Glass towers

 Published in Dawn on May 12, 1996

THE Chief Minister of Sindh is to be commended for stopping all construction on this project, and for ordering an enquiry into the affair.

One hopes that the enquiry will also determine why the government departments (especially the KBCA) took no notice of the gross violations, and allowed three stories to go up. If Mr.Ardeshir Cowasjee had not written about it, by now the whole external structure would have been completed.

Not only must the entire structure be demolished; all those who approved the plans or failed to take any action so far should be whipped in public, to prevent this sort of thing happening again.

Shakir Lakhani

Karachi

Press under seige

 Published in The News on March 2, 1999

 The moment Saifur Rehman said that even the father of a judge would not have acquitted an accused without his permission, he lost his right to be in an important government position. He should be sacked immediately.

Shakir lakhani

Karachi

Inefficient CBR

Published in The News on January 11, 2007

A recent news report in you newspaper regarding the disappearance of two thousand containers on the way to dry ports and the suspension of two collectors for allowing rebates to exporters on the basis of fake invoices makes one wonder why the CBR should not be disbanded.

The missing containers were on their way from Karachi to the dry ports where the consignments were to be released after payment of duty and sales tax. God alone knows how many more containers have vanished in the past. Owing to this kind of gross negligence, the government loses billions in revenue, while honest importers suffer because their goods cannot remain competitive. Goods meant for Afghanistan under the Afghan Transit Trade are sold in our markets,causing much harm to local industry. The government seems powerless to eliminate such malpractices and is also not able to prevent smuggling of finished goods into the country and this make one wonder whether it even has the moral right to impose taxes on local industry. After all, why should investors suffer because of corruption within the government itself?

Also,government officials and ministers should not rub salt into our wounds by making tall claims about how they're helping local industries to survive.

Shakir Lakhani

Karachi

'Can someone in PTC read this?'

Published in The News on August 19, 1995

What should a man do if his telephone goes dead and remains dead for more than two months even though he had written to everyone concerned to revive it?

My telephone 5867012 is out of order since the middleof June, much before the recent rains. I have written to the Divisional Engineer at least five times and to the General manager twice.

I have even visited the Clifton Telephone Exchange to find out why they have singled me out for this unique form of torture."Have you met the Divisional Engineer?" says the girl at the counter of the exchange. "Have you met the General Maganer?" enquires the man at the reception counter of the GM. Why on earth should I meet these two worthies? Isn't it enough that I have written to them? No so long ago, a person only needed to dial 18 for the lineman to promptly get his telephone working again.

I can only assume that the General Manager and the Divisional Engineer are both highly illiterate persons, in which case they have no business being in their present posts, or all my letters to them are being consigned to the trash cans.

Perhaps some literate persons will read this letter and translate it for their Royal Highnesses

Shakir Lakhani

No confessions required

In spite of all that has been shown on TV and printed in newspapers, the caretaker PM confessed that no proof could be found against the accused. The stables, the mansions, the plot scams, all the brouhaha may come to nothing, and the people will yet again be disappointed.

"Let the suffer starvation and die..." (Robert Frost.)

Shakir Lakhani

Karachi

'A sign of the times'

Published in Dawn on October 10, 1995

Mr. Ayaz Amir, in his Islamabad diary under the above caption has written about the Qazi Hussain Ahmend and the Imran Khan brand of Islams.

As far as I know, there is only one brand of Islam, the one which prescribes strict punishment for all those who misuse public money.

Shakir Lakhani

Karachi

Wonderland

 Published in Dawn on February 12, 1987

Something is rotten in the Islamic republic of Pakistan. Where else can a policeman own 600 acres of cultivable land, run a bus service, undergo a course at the Police Training School in Shahdadpur, and be in Karachi at the same time without being noticed by his superiors? Where else but in this Islamic Republic can a cop turn "mentally crimiinal to such an extent that he did not that he did not require any reason to commit a murder?"

The Tarannum Aziz case is still fresh in our minds, when all the accused confessed under torture but later denied the murder charge. One of the self-confessed accused was even acquitted. Will the Masoom sisters' mystery end in a similar manner, with the accused claiming that he was forced to confess? And why was he not produced before the press?

How many more policemen like him roam the streets of Karachi, and how many policemen are subjected to periodic psychiatric tests to determine if they are "mentally criminal"? Please answer, Mr. L.G.P.

Shakir Lakhani

Karachi

Achievement

Published in Dawn on October 16, 1994

THIS is with reference to Prof. Shah Faridul Haque's letter (Dawn Oct 5) under the above caption.

The Professor states: "The historic and bold decision by the government of Pakistan in 1974 to declare Qadianis as non-Muslims... was the greatest achievement of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's regime. "

I would like to correct him and put the record straight.

I saw Mr. Bhutto on TV announcing that the National Assembly had been given the task to determine whether the Qadianis were Muslims or not. It was quite evident that he was highly perturbed, and very much against declaring the Qadianis, or any other community as minority.

In fact, the real credit belongs to the Ulema, particularly the late Maulana Maudoodi, who was sentenced to death during the anti-Qadiani riots in 1953 and refused to file a mercy petition. It was he who consistently kept the issue alive, and was finally able to unify the whole country on the question of declaring them a minority.

Shakir Lakhani

Karachi

PTV News

Published in The News on February 8, 1999

I have yet to meet a person who likes watching PTV news. Every day they preach the activities of the government and party in power. Bad news is seldom mentioned.

Last week's LHC decision on the frozen foreign currency accounts was disposed of in a single sentence, the newscaster announcing this it as if the news was personally devastating for her.

Shakir Lakhani

Karachi

Shariah and photography

 Published in The News on October 14, 1998

How ironic it is that  newspapers should publish the photograph of a woman minister talking to the Prime Minister while the Shariah Bill was being debated in Parliament, Although the bill is yet to be passed by the Senate, it must be ascertained before hand whether the newspapers will be allowed to publish any pictures at all, let alone those of women or beardless men. 

Shakir Lakhani

Karachi