BACKLOG: What clearing backlog means

It was the editor’s office but looked more like a store room. During a job interview, I looked around. I saw everywhere books, magazines, newspapers, manuscripts, papers, unopened mail. There were piles on chairs, stools, windowsill, over the bookshelves. The editor’s table itself was cluttered, with only a small working place in front of him, like a clearing in a jungle.
I saw that office in the same condition over the decades, while many editors came and went. I always wondered why none of them could spare some time to clear the mess. Now I know better.
When I shifted to a new house, I had to face all that newspapers, magazines, clippings, papers, etc. that had been hidden conveniently at various places in the previous residence. Now I placed them all on the floor of my home office so that I could no longer ignore them.
I started with the magazines for which I had not found time to read, putting aside special issues and taking out clippings from others for reading in the next round. In the meantime, the piles rose higher as new magazines and papers started accumulating. My paper mail, that has always been substantial, kept coming. I was hard pressed for time, while doing my full-time job. In desperation, I cut daily newspapers from three to just one and cancelled most magazine subscriptions. It saved some time. Still, the progress was very slow, as I lumbered on.
Gradually, the backlog was reduced to a single large pile. It came down, millimeter by millimeter. At last, I cleared the last clipping last week. It was a long hard battle, taking me as much as four-and-a-half years to win. It was great to feel liberated from the shackles of the backlog.
However, that is not the end of the story. Now I have to start reading the books in my personal library. I have already given away more books than most people buy in a life time. Still, there are several thousands. The packed shelves lure me. I do realize that, being at the fag end of life, I shall never be able to read them all in the remaining time, even if I read one book every day. Nevertheless, it will be fun while it lasts.

WEEKEND: Not a weekend of 2½ days, please

Saturday and Sunday must not be the weekly holidays if the Government does decide to add a day to the weekend or we will end up with a weekend of not two but 2½ days, the longest in the word.
Because of the Juma prayers, Friday has always been a half working day (when it was not a full holiday). The Government can never make it a full working day. This is the unavoidable starting point. That gives us three options.
a) We are already the only country in the world to break up our weekend by having a full working day (Saturday) between a half day (Friday) and a full holiday (Sunday). The ridiculous practice can be abolished by having Saturday as a full holiday, giving us a proper weekend of continuous of 1½ days. The combination of a full holiday on Saturday with a half holiday on Friday will give us not just a proper weekend but also save more energy. Sunday, in any case, has no religious sanctity for us.
b) If the bureaucrats in the federal government get too tired during the weekdays and are keen to have two holidays, a weekend of two full holidays on Fridays and Saturdays may be introduced as a trial but only in Islamabad. The savings in energy there, if any, may be reviewed after a year.
c) The rest of the country (including Provincial and Local Governments) must have the free option to have Friday as either a half day or a full holiday. We have to go a long way to develop our country economically and must use every minute for productive purposes. Two full weekly holidays for every organization will be too much loss of time.
If some large companies, both in the public and private sectors, want to have a two-day weekend, they can simply have the whole of Friday off. Thus, all weekends, both public and private, will be confined to Friday and Saturday, whether a week is of 5 or 5½ working days.
Why should we prefer Sunday over Saturday? If Saturday is the Sabbath of the Jews, Sunday is that of the Christians, neither being sacred for us. Saturday will give us the best possible arrangement that Sunday never can: half day for the Friday prayer combined with a full holiday for weekly rest and recreation.
That leaves the people who claim that they will be out of touch with the international business community if the weekly holiday is changed from Sunday to Saturday. They should realize that Saturday is also a holiday in many countries. Having it as a working day here does not help them at all. They should also learn something about time zones that make it difficult to call the other party even on working days. When they start their day at 10am here, it is not the same time everywhere in the world. In America, it is already night.

