humanity, in our neighbours, in our relations. But to fight these fears we must first know them. And also decide whether it is society that can help us to get rid of them or the state. It's no use tilting at unknown windmills. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS* 971002 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Was the PM's visit a non-event? -------------------------------------------------------------------- Shaheen Sehbai FOR THE US media, Congress and American citizens, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif never visited their land. Only a handful of White House and state department folks and their bosses met him, as if it was a ritual they have to perform with every visiting head of state or government. For Mr Sharif they extended the ritual for a few more minutes. Technically Nawaz Sharif was not on an official US visit and that is the explanation senior Pakistani diplomats give for the lack of public interest in the visit. But these very diplomats had worked hard to give the impression that the Nawaz-Clinton meeting would not just be a courtesy call but "substantive" discussion on bilateral issues would take place and the president would not be seeing the prime minister in the manner he meets all heads of state coming to the UN General Assembly. And Nawaz Sharif had come not with just good wishes and empty words for the international community but with solid, well considered peace offers for India, specially significant because he was offering a no- war treaty and a freeze on all weapons, nuclear, ballistic and conventional, even without the Kashmir dispute getting any closer to resolution than it has been for the last 50 years. The no-war pact offer had been cleared by the top decision-making 'body', the troika and the rest. It was meant to present Pakistan in a light that would create an image that it was not Islamabad but New Delhi which created all the obstacles to peace in South Asia and the White House and state department must take note, before the US president embarks on a South Asian journey early next year. Thus for all practical purposes, an official US visit to Washington may not have been any more significant than his UN sojourn, particularly when a full media team and a big flock of economic managers accompanied him to do their business on the sidelines. It was by no means a low profile affair and lack of media and public interest in US, therefore, has to be explained. Normally when a country launches a major initiative in diplomacy, it is accompanied by a media blitz which focuses international attention on the initiative. Special efforts are made to draw the best of the world media to discuss the initiative and heads of state or government go out of their way to accommodate journalists, both at home and abroad, to broadcast their message as far and wide as possible. Nothing of the sort happened with the Nawaz peace initiative. Why? is a difficult question to answer but top Pakistani diplomats in the UN and the US were seen working towards the other end �- cancelling any media engagements that Islamabad's media managers may have put in place. It is now known that CNN, New York Times and several other important newspapers and TV stations were in the long queue to seek Nawaz Sharif's time but were frustrated. Even a Pakistani media news conference after the meetings between Mr Sharif and Mr Clinton and with Mr Gujral was cancelled by the diplomats but was arranged at the last minute by Information Minister Mushahid Hussain. At a similar, almost forcibly arranged, briefing for the Pakistani media accompanying the prime minister, top Pakistani diplomats had tried to throw cold water on the visit. One diplomat gave such a defeatist view of the Pakistani efforts that he had to be grilled by the newsmen to shake him up. "We do not care for results, which may be positive or negative, but we can only make our best efforts," was the punch line the top diplomat repeatedly gave to newsmen. Naturally, when the top most implementers of the policy are so weak- kneed and trembling in their shoes, what results could Nawaz Sharif expect from their efforts. Probably the Indians too knew about the state of mind of our key diplomatic stars in the UN and the US. They totally ignored Pakistan and just forgot Nawaz Sharif's major peace initiative as well, as if nothing had happened. This new strategy was news for the Pakistanis coming from Islamabad but also for those based in New York. It was a continuing policy which they probably had not conveyed to Islamabad out of fear or even expediency based on their own career interests. For the first time this policy of ignoring Pakistan was mentioned to the Pakistani media team by senior diplomats at their forced briefing. "We are more worried about this new strategy because now we are failing to bring India to our level of engagement, as we used to do in the past. The Indians have now realised that by reacting to Pakistani actions and statements, they were downgrading themselves," one of them had explained. This non-engagement policy was visibly upgraded by the Indians to the level of the prime minister and when I.K. Gujral simply ignored Nawaz Sharif's no-war pact offer in his UN speech, even the US and UN media were surprised. So journalists covering the Nawaz visit were wondering what was going on in the diplomatic corridors of Pakistan. On the one hand the media attention that Nawaz Sharif could easily have got, specially after his no-war offer, was deliberately blocked by the managers of the Nawaz visit, on the other there seemed to be no ready strategy to counter the latest Indian tactic of ignoring Pakistan. The Indians were now talking