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Tuesday, May 13, 2008
In his column "When will Mr Zardari read the writing on the wall?" published on May12, Kamal Siddiqi asks a number of questions such as who was behind the last year May 12 carnage in Karachi, why the law-enforcement agencies failed to check law and order and why the culprits have not been apprehended. Instead of asking too many questions, Mr Siddiqi should have rather given their answers. Being editor reporting of a national newspaper, he must have some idea as to who planned the carnage and why those people are still not behind bars. Besides bringing up questions, a newspaper columnist's job is to educate their readers as well which, it seems, Mr Siddiqi deliberately avoided in his article.
Tooba Alam
Karachi
Who will regulate
the banks?
I had a credit card many years ago, issued by a foreign bank operating in Pakistan. I did default on it initially but then paid off all the debt eventually – or so I thought. This year that bank was taken over by a British bank operating in the country since long and I was told by its recovery staff that I still owed some money – in the region of Rs50,000. I was pretty sure that much of this was interest and though I was never provided with any details I thought that the best way to get rid of this mess was to pay off the amount.
A recovery officer of the bank contacted me in March and I told him that I was going to be travelling and that he should contact me in April. He did contact me in April and I told him that I could pay off the entire amount in four equal instalments. He agreed and I made my first payment, via a cheque, on April 16, 2008. He had given me the express understanding that he would come around the same time, for the next three months and collect the remaining three instalments. However, on May 12 my father just happened to go to his branch in Defence and asked for a statement of a joint account set up for my mother and myself. It was a recent account and I barely even knew that it existed.
However, to get to the point, my father noticed that the account had been credited for around Rs36,000 and the detail of this charge was that it was to pay for an outstanding credit card amount. Apparently the bank, despite the fact that one of its own representatives had made an arrangement with me to pay off my credit card bill in equal instalments, on its own deducted the remaining amount from mine and my mother's account. I should add that this account was created much later than the credit card was issued and that I had clearly told the bank's recovery officer that I was willing to repay the outstanding amount in full, albeit in instalments.
I was asked to call up an officer in the bank's credit risk department who was, to say the least, impolite to me and my father. He could not answer me properly when I asked him under what grounds did he see fit to deduct the said amount when clearly there was no reason to, since I had already paid one instalment and had agreed to pay the remaining three. I also asked him whether there was no coordination between his department and that of the recovery. He kept parroting – using the term 'boss' – that line that this was part of the bank's policy and had to be done. He could not answer why it 'had to be done' when I had agreed to pay off the outstanding amount – and that proof of this was the fact that I had already made one payment.
All this makes me wonder that the banks in this country seem to operate with practically no regulation. It is all well to make monetary policy and take measures to prevent the rupee from falling but the State Bank surely needs to have some concrete measures in place to safeguard the rights of banking customers.
An account-holder
Karachi
ANP's policy flip-flops
The residents of NWFP after living under an MMA-led obscurantist regime for five years voted a moderate Awami National Party into power in the February 18 general elections. The hope was short-lived which is evident in the way events in the provincial metropolis are unfolding. The ANP government, as a first step, allowed advertisers to display images of women on wayside boards which had earlier been banned by the MMA government.
A former MMA MNA along with a handful of his supporters threatened the ANP government that the billboards should be removed otherwise they he would forcibly remove them. During the MMA regime, the same group had torn down publicity boards showing women. This news was then picked up by the international media and consequently the then federal government removed the NWFP chief secretary and the police inspector general for not preventing the incident. To the utter shock of the local population, the ANP government has now bowed to the dictates of the same group has asked the advertising firms to remove the images of women from all billboards.
I ask the NWFP chief minister if one former MNA should decide what constitutes vulgarity and impose his version of Islam on society. How can the image of a woman be an object of vulgarity if women move around in our streets and educational institutions? If a woman's image in an advertisement is against sharia then why are such advertisements allowed in Punjab and Sindh which are also part of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan where, according to the constitution, no anti-Islam practice can be allowed?
We expected that the ANP government would introduce a package of liberal reforms in the province. If a handful of obscurantist elements can successfully force the ANP government to reverse its very first order, it means that the ANP is interested only in retaining power and the improvement of Pukhtun society in progressive terms was merely a hollow slogan.
Sayed GB Shah Bokhari
Peshawar
From Karachi
I would like to share the following with your readers – I got it via email from a friend who saw it on the social networking website Facebook.
You get shocked when someone stops at a yellow light. You never really know what to say when someone asks you what there is to see in Karachi. You give 'missed calls'.
You've never really seen a tourist. It's December and you attend five mehndis/shaadis in one night and end up meeting the same people at each of them. You use the phrases 'what's the scene?' and 'scene on hai'.
You still have some of Everest Videos movies and don't plan to return them. You've met a Parsi. You've given an exam at Regent Plaza. You feel you never have to wait in line if you are with "lay-diss" (ladies). You've bought a DVD of a movie that hasn't even been released yet. You actually go 'out for coffee'. You used to go for tuitions even though didn't need them. You say that you really like that restaurant/shop and someone says "oh yea, my family owns that".
You categorize people as 'burgers' or 'mailas'. You roll down your car window and you can actually touch the car next to you. You go by landmarks not street names. Your only argument in the Lahore/Karachi debate is 'well we have a beach'. You never realized that North Nazimabad was actually in the north. You never have dinner before one am in the shaadi season. You've always wondered what 'khayaban' meant. You know the Telefun number by heart even though you don't know what it is. You blame everything on the KESC. Your school gets closed when it rains. You know your city is a hole but you love it anyways.
A reader
Karachi
Conserving water
While walking past the I/10 Markaz recently, I noticed that fresh water was leaking from a pipeline and going into a gutter opposite to a bakery. On my enquiry, I was told by residents that the problem has remained unattended for the last several months in spite of repeated requests to the CDA water unit in I/9. This is sheer wastage of water resources. The CDA must take action on a priority basis to fix all the leaking water pipelines in Islamabad.
Basheer Ali
Islamabad
Electricity crisis
The electricity shortage is a serious problem for the masses in general and for students in particular. To overcome this problem, I request the authorities concerned to take the following necessary measures. All airconditioners installed in government offices and residences of state high-up should be removed and low electricity-consuming fans should be installed as their replacement. The use of refrigerators should also be discouraged through a media campaign and the public should be asked to limit its use up to eight hours every day. Shopkeepers should be requested to open their shops early in the morning and close them by eight at night.
Unnecessary illumination at wedding ceremonies should be avoided. Minimum number of streetlights should be used late at night to save electricity. An awareness campaign should be started through the print and electronic media to educate the public regarding the benefits of electricity consumption. Short- and long-term policies should be formulated to develop nuclear power houses in Pakistan. I hope the above-mentioned suggestions, if implemented with firm commitment, will solve the electricity problem to a great extent.
Jamshaid Yousaf
Attock
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ISSN 1563-9479 