EDUCATION: Reduce BA/BSc students by 2/3

We should reduce the seats for B.A./B.Sc. students by two – thirds. That is the lesson of the results of the University of the Panjab for the examination this year.
Why so many students failed? They were most probably weak in English, as are students of all other classes. They did not give full attention to their studies. They might have chosen the wrong subjects. They were not keen to go to college in the first place but were pressurized into it by parents and others.
Whatever the reason, the failed students wasted two years of their life. They wasted the money that their parents spent on them. They wasted the resources that the country spent on their education. They are also unable to join any professional college or get a good job.
What should be done? Make it more difficult to join degree classes. However, entry tests will be difficult to administer because of the large number of students and colleges involved (unlike professional colleges).
An easier and more effective method will be to raise the bar. The merit for the students seeking admission to B.A./B.Sc. classes should be at least 50% marks in the Higher Secondary examination. The limit may be raised still higher (say to 55 or 60%) if it does not reduce the number of applications to the desired level. The target should be to enroll only the students that are certain to do well.
The higher entry requirement will not be against the poor students. In fact, it will favor them. If they work harder, they will be in a better position than rich students. Only higher fees and expenses go against them.
What should be done after a huge reduction in the number of failed degree students?
a) Provide more facilities to the students who do get admission.
b) Introduce postgraduate classes in more degree colleges.
c) Convert some government degree colleges in a district into technical institutions if enough degree students are no longer available for them.

CRIME: A woman with awesome guile

It is amazing how Sonia Naz, co-accused with her clerk husband in a fraud case in Faisalabad, could deceive first the media and then the government and the judiciary at the highest levels. (She must have somehow learnt a great media secret: Wildest allegation makes biggest headlines, causes widest sensation and gets maximum sympathy.) Everybody assumed without a second thought that the accuser was right because she was a woman and the accused were guilty because they were policemen. (What happened to the oft-repeated maxim that everybody was innocent until proven guilty?)
Any sensible person, who watched Sonia’s interview on television, could see through her acting. A genuine rape victim does not speak so loudly, gives such graphic description and weeps so profusely. “The lady doth protest too much,” wrote Shakespeare in “Hamlet,” (Act III, Scene 2, line 242).
After appearing before the police inquiry team, Sonia refused to appear before the judicial tribunal, set up by the Punjab Government on the instructions of the Supreme Court. She probably realized that her tale was unraveling. (Calm questioning by policemen can establish facts more easily than shrill and convoluted cross examination by lawyers.) Apparently, her lawyers told her that she would go to jail if she made a statement under oath before the District Judge that later turned out to be not true. (Police inquiries are not under oath.) So, now she says that she will present evidence about her alleged rape only before the Supreme Court. (Can anybody assume the right to appear only before the highest court?)
And what evidence could she possibly have? Was she medically examined and tested for DNA that matched with those of the policemen? Did she have her own witnesses present? Did she arrange video recording of the whole thing? Rape is difficult to prove even under the best of circumstances.
With Sonia’s boycott of the judicial inquiry and no credible supporting evidence likely from any other source, ultimately the case will be quietly closed. Two questions will remain: a) Who will punish her for the baseless allegations against officers of law? b) Who will restore the honor of the policemen, who have already been devastated?
The Provincial Police Officer (IGP) may do that. He may register a case against Sonia under Section 211 of the Pakistan Penal Code and other legal provisions for making false accusations and, through the courts, get her punished and get his officers exonerated.
Don’t be surprised if some NGO adopts Sonia, parades her abroad as “an innocent victim of police brutality,” and starts collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars as donations (at the cost of the country’s prestige). Mukhtaran Mai, of Dera Ghazi Khan, has already set an example. She is reported to be a multimillionaire (along with her sponsoring NGO), while the High Court dismissed her case of gang rape for lack of evidence.
The bottom line? Sonia may have now got virtual immunity for herself (as well as her husband). No police officer will even come near her, not to speak of arresting her. Who would want to get into serious trouble at the hands of a blackmailer par excellence? As the Holy Qur’an says, while describing the false allegation of attempted rape against Hazrat Yusuf,“O womankind! Verily, awesome is your guile!” (Surat 12, Yusuf, ayat 28).

