In 2001, a military president succumbed to pressure through fear and
accepted perverse American demands. In 2009; a civilian president
repeated the history, only this time, for financial greed. One
called himself a trained commando, the other a shrewd businessman.
Both ignored public pride and sold national dignity for their own
reasons. What a commonality in their acts. —London
ZAB’s betrayal
Aneela Chandio
This is apropos to the letter on this subject by Mr Hashim Abro,
published in your issue dated 3 October 2009. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto
was betrayed by none other than his corrupt and despotic cronies.
The most prominent of these turncoats were from the law enforcement
agencies and the Waderas of Sindh, who turned approvers on the first
sign of trouble. Mr Abro has rightly mentioned the notorious role
Saeed Ahmed khan, who along with his close relative Afghan, were
amongst the most corrupt officers of their time. ZAB has to share
the responsibility for his follies, for he succumbed to sycophancy
of these dishonorable men, who surrounded him. He should have known
as a student of history, that corrupt men, whose religion is wealth,
could never be trusted.
The grotesque manner in which Saeed A Khan and Masud Mahmood roughed
up J. A. Raheem, the founding member of the PPP, should have shaken
his trust of these thugs. At the end, when the time came, the
ill-gotten wealth of the cronies, was the tool that Zia exploited
and they willingly turned approvers in the judicial murder of their
benefactor. Lessons need to be learned by those in power, never to
trust the corrupt that surround them. The most recent flip-flop of
the corrupt Chaudhries of Gujrat, who once vowed to get Musharraf
elected ten times in uniform and now avoid him as a plague, must
ring some bells in Islamabad. Perhaps Mr Zardari needs to learn some
lessons from history.—Sukkur
US strategy in Afghanistan
M Riaz
United States of America is considering to send more troops to
Afghanistan in order to crush the hostile elements and end
“terrorism” there. In her opinion, military power is the only
solution of all conflicts and evils which is totally wrong. The more
the troops come to Afghanistan the greater the damage will be to
these troops. America has already used brutal force for nearly seven
years but have got nothing. In fact they are in trouble and will be
leaving Afghanistan sooner or later in great humiliation She is
killing Muslims all over the world and is still complaining that
Muslims hate her. Daron attacks on Pakistan is an example of this.
These attacks kill even children, women and elderly innocent people
and damaging property. Every one hates killers, irrespective of his
religion and caste.
The so called “terrorism” cannot be defeated through military
operation only. America should abandon use of force. She has invaded
Iraq and Afghanistan and turned these two Muslim states into ashes
but have got no success. In order to avoid further humiliation and
complete defeat, USA must pay attention to the problems of the
Muslims. Following are my suggestions to bridge the gap between
Muslims and USA. 1) America should force Israel to vacate the
occupied territories. Israel is occupying these territories with the
help of America. 2) America should withdraw her troops from Iraq and
Afghanistan and shun hostility toward Muslims. 3) America should
never interfere in the internal affair of other countries especially
Muslim countries. 4) Terrorism must not be affiliated to Muslims
only. All nations fight wars to free their countries from foreign
invaders. So the Muslims of Iraq and Afghanistan are fighting for
their freedom which is their legitimate right and every thing is
right in war against a nation that has a greater war machine. 5) An
independent Palestinian State must be created, so that Palestinian
people can live with dignity and respect. I think Palestine is the
main cause of terrorism. 6) The Muslims must be allowed to impose
Shariah in their countries according to their wishes. It is their
fundamental as well as democratic right and is at par with the UN
Charter of Geneva accord. But USA and her allies are not allowing
them to live their lives according to their own religion. They are
asked to be modern and Westernized.
I have put these suggestions as friend of America. These will reduce
problems and woes of America and her allies. Remember I am not
against America but their policies need U Turn for their better
future—Thana Malakand Agency
Brand loyalty of telecom customers
Saima Malik
After analyzing the telecom sector in Pakistan, I have concluded
that there is an aggressive approach of competition among the
players of telecom industry, the players viz mobilink, telenor,
ufone, warid and zong. So it is leading to a stronger switching of
customers from one player to another because they have been offering
new packages time and again.