from a much higher platform, raising their stature to a global power instead of a regional state involved in war games with its neighbours. Pakistani diplomats seemed content at remaining bogged down deep below. Foreign policy and the foreign office in Pakistan have thus a lot of questions to answer but while Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub Khan was accompanying the prime minister, his own position seemed tenuous, at best. First, he was not given the proper respect that he needed and a man of Gohar Ayub's stature had to come down and complain to the journalists that his room was so small, he could not even invite a single guest for any discussion. Whether and when his lodging problems were resolved is not important but Gohar Ayub was conspicuous by his silence during the visit. He appeared to be hanging around, doing nothing, not even elaborating the grand new Nawaz peace initiative to either the Pakistani or the US media. Why was everybody so apologetic and shy to talk about the no-war offer, when it should have been the other way around so that the world could have registered its impact and put the heat on the Indians to respond, is a mystery yet unresolved. So the Americans were not made to take notice of the Nawaz visit and his diplomatic moves, the Indians deliberately ignored whatever the Pakistanis were doing and the rest of the world did not care. Was the visit then only for domestic propaganda purposes. Whether any mileage was achieved on that front is also a big question. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS* 971003 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Who is responsible for academic loss? -------------------------------------------------------------------- Sarfaraz Ahmed KARACHI, Oct 2: A gathering of around 50 out of 65-member faculty of the St Joseph's Government Girls College vowed on Thursday that they would continue their boycott of classes until the former principal of the college was re-posted. They also announced that they have postponed the planned programme of the golden jubilee celebrations scheduled to be held this month at the college having a strength of around 3,000 students. The founding plaque of the college, opened in 1951, says: "The college for women dedicated to St. Joseph's was raised by the Daughters of Cross who have served education in Karachi since 1862..." A visit to the St Joseph's on Thursday showed not many students but almost every single member of the faculty was present at the college premises except the principal, Prof Mustajab Zohra, who has gone on leave after coming to the college for three days in a highly charged atmosphere. "The education department is solely responsible for the present situation," said the teachers in a chorus when asked what they felt about the academic loss of students as they had been deprived of over 100 hours of education when one takes into account eight periods of different subjects in a day. "Indeed, it is highly unfortunate that we have been forced to boycott classes, but we have been left with no other choice to take this course in order to save the prestige of this college," said a senior teacher. They also produced the resolutions adopted by students in support of their stand. According to the documents made available by the teachers, Ms Kaniz Jafar Abedi, who had been working in this college for last 34 years, including four years as principal, had gone on a 60-day medical leave to the US on May 14, 1997. On July 25, she sent a fax message to the secretary education requesting an extension in leave for what she claimed she had suffered an acute attack of angina and had to seek emergency medical help. At present, she added, she was not in a position to undertake the journey back home and the leave should be extended up to Aug 26. The acting principal, Ms Mary Caleb, who had been officiating in Ms Abedi's absence and forwarding all her documents to the director of college education, sent her request to the higher authorities a day later. On Aug 26, when the period of extended leave had also expired, Ms Abedi sent another letter requesting further extension in leave up to Sept 26 on medical grounds. In support of her request, she also dispatched the letter of Stony Brook University Hospital and Medical Centre, New York, where she was undergoing treatment, which stated that Ms Abedi had been admitted on Sept 8 for urgent coronary artery bypass surgery after her catheterization. The hospital added that her previous hospitalization was for unstable angina and the present one for a coronary angioplasty. However, Prof Mustajab Zohra, an officer of BPS-20, was posted as principal of St Joseph's Government Girls College against, what the notification issued on Sept 13 said, "an existing vacancy." The college staff in a letter to the chief secretary on Sept 16 registered their protest and termed the new posting orders unjust, saying "it will be unjust on humanitarian grounds to take such a step in her (Ms Abedi's) absence which can have an adverse effect on her health. Even otherwise, a person proceeding on medical leave does not relinquish his/her charge in this manner." They further said that the administrative matters of all nature, be it admissions, examinations, discipline, attendance and all other related matters were being taken care of very efficiently by the acting principal, the entire teaching and non- teaching staff. They also suggested that if at all Ms Abedi was not re-posted, then one of the 15 teachers who had completed 30 years in this college might be made the principal. According to them, Ms Abedi had returned home from the US and had reported to the Services and General Administration