EDUCATION: 40% Higher Secondary students thrown into dustbin

About 40% of the Higher Secondary students of the Punjab have been thrown into the dustbin for a very poor reason. According to the results announced last week by the Boards of Secondary Education of the Punjab, the students did not pass the examination. Why? Mostly because they failed in English.
Heavens would not have fallen if they had been allowed to pass. They would not have sought admission in degree courses or competed for jobs because they would have been at the bottom of the heap. They were certainly not keen for education abroad or any type of international dealings because of their poor English. They would have simply taken up whatever came their way and started their life.
They could certainly retain their self-respect if they could get a pass certificate. When asked about their education, they could say that they had passed the Higher Secondary education. They would not have felt ashamed when their children asked them about it. They could live with third division but not failure.
No doubt, English is the language of science and technology, foreign education and of international relations. But everybody in the country does not need it, certainly not those who just want to live their life like millions of other ordinary citizens. Teach English by all means but why make it compulsory for all to pass in it? Why not just add up the marks obtained by the students in all papers and declare them successful if the total reached the minimum required percentage? It will not cause any harm to anybody but avoid the stigma that they would have to carry for the rest of their life. Is it too much to give?
Passing in English should be compulsory for those who need it in later life but not for every single student. He needs only the education that he gets from studying other subjects.

TERRORISM: Why Pakistan is not called its victim?

Why is it that the foreign media never describes Pakistan as a victim of terrorism, even though it had more attacks than the rest of the world put together and even its President and Prime Minister narrowly escaped concerted assassination attempts? This is not without reason.
Pakistan has been suffering from terrorism since 1980s, when Russia, in collusion with India and its puppet regime in Kabul, sponsored terrorist attacks that were the largest in the world at that time, according to America’s CIA. It was in retaliation for Pakistan’s support to the mujahideen, who were fighting against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan.
Simultaneously, Pakistan had sectarian terrorism that arose as a result of the proxy war being fought on its soil by some countries of West Asia. In late 1980s, India sponsored terrorist attacks all over the country in a reaction to the freedom struggle that had started in the Occupied Kashmir.
Then came a spate of terrorist attacks after the American occupation of Afghanistan in 2001. These attacks continue and their number is more than the total terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda and its remnants all over the world.
Whenever the foreign media mentions the victims of terrorism, it starts with the U.S., Spain and England and then stops after adding Turkey, Egypt and a few others. However, it never includes Pakistan among them. Even the Western leaders, who otherwise praise it profusely for its help in “the war against terror,” don’t mention the obvious fact.
Why is it so? The reason is logical. If they describe Pakistan as a victim of terrorism, they cannot call it a source of terrorism at the same time. They must have it as a scapegoat and that is possible only by ignoring the fact that Pakistan itself is the victim of terrorist attacks.

TERRORISM: British police should learn from Pakistani police

The British police should learn something from the Pakistani police to avoid tragedies like the one at the Stockwell station of London in late July, in which an innocent Brazilian, Jean Charles de Menezes, was shot dead.
In case of security emergencies, the Pakistani police sets up check posts at all key points in the city, besides patrolling in sensitive areas. If a suspect is noticed, all check posts and patrolling policemen in the surrounding area are alerted and given his description and location. While he is followed discretely from behind, the focus is on facing him from the front. The police can then easily stop him and, if he tries to escape, shoot him.
If there were armed policemen outside the Stockwell station, they could, on getting the alert, stop Menezes and order him to lie on the ground, with face down. If he refused, they could shoot him in the legs to immobilize him. Even if he was a bomber and blew himself up, he could not have harmed the policemen, who would have been at a safe distance. The people around him would have also saved themselves by taking cover immediately.
Even inside the Stockwell station, the policemen could have stopped Menezes. Declaring it as a security precaution, they could have blocked the entry to the station and asked all passengers to form a line. As the passengers entered one by one, the man could have been arrested easily. Of course, there could have been casualties if he was really a suicide bomber. But then he could have caused casualties also by blowing himself up at any moment after he saw the policemen chasing him, even seconds before he was shot.
Yet another simple technique would have prevented at least three bombers from escaping on July 21. As soon as the incidents occurred in the trains, the police could have blocked immediately the exits of Underground stations and ask all passengers to form a line and go out one by one. The police could then ask all suspects to move aside for questioning. That would have made it easy to identify and arrest the bombers. Searching for them all over the place after they had fled through the wide open exits of the Tube stations was, as we say in Urdu, like beating its path after the snake was gone.

