Women Passengers'

Plight While the Karachi traffic police have recently taken some steps to ensure smooth flow of traffic, they seem least bothered about the plight of women passengers in the public transport. Both regular and occasional women commuters have to face eve-teasing and sometimes harassment in buses, mini-buses and coaches. Although an iron fence has been erected in every public vehicle to make some seats available to women, men often occupy these seats, specially during rush hours, thus making women wait at bus stops for almost half an hour and at times for an hour before they find some vacant seats. Equally inconsiderate are the traffic police who, despite having been given some incentives to book such public transport (half of the fined money is to go to the policeman who fines a vehicle for violating any traffic rule), do not usually fine errant drivers; most of the times they like to have their palms greased. I, being a schoolteacher, have to travel daily by the public transport. Not a single day passes when I do not face eve-teasing myself or when I do not see other women being teased by some male passengers. That now even teenagers have taken to eve-teasing in buses is a sad commentary on the moral decadence of our society, thanks to the onslaught of cable TV channels. I appeal to the governor and the chief minister of Sindh to ensure implementation of the traffic rules so that women could travel without any hassle. Corrupt traffic policemen should be taken to task. Nudma Aurangzeb

Karachi

Suggestions for Haj Policy

First I must appreciate the prime minister for ordering the refund to those who were not able to perform Haj this year under the open scheme due to mishandling of the applications. I have some suggestions for the religious affairs ministry to consider while preparing the 2004 Haj policy. A major problem concerns the provision of accommodation to intending pilgrims. It is so mismanaged an affair that the pilgrims are forced to hire illegal Haj operators who fleece people like anything. The question is, can they do it without the support of the Haj directorate's official? These unauthorized Haj operators claim that, to get private residences approved by the officials in Islamabad, they have to spend money. Some of them are even getting approvals on fake documents. It seems officials of the Haj directorate are either doing it to please some vested interests or are ignorant of the facilities needed by the Haj pilgrims. However, there seems to be no accountability in this regard. The government should introduce yet another category under which it should arrange residences within a radius of 200 meters of Haram Sharif at some reasonable additional costs for those Haj pilgrims who wish to reside near Haram Sharif. The accommodation problem should be so addressed that not more than 6/8 persons are housed in a room, which should also have a bathroom. The government should either ban such unauthorized Haj operators or legalize them with some reasonable fees ad security deposit and also fix an amount for different categories of residences to be provided by these operators so that they may not charge exorbitantly from the pilgrims. They should have no direct access with the Haj officials in Islamabad, and the directorate should process their cases on merit. The number of days of stay for Haj purposes should be reduced from around 40 days to a maximum of 30 days. To reduce the duration of stay, the government should ask PIA and Saudi Airline to allow increase in Haj flights and also allow the private airlines to operate. The government should consider providing separate passports to those who want to perform Haj on the open Haj scheme as majority of them are business-related and cannot deposit their international passport for a longer period. Those who have already performed Haj should not be allowed to do so until the next five years, as is being practised in Saudi Arabia. Muhammad Iqbal Siddique

Karachi

Threat of Religious Extremists

According to a news report (Dawn, April 20), President Musharraf said in Sargodha that religious extremists posed a major threat to Pakistan. Very true. But then he went on to repeat a slogan invented by these parties that Pakistan was established in the 'name of Islam'. I belong to the generation that as university students took a modest part in the Pakistan movement. The Muslim League was a secular party with a secular leadership. Most of the religious parties were on the Congress side. The Congress having spurned repeated attempts to bring about a modus vivendi between the major communities, the Muslim League turned to the idea of partition. The leaders of the Pakistan movement envisaged a secular state based on Islamic values. During the Ziaul Haq years the 'name of Islam' slogan was adopted and became the received truth. It has opened Pandora's box. Today the religious extremists are seen as a threat, tomorrow they will become a nightmare. Birjis Hasan Khan

Karachi

Kalri Lake

These days the Kalri Lake is gaining popularity as a picnic spot. But, regrettably, though the authorities are charging a high entry fee, essential facilities are not available there. For example, there is no public lavatory and visitors, particularly women, have to face hardships on this account. I request the concerned authority to provide this facility and also construct cemented umbrellas besides making arrangements for the supply of drinking water. Khalid Hashmi,

Karachi