DAWN/The News International, KARACHI 14 July 2001, Saturday, 21 Rabi-us-Sani 1422
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Eight killed in rain-related incidents
The merits and demerits of new admission policy
HYDERABAD: Water, power crises take violent turn in Hyderabad: Police resort to aerial firing
Seven die in clash over music
PESHAWAR: Orakzais, Regi dwellers settle century-old feud
Human trafficking: US blacklists Pakistan, 22 other countries
Pakistan accused of supplying arms to Taliban
font size="4">Eight killed in rain-related incidents

KARACHI: Eight people, including four children, were killed and 10 others were injured due to light rain in the city on Friday. Several parts of the city, including parts of districts East and Central, received drizzle that started in the evening. Following the showers several parts of the city were without power as the KESC feeders tripped and power supply was disrupted.

Nadir, 7, and Suleman, 8, who were sitting near the Lyari River near Teen Hatti Bridge in Jamshed Quarter police limits, fell into the water and drowned. The Edhi volunteers recovered both the bodies and their relatives took away their bodies without post-mortem.

In the same police jurisdiction an unidentified 12-year-old boy drowned accidentally. The Edhi volunteers recovered the body and shifted it to Civil Hospital. An unidentified 35-year-old man drowned in the Lyari River in F B Industrial Area police limits after he slipped fell into the water. The Edhi volunteers recovered his body and shifted it to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.

Abid Ali, 8, was electrocuted when his hand touched an electric pole in Chakiwara police area while he was bathing in the rain. Muhammad Zafar, 19, another victim of electrocution, died when live wires fell on him in Brigade police limits while he was frolicking in the rain.

Ajab Khan, 55, was knocked down to death when a speedy water tanker hit him due to rain in Korangi police precinct, while he was crossing the road. Nabi Alam, 50, was also killed by a speedy water tanker in the rain in Quaidabad police area, while he was crossing the road. During the showers about 10 people riding cars and motorcycles were injured when their vehicles slipped and collided with other vehicles.

The merits and demerits of new admission policy
KARACHI, July 13: Like most other policy guidelines, the set of rules to govern the process of admissions to Karachi's government-run intermediate colleges for the coming academic session, which was finalized earlier this week, has its merits as well as demerits.

The biggest merit is that it has done away with the four per cent quota seats: two per cent reserved for the children of college teachers, one per cent for the children of defence personnel and government officials, and one per cent for sportsmen/sportswomen and disabled students.

In fact, if the only quota that could be retained is the one for the disabled students. This is not to suggest, however, that the education department should reintroduce it. What's done is done.

A questionable aspect of this year's admission policy is the introduction of self-financing seats in four of the city's better colleges, namely the Government Adamjee Science College, DJ Sindh Government Science College, St Joseph's Government College for Women and Government College of Commerce and Economics.

This is the first time that self-financing has been introduced into the secondary institutions. Till now the system was restricted to the institutions of higher education or professional colleges. Some educationists are apprehensive that if the self-financing takes strong roots the floodgates will be opened and soon the system will start making inroads into all the secondary education institutions.

The stated aim of the education department in introducing these seats is that it will allow the institutions to raise the much needed funds that can be used for the betterment of the colleges. The department claims that the government cannot keep on subsidizing the college education and so the private-public partnerships must first be activated and then strengthened, allowing it to bring in the needed money.

The detractors of this policy say that the main reason behind the new system is that the education department wants a safety valve in the so-called prestigious colleges.

The self-financed seats can be utilized to release some of the pressure exerted by the influential who always want the best for their children.

These people want their children to go to the best institutions even though they may not be the best of students, say some detractors. When these people will insist that their children should be admitted to the prestigious colleges, the education department will offer them the self-financed seats.

Other critics say the self-financed seats are an indication that the government wants to abdicate all its responsibilities in the social sectors. These people claim that the government will keep on increasing the number of self-financed seats with each passing academic session.

This will keep on happening until the expenses to be incurred by the government in the secondary education sector drops to a pre-determined level.

Let's assume that the two reasons mentioned above are true. Let us also assume that the government does want to have a safety valve and that it does seek to abdicate some of its responsibilities because it is no longer in a position to foot all the bills.

If this is indeed true then it's the responsibility of the society to keep an eye on whatever transpires around it. It is also one of its responsibilities to make the government play its due role in the secondary education sector.

As far as the "safety-valve" is concerned, no society can purge itself of all its ills overnight. Therefore, we will always have people who will seek to send their second best children to the best institutions.

Let these people "buy" seats in the best institutions. In this way they will be parting with considerable sums of money which could be used to subsidize the education of some middle class students.

The only thing that the civil society must do in this connection is to ensure that the number of self-financed seats is kept at the 5 per cent mark or thereabouts. It should make sure that at no point does the number of self-financed seats become so large that merit takes a back seat.