CURRENCY: Demonetization of five-rupee note is illegal

The demonetization of five-rupee currency notes by the State Bank is illegal and must be withdrawn immediately.
Look closely at any note of five to 1000 rupees. It bears a solemn commitment of the State Bank Governor that he will pay to the bearer on demand the face value of the note in rupees. The commitment does not say that it is valid up to a certain date. It does not say that the Governor may back out under certain conditions and refuse to pay the face value. And it also does not allow the Governor to change his mind whenever he wishes. It is a commitment for all times and without any conditions whatsoever.
The State Bank may withdraw from circulation any notes but it cannot fix any date for it. All that it can do is to ask the banks not to reissue any note that it wants to withdraw. The banks must continue to accept the withdrawn notes for payment or exchange whenever presented to them.
From practical point of view, the State Bank has not ensured that every single person in the country, as well as outside, is aware of the withdrawal of five-rupee note. Issuing a news release of a few lines is not enough at all. (It has not given even a single ad.) A single-column, three-line news in newspapers or a sentence in radio and television news bulletins by no means reaches the entire 150 million people of the country. The message does not reach everybody even in the cities, not to speak of the remote villages. The State Bank notification is not a law that everybody is supposed to know.
The consequence of the demonetization will be that the State Bank will be usurping, by its own calculation, literally billions of rupees of the citizens. It is depriving them of their money arbitrarily, something like a daylight robbery. Not even the Government can do it. No law gives this right to the State Bank. Why should a citizen lose his money simply because the State Bank has issued a notification?
After July 1, any person still holding a five-rupee note will have a perfect right under the law to sue the State Bank. Some lawyers may also file a class action suit, compelling the State Bank not only to pay the face value of the outstanding five-rupee currency notes but also damages for causing unnecessary harassment and worry.
Before it comes to that, the State Bank must ask all branches of all banks to continue to exchange the withdrawn five-rupee notes with other notes and then give these notes to it in the normal way.

LOCAL GOVT: Why administrators to replace Zila Nazims?

Tell the Chief Ministers that they will be sent home before the next general elections and the Chief Secretaries of their provinces will replace them. Then see how vehemently they will protest against the idea. It will be against the Constitution, they will say. It will be undemocratic. They are elected representatives of the people. They are very responsible persons. There is no possibility of their misuse of powers and position in the elections. They are capable of holding free and fair election.
Fine. Then why are they pressing for the removal of all Zila Nazims before the coming elections of Local Governments? It will be against the law, as the Local Government Ordinance does not allow the appointment of administrators in place of Zila Nazims. The Nazims are also elected representatives of the people. (In fact, the Zila Nazims are more representative because only a small number of MPAs elects the Chief Ministers.) The Zila Nazims cannot misuse their powers and position because there are so many checks against them.
If the Chief Ministers can be trusted not to use their powers and position to manipulate general election despite the resources of the entire province at their disposal, why is it so difficult to trust the Zila Nazims?
Why are the Chief Ministers so keen to remove the Zila Nazims before the elections? The obvious fact is that they themselves want to rig the elections to bring in their own favorites. They know the Zila Nazims have done tremendous work during their term and are popular among the people. The Chief Ministers know that their own nominees stand little chance of winning against the sitting Nazims. So, they want to deny the people their right to elect their own representatives. So much for their love for democracy. Let us not forget that the very first provincial elections under a sitting chief minister (Mumtaz Daultana) in the Punjab in 1950s were so rigged that the Punjabi term, jhurloo phairna, entered Urdu. No wonder, since then no sitting chief minister was allowed to hold elections.
The President introduced the Local Government system despite stiff opposition from the politicians and the bureaucrats. The demand for the appointment of administrators is an attempt to sabotage the system. He must reject it, along with other unreasonable demands to change the Local Government Ordinance.