Department about her availability. The college directorate, however, had already stated that the former principal of St Joseph's had to obtain fresh posting orders. It had said that Ms Abedi's had proceeded on ex-Pakistan leave and the period of the leave, extended on medical grounds, had now crossed three months. According to service rules, all officers returning from their long leave and leave on medical grounds could not directly join their previous posting, even if that post is lying vacant. On the posting of Prof Mustajab, the department said that she was the senior most officer of BPS-20, was working as additional secretary (academic) in the education department, and had also remained on ex- Pakistan leave for more than three months. "She returned to Pakistan on December 1, 1996. Since then, she had been waiting for her posting," the department added. Answering a question, the college directorate said that posting of a grade-20 officer in a college where a grade-19 officer was required for principal's job had become a routine matter since the introduction of a four-tier formula a few years back. In this regard, the directorate gave the examples of colleges such as National College and Sir Syed College where the posts of principal needed a grade-20 officer but this post was being held by grade-19 officers. Similarly, the former principal of APWA Girls College was of grade-20 instead of grade-19. The teachers alleged that during her three days at work the new principal gave admission to even B-graders when the college had already closed admissions on 88 per cent marks for candidates seeking admission on merit. "This is highly unacceptable as the prestige of the college is being compromised," said the teachers who added that they were highly professional and dedicated to the cause of education. They claimed there are teachers in this college who have not taken even a day's leave. They included the officiating principal, Ms Mary Caleb, and former principal Ms Abedi. They also claimed that the syllabus of every class is completed in time and mid-term examinations are conducted for all the classes regularly. The teachers said that in the absence of Ms Abedi the examination of arts, science and commerce along with practicals had been conducted as per government instructions and regular classes were started on Aug 20, and added that more admission were made when the government sent its own list. "I was not the least interested in my posting as principal of the St Joseph's," Prof Mustajab Zohra said and added that she had been subjected to uncalled-for hostility ever since she took the charge as the principal. She said before her last assignment was of additional secretary (academics) which was a job given to a senior most professor and the posting in the past of professors such as Obaidur Rehman and Hashmat Lodhi on the post of additional secretary (academics) were cases in point. Prof Mustajab said all the vacant posts of senior officials were filled in during the reign of the previous caretaker government when she was badly ignored. She conceded that a summary with regard to her transfer from the St Joseph's was in the process of finalization. She said at present she had taken leave from the college owing to a highly non-cooperative attitude of the staff towards her. The professor questioned why couldn't the staff end their boycott in the larger interest of the students and for the prestige of the college. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS* 971004 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Our colonial heritage -------------------------------------------------------------------- Irfan Husain OUR golden jubilee has become like a scab on the wound of our 50- year-old history as an independent nation: you know you shouldn't scratch, but sometimes the itch becomes unbearable. So you keep on scratching exposing the wound and delaying the healing process. While pundits and public alike have been engaged in breast-beating over all that has gone wrong, and are currently locked in endless analysis of how and where we lost the way, we have not really examined the legacy of our colonial past. Khalid Hasan is one of the few columnists to have discussed the issue in a recent article. In his usual wry and forthright manner, he has made the point that we have not deteriorated as a society after the British left: we have just reverted to type. The colonial experience imposed a set of rules and modes of behaviour that were not the norm in the subcontinent. Ideas like democracy, sportsmanship, hygiene and concern for others beyond one's immediate family were all foreign to us before the British introduced them, and imposed them on us through education, example and law. After their departure, the hold these values once exerted on society and the individual has steadily weakened because our leaders have not set the same lofty example their British predecessors did, and the influence of our current crop of educationists is marginal at best. The less said about the deterrent effect of the law the better. With the fading of our Western heritage from public memory, we are becoming what we were before the colonial interregnum: cruel, dishonest and lazy. This will not be a popular viewpoint, but just look at the evidence around us in the shape of the repeated failure of the democratic process: the endless corruption and the murder and mayhem that have become a way of life and death. Anybody doubting that this is how we were a couple of centuries ago only has to read contemporary 18th century accounts of life in India, specially among the aristocracy. Apart from attitudes and values, the physical infrastructure left by the