Mobilink, a subsidiary of Orascom Telecom, is termed as market
leader with 61.5 % market share. It has got the highest growth and
highest coverage all around Pakistan, it claims to reshape our
lives. Warid claims to provide communications services for both
residential and business customers. It has committed to provide
maximum network coverage and clear connectivity Zong is committed on
attracting and retaining the best human resource from all over
Pakistan. Its also provides a working environment which satisfies
the professional and personal needs of its employees. It aims to
achieve better customer satisfaction. U fone which considers itself
as a cost leader is the only mobile service named after the people
it is meant to serve – you. It aims to become the best cellular
communication option available in the country for u” Ufone changed
the image of mobile phones from a luxury only affordable by the
elite, to a necessity affordable by the common man. Today more and
more people are using U fone services because it is the most
economical and affordable service specially aimed at students and
mediocres.
Latest studies have shown that 50 per cent of telecom companies in
the developed and emerging markets have launched a points-based
loyalty program; while a small percentage opted for discounting
their services, with the rest choosing different promotional and
marketing initiatives Mobilink is a big name; it also claims that
the mobilink company can even afford to sell the service at huge
losses since it owns a great reservoir of funds and resources.
Mobilink launched its 1 rupee per minute package as a new
innovation,and ufone in order to compete with mobilink launched 75
paisas per minute, but that also goes equivalent to moblink’s
package since the ufone excludes to tell the amount of taxes which
are changed per call, similarly telenor launched its unlimited sms
package and zong emerging as anew competitor launched the same
package with different charges and warid simultaneously launched its
package of zoom limited and zoom unlimited etc All of the companies
are now launching different value added services like different
facilitated bill payment options and one stop shop options etc.
They are also taking part in corporate social responsibility like
some of them are sparing money for EDHI funds and for promoting
sports activity and the promotion of education in Pakistan. Telecom
customers are basically confused with what to choose and what to
leave. There is great potential for the loyalty market to continue
growing in the region especially during this economic crisis, and
the telecom industry is one of the key markets to watch as far as
the evolution of loyalty programmes are concerned. Basically the
telecom companies create a need in the customers and then deliver
such a service—Islamabad
Shopian tragedy
Sunita Vakil
Now that the sensational twist in the Shopian double murder case has
nailed lie of the earlier “truth”, it is the responsibility of the
administration to bring the culprits to book. What does it show if
not that there have been bungling at various levels of investigation
into the tragic occurrence? Indeed, facts have been fudged and
forensic samples tampered with in a bid to hide the truth and cover
up real culprits. Each new investigation has brought its own set of
twists and turns, obscuring the mystery further.
Investigators are supposed to unravel the truth and bring the
perpetrators of crime to justice. But instead we find our
investigating authorities including policemen, medical
professionals, administrative officers and others manipulating the
truth to cover up the gruesome crime. It goes without saying that
the state government’s complacency leaves a lot to be desired. In
fact, the Omar Abdullah government cannot escape responsibility as
his mishandling of the case has had the valley in turmoil for over
four months. This, despite the government’s categorical assurance in
the legislature that culprits will be arrested.
A Division Bench of the High Court comprising Chief justice Bharin
Gosh and Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir had left no doubt about their
intentions of revealing truth at any cost. But clearly, with “new
facts” coming to the surface, the tail is getting murkier by the
day. Although it is a fact that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah,
fearing a severe backlash ordered a judicial probe into the crime,
it also cannot be denied that there were more attempts to prevent
the truth from coming out than carrying out an unbiased, objective
analysis of the known facts. With the revelation that the DNA
samples sent for testing had been fiddled with, the credibility of
the state investigation team comes into question. It is quite
bewildering that the doctors who conducted autopsies on the victims
were non-specialists.
The autopsies were performed in an unprofessional manner and were
not videotaped. Also, there was much delay in registering the FIR.
The commission of enquiry appointed to unravel the truth only added
to the conclusion. And undoubtedly, it is here that the government
seems to have failed in Shopian case which led to widespread unrest
in the valley. The issue has become a rallying point for the
opposition in J&K to question the government on the fabrication of
the victim’s DNA samples as well as the case being handed over to
the CBI.
Though, it is not yet known who the real culprits are, honesty
demands an unbiased approach to unravel a case where unfortunately
not much forensic evidence is available. In the words of Stopford A
Brooke, “if a thousand old beliefs were ruined in our march to truth
we must still march on”, we have to explore all options in the
search for truth. In this context, Mr. T.D. Dogra, Head of
Department of Forensic medicine and toxicology at the AIIMS has
already indicated that the case may soon see a “conclusive finding”.
—Via email