REPUBLIC DAY: Let us start celebrating it again

Let us start celebrating the Republic Day once again.
With the promulgation of the first Constitution in 1956, we became the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. It was decided that March 23 would be henceforth celebrated as the Republic Day.
Two years later, martial law was imposed. The military regime obviously could not celebrate a Republic Day because the constitution was not there. Therefore, the clever people around the rulers decided that March 23 would be henceforth celebrated as “Pakistan Day.” It did not make sense because August 14 was the day when Pakistan came into being while March 23 was the day when we finally terminated the formal links with the UK and turned the country into a republic.
Since the martial law continued for a long time under various military rulers, the people forgot the significance of celebrating the Republic Day.
Now that we have democracy once again, we should resume the celebration of March 23 as the Republic Day. Let the change take effect with an official notification from the Federal Government.

BBC: Why does it always describe militants as Islamic?

During the BBC news bulletin at 0700 on December 7, 2004, “Islamic” was added every time the word “militant” was used in the story on the attack on the U.S. consulate in Jeddah. There could be some justification – if at all – if Saudi Arabia was a non-Muslim country. With the entire country being a Muslim, why should it be necessary to describe the militants as “Islamic?”
The adjective is not confined to militants in Saudi Arabia. Every time a Muslim is involved in militancy, BBC describes him as “Islamic.”
On the other hand, BBC never ever says “Catholic IRA terrorists” when it would have been perfectly justified because the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland is fighting against the Protestant majority.
The only explanation for the outrageous usage of the BBC editors is that they want to create hatred against the Muslims.

PARLIAMENT: Which one is more representative?

The lower house, Lok Sabha, of Indian Parliament has 525 seats for a population of 1.05 billions, or one member for every two millions.
Pakistan's lower house, National Assembly, has 342 seats for a population of 150 millions, or one seat for 438,596. That comes to less than one-fourth of Lok Sabha.
Which Parliament is more representative of the people?

MOON: Why bother to see it to celebrate Eid?

There is something wrong with the moon. At the beginning and end of every Ramzan, it hides itself behind a veil, like the beloved of our poets. It shows a glimpse only to the people in the remotest parts of Balochistan and NWFP. It makes sure that they do not live anywhere near a place that has a phone. So, the poor fellows travel for hours to convey around midnight the good news to some maulvis in the Lunatic (or Moon) Triangle (Peshawar, Mardan, Charsadda) that they alone saw what the entire country could not. Invariably, they turn out to be very pious people, whose evidence can be accepted readily in accordance with strict Shariah standards, without even seeing them.
Since there is no way we may persuade the moon not to behave like the traditional beloved, let us ignore its devious way and follow the Buddhists of Sri Lanka, who know better. After all, they have been watching it for about twice longer than us.
In Buddhism, 14th of every lunar month is a sacred day, when special prayers are offered. So, it is a public holiday in Sri Lanka every month. The Government calculates these holidays every year in advance for all 12 months. It cannot afford to make an error or will have to face the wrath of the entire nation. At the same time, it also works outs the dates of religious holidays for the Muslims. The dates never turn out to be incorrect.
We do not have unanimity on the appearance of the moon despite involving thousands of maulvis in Ruet-i-Hilal Committees all over the country at national, provincial, district and tehsil levels. So, why bother any more? The Government should use astronomical calculations regarding the moon and announce them in the beginning of the year, along with corresponding holidays. If some people want to follow the obscurantists, let them do it. They are already doing it anyway.