While announcing the policy the education department had made it clear that the self-financing seats would be offered over and above the merit seats. That is to say the number of merit seats, standing at the 56,000 mark, would not be reduced to make way for the self-financing seats.

This means that all the 56,000 seats will be filled on the basis of merit. Five per cent of the total seats in the four colleges mentioned will be added to the total capacity of these institutions and admissions will be offered on self-finance basis on these additional seats.

One feels that if at all the self-financed seats must be offered in the intermediate colleges then the procedure adopted by the education department is the right one. However, there's a catch here. As they say the devil lies in the details! The above procedure is the right one only if it is implemented by the right kind of people in the spirit it is meant to be executed.

Both the education department and the people in general can encounter several problems, which at the moment can only be described as unforeseen ones, if the people entrusted with the job of implementing the admission policy are not of unimpeachable character or aren't competent enough. So the education secretary must see to it that the implementation is in the hands of the right people.

Last year several problems were encountered in the implementation of the centralized admission policy. There were reports that admissions to the so-called prestigious institutions were offered to some students who really didn't deserve it.

Corruption and favouritism apart, the policy was generally implemented in a very shabby manner. The application forms had several flaws and several hundreds students were offered admissions to colleges which were far away from their homes.

The education department, specially the admission committee, must now make an effort to learn from those mistakes. The senior officials of the department should make it sure that not only mistakes are not repeated but that lessons are drawn from experiences.

Come August, when the admission process is to commence, only level headedness will hold the education department in good stead. If at this juncture the department tries to push its faults under the rug then it will only manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

HYDERABAD: Water, power crises take violent turn in Hyderabad: Police resort to aerial firing
HYDERABAD, July 13: The police resorted to aerial shooting after some power consumers, who were protesting against prolonged power breakdown and non-availability of water, allegedly fired shots in the air late Friday night in the jurisdiction of Sakhi Pir police station.

The SHO of Sakhi Pir police station, Hassan Ali Abdi, confirmed that the police fired in the air to scare the crowd after some of the protesters, heading towards the Bailkhana Telephone Exchange, fired shots in the air first.

Over 500 power consumers of Wadhoon Ka Pir staged a demonstration outside the Sakhi Pir police station, blocked the roads, burnt tyres, pelted stones on the passing vehicles and closed shops and also resorted to aerial firing late Friday night.

They were protesting against power breakdowns in their area for more than 18 hours. They said they were without power supply and drinking water and all their complaints had fallen on deaf ears.

The City SDM rushed to the spot and tried to pacify the angry protesters but in vain. He tried to contact the Hesco SDO of Memon sub-division, XEN and superintending engineer to inform them about volatile situation but none of them was available on telephone.

Later, the concerned Hesco SDO, Chaudhry Munir, reached there and held talks with the SDM.

The police said that the crowd insisted on going towards the Hesco office in Gur Market and refused to listen to the exhortation of the SDM not to take the law into their hands. However, the angry crowd proceeded towards Market Tower and on their way resorted to firing in the air. The police also fired in the air to scare the mob.

The situation remains tense as the people were still on the roads till the filing of this report at night.

Earlier, about 200 enraged water and power consumers of Gaushala area staged a demonstration against the HDA and Hesco here on Friday. They were protesting against the non-supply of drinking water to the area for the last three days. They raised slogans against Hesco, HDA and the district administration.

The protesters said that they had not been supplied a single drop of water for the last three days and even water for ablution was not available to enable them to offer Friday prayers.

They said that they had approached the Wasa authorities on several occasions but were told that due to the breakdown in electric supply water pumping stations had been rendered non-functional. They said that their area had also been deprived of power supply but this problem had gone in the background due to non-supply of drinking water.

A heavy contingent of police and the City SDM rushed to the spot and tried to pacify the angry protesters. The SDM assured them that he will personally talk to the Hesco and Wasa authorities and get the water supply restored.

Another protest demonstration was staged by over 150 consumers of Phase-II, Government College, Qasimabad, behind Niaz Stadium, against the non-supply of water and power breakdown.

The protesters raised slogans against Hesco and HDA. They complained that they had not received a drop of water for the last three days and prolonged power interruptions had made their lives miserable.

The WAPDA officials assured them that water and power supply will be restored before midnight.

Seven die in clash over music

PESHAWAR: At least seven people were killed in a clash over loud music in a northwestern Pakistani town on Friday, police said. They said a farmer was ploughing his field with music blaring from a tape recorder near the tribal town of Tank. When he refused a request by his neighbour Wazir Mohammad to turn down the volume, Wazir became agitated and gunned down the farmer, his wife, son and a brother-in-law, police said. Wazir and his family also opened fire on a group of police officers critically injuring a constable, a police officer, Jan Mohammad said. Police reinforcements arrived and gunbattle left Wazir and two other members of his family dead. Police also arrested an 18-year old boy, he said.