British has declined beyond repair. the once-proud North Western Railway � renamed Pakistan Railway, but not a single track mile added to it since 1947 � has deteriorated to a level where it is an ordeal to travel by train. Roads that were once clean and well-maintained are now filthy and pot-holed. Graceful public buildings are now fading and covered with posters and graffiti. Public utilities, once the model of efficiency, are now a shambles. But the institutions we inherited have suffered far more grievous damage these last fifty years. Governance has become a pale shadow of what it was in 1947. Standards of public morality and law and order have reverted to the 18th century levels. The educational system collapsed long ago under the weight of nationalization. The judiciary, despite the occasional bright spot, has been unable to meet the challenges of the times and has disappointed more often than it has delivered. The civil service, once the backbone of British India, has lost its own backbone. The defence forces, while maintaining the veneer of their proud traditions, have lost their professional edge owing to their frequent incursions into civilian domain. Perhaps our biggest loss has been the erosion of tolerance. This most precious of virtues was never fully digested by us despite the best efforts of our colonial mentors, but we made some semblance of getting along with our neighbours. However, this pluralistic attitude was undermined long before the British left with the sharpening of the political divide between the Hindus and Muslims leading to the partition of India. Indeed, this traumatic act was an admission of the inability of the two communities to live side by side in peace and harmony. It should surprise nobody that this same spirit of intolerance should continue to haunt us fifty years later. If we could not live among Hindus as a minority in a united India, it seems that Sunni Muslims cannot live as a majority with Shias, Ahmadis, Hindus and Christians in Pakistan, just as we could no longer live with Bengalis in 1971. The triple- headed hydra of ethnicity, sectarianism and regionalism is growing stronger by the day, fed by prejudice and hatred, and emboldened by weak governments and cynical leaders without principles or vision. An example of this lack of tolerance and consideration for others was provided by a section of the crowd watching the recent one-day match between Pakistan and India. By throwing stones at Indian fielders, they disrupted proceedings four times, depriving the home team of three overs. They also sent a signal to millions of viewers around the world that we were incapable of watching Indian cricketers in action without trying to harm them. Compare this hooliganism with the discipline and fortitude displayed by hundreds of thousands of mourners who gathered in London recently at Princess Diana's funeral. We have become so used to blaming the British for all our problems that it has become a cliche. In fact, they have become a scapegoat for many of our blunders. However, we must face the fact that they left fifty years ago, and if the institutions they created here did not suit us, there was nothing stopping us from changing or improving them. But while we have torn down the edifice of the Empire, we have been unable to replace it with an indigenous one. What now exists is a surreal, Kafkaesque confusion of ad hoc measures imposed on a decaying and obsolete substructure of colonial rules and laws. In fifty years, we have been incapable of revising and reforming our laws, procedures and rules of business in the light of modern realities. Indeed, we have been too ungracious to acknowledge the contribution made by the British. For an instant, imagine life in this part of the subcontinent had they not come to these shores at all. Would we have, for instance, made the investment needed to put the railway system in place? Had they not introduced the concepts of the rule of law, equality and universal education, would newspapers like the one in your hands been published? I strongly suspect we would have looked up to Afghanistan as a model of progress in this scenario. I am no Anglophile, but the fact is that the British did far more good than harm in India, as well as in their other colonies. Compared with other colonial powers, they have an outstanding record of providing decent, progressive government wherever they ruled. We have much to be grateful to them for. Unfortunately, we have repaid them by changing all the names of our roads and buildings to erase their memory from public consciousness. We still ape some of their outer characteristics like going to clubs, speaking their language, and playing their sports. But we have proved to be incapable of assimilating their true heritage: a value system built around tolerance, decency and justice.

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SPORTS

