Rational criticism
Crown Prince Salman’s statement welcoming rational criticism of the government by its citizens reflects the statesmanship of the deputy premier and defense minister.
His magnanimity to speak on the subject shows his deep regard for the needs and concerns of the people of Saudi Arabia. He warned, however, that criticism for the sake of publicity or agitation is not valid and deserves to be severely dealt with if presented.
It is very heartening to see that he has reiterated the promise of the rulers of Saudi Arabia to allow any citizen to pinpoint and focus on any shortcomings or loopholes which exist in the system, as long as his suggestion and advice adds more peace and stability to the Kingdom.
Giving an example of positive way of criticism, the crown prince highlighted the action of a royal coffee server, Fahd, who requested the visiting President George Bush to extend his right hand to accept the coffee, instead of the left, as it was part of the traditions of this culture.
Prince Salman, quoted a common Arab adage, “May Allah have mercy on the one who points my mistake to me.” The quote beautifully sums up the crown prince’s message in a nutshell. — Muhammad Arshad, Alkhobar
Changing mindset of Pak Army
One may presume that most of the Pakistanis might have ignored the traditional messages from their president and prime minister on the country’s Independence Day when meaningless vows to take the country on a progressive path would have been made. However, the keynote address on this occasion came from the army chief Gen. Pervez Ashraf Kayani. Though general’s speech left many questions unanswered, however, it appears to be a soul-searching speech on the part of military. General was very clear on one thing that the fight against the militancy and terrorists in not someone’s else war; it’s Pakistan’s own war although it means fighting one’s own people.
Are we justified to presume that this time Pakistan military means business? If we ignore right-wing religious/ political parties’ stand for a moment who always advocate for Pakistan to pull out of war on terrorism, we have to see how the general’s words are going to be supported by some real deeds on the ground.
Gen. Kayani made a valid observation that there is a lack of effective legislation to prosecute the militants in the courts of law. It has been proved time and again that colonial era’s legislation has failed to keep the militants and terrorists behind bars. Militants are able to win their honorable release from courts as present day evidence-based prosecution laws are in fact helping out the militants. It’s time for civilian government to come forward and make the required changes in prosecution laws to let militants be tried and punished for their heinous crimes.
General Kayani’s speech shows change in army’s mindset after quarter a century. Wish it be an irreversible change in mindset. — Masood Khan, Jubail
Power outages in India
This is in reference to Devider Kumar’s column on blackouts in India, the issue has been highlighted on several occasions in detail and reflects the frail power infrastructure in the country. The outage is being attributed to overdrawing of power by certain states from the grid which makes no sense as there must certainly be sufficient checks and balances to control distribution.
Moreover, this happened at a time when the industrial growth rate was negative at — 0.10 percent during April-June, 2012 period compared to 2.8 percent in the same period during 2011 and a whopping 8.16 percent during 2010. Therefore, I believe, the problem is neither related to fast-paced economic growth nor to the theory of over drawing; it rather lies somewhere else. It could be a weak technological infrastructure that is not able to check the transmission losses and thefts. There is a greater need to privatize the entire power sector as far as industrial consumption is concerned to curb the losses and thefts as well increase efficiency and optimization in power generation and distribution.
As happens with any other issue, there were endless debates in the media on whether or not India should sign the civil nuclear agreement with the US to pave a way for importing the required material and technology in order to enhance its nuclear power capacity. It is almost four years now, the agreement was signed after being approved by the Parliaments of both countries and we have yet to see any significant progress in this respect. After spending so much time and accepting strict conditions for having civil nuclear program, huge investments be made in harnessing the nuclear technology for generating power. — Safi H. Jannaty, Hyderabad, India