PESHAWAR: Orakzais, Regi dwellers settle century-old feud
PESHAWAR, July 13: Ending more than a century old blood feud which had taken about 170 lives, representatives of Orakzai tribe and dwellers of Regi area here entered into a settlement on Friday.

The compromise was made possible through the efforts of a reconciliatory jirga, which arranged almost 50 meetings during last decade for making a patch-up between the rival groups.

The ending of dispute was announced at Police Line here. The feud had started in 1887 over land dispute at Regi Lalma, a suburban area of the provincial capital.

The dispute was earlier resolved over major portion of the disputed land (nine parts out of ten) whereas the feud was going on over the controversy of remaining small piece of land (one part out of ten).

Human trafficking: US blacklists Pakistan, 22 other countries

WASHINGTON: The United States blacklisted Pakistan along with 23 countries for failing to tackle human trafficking, which it called "a modern-day form of slavery". Secretary of State Colin Powell released the report, mandated last year by Congress with a view to withholding US aid from nations who fail to address the issue by 2003.

"It is incomprehensible that trafficking in human beings should be taking place in the 21st century. Incomprehensible, but it's true -- very true," Powell said at a news conference. The report categorises nations in three different ways. Tier one includes countries that are meeting "minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking," as defined by Congress in the Trafficking Act of 2000. Tier two includes countries that are not meeting those standards but are making "significant efforts" to do so. Tier three is reserved for countries that are not making those efforts. Some countries in this final category refuse to acknowledge trafficking activity within their borders.

The others in tier three were Albania, Bahrain, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Sudan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

"Our report should make it abundantly clear that trafficking is going on all over the world in both developed and developing countries, even within the United States," he said, calling it an "abomination against humanity." At least 700,000 people around the world fall victim to the practice every year, Powell said. Between 40,000 and 50,000 of them end up in the United States, the report noted.

Powell said most victims are women and children who have been duped or coerced by criminals. "Deprived of the most fundamental human rights, subjected to threats and violence, victims of trafficking are made to toil under horrific conditions in sweat shops and on construction sites, in fields and in brothels," he added.

In the first annual "Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act," Israel was in the lowest category, "tier three," as a destination, mainly for women, for trafficking from ex-Soviet states, Brazil, Turkey, South Africa and Asia.

In a sign this key US ally could end up getting a waiver, however, the State Department said the Israeli government had "begun to take some steps" to combat. Another US ally in tier three was South Korea, a source of women forced into the sex industry primarily in the United States but also in other Western countries and Japan. "It sends a clear message to all countries, including even some of our closest allies: if you do not make ending the trafficking in human beings a top priority, you will place at jeopardy your relations with the United States," said Rep Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican who backed the law.

Powell said a US task force would be set up "to safeguard the vulnerable, to punish the traffickers, to care for their victims and to prevent future trafficking". The report cites 47 countries in "tier two," which includes countries that failed to meet minimum standards, but were trying to. This included China, France and Japan.

Pakistan accused of supplying arms to Taliban

WASHINGTON: Human Rights Watch accused Pakistan along with Iran and Russia of providing weapons for Afghanistan's civil war and wants a UN arms embargo to apply to all sides in the brutal conflict.

According to a report by the New York-based human rights group, Pakistan continues to be the main supporter of the Taliban. Iran and Russia have lined up behind the opposition United Front, which is fighting the Taliban, the report said.

Human Rights Watch called on the UN Security Council to create a unit to monitor an embargo already imposed on the Taliban and to broaden the ban to include supplies to the United Front.A Pakistan spokesman denied the report's allegations on Thursday, saying that they were dedicated to helping end the war peacefully.

The report said that United Front helicopters are repaired at a joint Russian-Tajik air base. The report cited a United Front defector as saying that Russia had given the group four transport helicopters.

It said that Afghanistan, "whose main economic activity is as a global arms market and smuggling hub is threatening to become, again, a theatre of geopolitical competition." The Security Council imposed sanctions on Afghanistan last year because it has refused to hand over suspected Osama bin Laden.

"There is no question that the Taliban is the more unpopular of the two sides because the United States and Russia are against them as long as they protect Osama bin Laden and support Chechen rebels," said Joost Hilterman, who authored the report.

"But the result of supporting, de facto, one side against the other, will only mean that in the end the Taliban will be replaced by a regime that is equally abusive, even if it better serves Russian and American interests."

The report, released during a UN conference on the illegal small arms trade, was especially critical of Pakistan, which has repeatedly denied it supplies arms to Afghanistan. According to the report, artillery shells, tank rounds and rocket-propelled grenades cross the Pakistan-Afghanistan border by truck. One retired, senior Pakistani officer told researchers that the report is widely exaggerated. The report also accused Pakistan of training Taliban troops at a garrison in Rishikor, Afghanistan, southwest of Kabul. It accused Iran of training anti-Taliban fighters in northern Afghanistan and helping build a new arms supply route there.

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