971003 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Lahore match belonged to Ejaz Ahmad -------------------------------------------------------------------- Salahuddin Ahmad : Fromer National Selector Pakistan raced to victory in the third and the deciding one-dayer at the packed-to-capacity Qadhafi Stadium against India amidst a torrent of sixes and fours flowing from the torrid bat of Ejaz Ahmad. The way he hammered the Indian bowling, it seemed that he was hungry for an early dinner at home before it got cold or, was the visiting side keen to see Lahore by night. Without detracting a bit from the wonderful willow-wielding feat by Ejaz one must put on record the shrewd captaincy of Saeed Anwar who master-minded a brilliant strategy for the convincing success. Right from his decision to put the Indians in after winning the toss to his fine field placing and handling of bowling resources on a perfect batting track, his leadership carried the stamp of class. Shahid Afridi set the pace with power-packed strokes but Ejaz soon overpowered not only his younger partner but baffled the opponents who were dumb-struck by his lightning flashes. The day-and-night belonged to him and the rest of the proceedings were reduced to mere formality. The Indian batsmen, with the exception of Ajay Jadeja who played a real professional innings according to the situation, all other top order Indian batsmen played reckless shots, including experienced Azharuddin, Robin Singh, Ganguly and of course, to some extent, Kambli. Tendulkar was out on a good outswinger from Aquib Javed when he played with open chest. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS* 971004 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Aqib, three others, left out of first Test team -------------------------------------------------------------------- Ilyas Beg LAHORE, Oct 3: Experienced fast-medium bowler Aqib Javed and opener Aamir Sohail have not been included in the 14-member Pakistan team named for first cricket Test against South Africa to be played at Rawalpindi from October 6. Star opener Saeed Anwar has been retained as captain, wicketkeeper/batsman Moin Khan as his deputy and former Test batsman Haroon Rashid as coach of the team. The final eleven will be picked on the morning of the match. Also dropped from the team, which convincingly won the last of the three-game one-day international series against India, is the Test left-arm spinner Muhammad Hussain, who held two spectacular catches. Interestingly, openers Ali Naqvi (who batted well in both innings of the Combined XI) and Muhammad Ramazan have been included in the national side for the first time. Saleem, youngest of the famous Elahi brothers, Manzoor and Zahoor, has also been included and so have been young paceman Shahid Nazir, Muhammad Akram and middle-order batsman Muhammad Wasim. All these selections hint at selectors' efforts to 'search' reliable batsmen because the team has been failing time and again in this department. The national selection committee, which held deliberations whole day on Thursday and met on Friday at the Qadhafi Stadium, with former Test paceman Salim Altaf in chair, delayed the announcement of names of the players till mid-day to get information about the three-day Combined XI vs South Africa match. The endorsement of members of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Council was also sought before handing over the names of the players to mediamen. The coach Haroon Rashid and the captain Saeed Anwar also gave their views during the meeting. The Pakistan team is: Saeed Anwar (captain), Moin Khan (vice-captain), Ejaz Ahmad Senior, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Muhammad Wasim, Saqlain Mushtaq, Waqar Younis, Mushtaq Ahmad, Shahid Nazir, Azhar Mahmood, Muhammad Akram, Saleem Elahi, Ali Naqvi, Muhammad Ramazan. Coach: Haroon Rashid. Physiotherapist: Dr Dan Kiesel. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS* 971002 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Row kicks up on replaced ball -------------------------------------------------------------------- Sports Reporter KARACHI, Oct 1: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has expressed its unhappiness over the comments made by skipper Saeed Anwar after Pakistan were beaten by India in a cliff-hanger on Tuesday. Anwar, on Tuesday, had said that his team was robbed of the match when a fresh white cherry was handed over to his bowlers in the 42nd over. "But what Anwar has not realised is it was a bad captaincy by him as he didn't bowl Waqar Younis his full quota of 10 overs. Secondly, there was no complaint by him when Younis was able to extract swing from that ball in the penultimate over in which he conceded two runs and took the wicket of Saba Karim," a spokesman of the PCB, requesting not to be quoted, said. The spokesman stated that the ball was now in the court of disciplinary committee chairman as Saeed Anwar had publicly criticised the cricket setup. However, when asked why the authorities couldn't provide used balls which forced the umpires to take off the shine of it but failing to soften it up, the spokesman was unconvincing, saying only four balls were available from the Hyderabad match because before that no matches had been played here with the white balls. He parried the question when asked the World Cup was played with white balls and there should have been reserve balls as Pakistan had hosted 17 matches, including the final. It has been officially learnt that Sri Lankan Match Referee Ranjan Madugalle had also contacted PCB Secretary Waqar Ahmad on Tuesday morning to point out that there were no reserve balls available. Waqar Ahmad had told Madugalle that the board had no stock of used white balls, sources said. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS* 970930 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Tickets at Rs 3,000 -------------------------------------------------------------------- By Our Sports Reporter KARACHI, Sept 29: A record sale of more than Rs four million had been noted by Monday evening but still the tickets were available but on the black marketeers. According to sources, the black marketeers had brought tickets in bulk when they came up for sale on Sept 24. This correspondent also came across a black marketeer outside the National Stadium, the venue of the match, who demanded Rs 2,500 for a ticket whose value had been fixed at Rs 600 by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). "I am a professional. I have invested Rs 25,000 and aim to earn Rs 250,000 in return," said Sohail Rathore, a black marketeer, adding: "I have no fear for the police. I have settled everything and that's precisely why I am here unnoticed." "I had anticipated in advance that this match would be a sell out match. It's an art of business and it's what I am doing," Rathore said. Several other telephone calls came to this newspaper's office and the dejected spectators levelled serious allegations against the cricket board, local authorities and the law-enforcing agencies. But the local authorities flatly refused to accept their claim. "It's all nonsense. We are not selling any tickets. It is a matter between the PCB and Habib Bank," an official of the KCCA, the hosts, said. DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS* 970928 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Pakistan beat Argentina to gain 5th spot -------------------------------------------------------------------- Sydney Friskin MILTON KEYNES, Sept 27: Pakistan completed their campaign in the sixth Junior World Cup hockey tournament in fifth position but they had to fight hard for their 4-2 victory against Argentina who led 2-1 at halftime. The ultimate result was not what Pakistan had set out to achieve eleven days ago but by the end of the day the forwards seemed to have found a winning pattern. Pakistan were able to suppress but never entirely subdue Argentina whose skills and athleticism enabled them to make deep in-roads into Pakistan's defence, particularly in the first half. Once again Pakistan made useful substitutions in the front line by bringing on Haider Hussain and Zahid Afzal. In all they made four substitutions with Ali Raza and Abu Baker also being deployed. Pakistan: Mohammed Qasim, Salim Aamir, Tariq Imran, Irfan Yousaf, Imran Yousaf, Wasim Ahmad, Zakir Ullah, Ejaz Imran, Mohammad Farooq, Mohammad Khalid (capt) Babar Abdullah, Substitutes used: Zaid Afzal, Haider Husain, Abu Baker, Ali Raza. Argentina: J. Grondona, G. Orozco (capt) J. Espairs, M. Pellegrino, S. Raffo, J. Hourquebie, F. Zylberberg, E. Paulon, M. Ocana, T. MacCormick, L. Deambrosi. Substitutes used: G. Garreta M. Vila, L. Melgarego, P. Cammareri. Umpires: S. Graham (Wales) and Hl Jamson (England). DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS*DWS* 971003 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Jansher Khan pulls out of World Open -------------------------------------------------------------------- A.Majid Khan KARACHI, Oct 2: Pakistan squash has run into crisis as reigning world champion Jansher Khan, record holder of eight wins, has skipped next month's Kuala Lumpur World Open, casting doubts whether he would go with the national team for the World Team Championship to be held also in the Malaysian capital following the conclusion of US dollar 1,30,000 super series. Yesterday was the last date for sending entries to Cardiff -based Professional Squash Association (PSA) both for the Pakistan Open and the World Open. But the entry lists received here today from the PSA showed no entry of defending champion Jansher Khan. in the World Open. The Khan has entered the US dollar 70,000 Golden Jubilee Pakistan Open, scheduled in Islamabad from Oct 24. The World title is now open in the absence of Peshawar-born Jansher Khan and Australia's world number two has been top seeded and Scotland's Peter Nicola is seeded second. Pakistan Zubair Jahan Khan, currently ranked tenth in the world, has entered the 21st World Open, scheduled from Nov 4-9 followed by World Team Championship from Nov 10-15. Both the major events are to be held in Kuala Lumpur. World number one Jansher Khan, serving in the PIA, is currently away from the country competing in US dollar 26,000 international tournament, which has commenced from Oct 1 at Hamburg, Germany, ending on Oct 5. Jansher Khan is not available to explain what has led to his skipping of the World Open but doubts have been expressed about his avoiding to go to Malaysia as it is generally said and reported that his divorced wife Violet, through a court degree, is entitled to get the maintenance allowance for herself and her son, named Imran. Jansher Khan, who won the I989 World Open at Kuala Lumpur, did not go to Malaysia for well about seven years and this led to serious doubt about his participation in the World Open. Jansher's absence from Kuala Lumpur World Open seems to be an indicator that he might not be available for the Pakistan team though the PSF has already exempted him from the national trials also and named him captain. Zubair Jahan Khan, ranked tenth in the world, has also been exempted from the national trials, being held here at the PIA Jahangir Khan Squash Complex to pick two top players of league to complete the four-member team. The 24 players who have entered the Kuala Lumpur World Open are: Rodney Eyles (Australia),Peter Nicola (Scotland), Jonathan Power (Canada), Simon Parke (England), Ahmed Barda (Egypt),Chris Walker (England), Del Harris (England), Brett Martin (Australia), Zubair Jahan Khan (Pakistan), Dan Jenson (Australia), Mark Cairns (England), Anthony Hill (Australia), Mark Chaloner (England), Alex Gouch (Wales), Craig Rowland (Australia), Derek Ryan (Ireland), Julien Bonetet (France), Paul Johnson (England), Martin Heath (Scotland), Amir Wagih (Egypt), Stephen Meads (England),Paul Gregory (Germany) Tony Hands (England) and Graham Ryding (Canada). Pakistan's World No 28 Zarak Jahan Khan is among the 24 players who will compete in the qualifying round to fill eight places, reserved in the 32-man main draw of the World Open. Back to the top.

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