August 09, 1999
An open letter to KDA
It is nice to see that Karachi Development
Authority (KDA) is spending millions of rupees on the construction of fly-overs to ease
tariff congestion on roads. However, it has been observed that the pace of work on most of
the under construction projects is extremely slow and a source of constant problem for the
residents of the city.
But the real problem is that most of these
fly-overs have been ill-conceived. To start with the fly-over constructed near Faisal
Railway station is not only a hazard but some fatal accident take place. At the bus stop
many passengers change the buses and have to cross the road. But no over-head pedestrian
bridge has been constructed for crossing the road. Even the ramp has been constructed
right in the middle of the road and has been a source of tariff jams.
The fly-over being constructed at NIPA
crossing has further added to the miseries of people traveling by public transport. NIPA
bus stop is also a junction for exchanging buses. Now the passengers desirous of getting a
bus for Sabzai Mandi and adjacent area have to get down on the fly-over and walk down the
ramp. Similarly people desirous of getting a bus for Sharea Faisal have to go upto Gulshan
Chorangi.
Will KDA seriously look into the matter to
solve the miseries of poor?
Mohammad Irtiza
Karachi
The known Charter of the World
Bank is to rehabilitation and development of the poor and developing countries. The
financial assistance provided to any developing country by the World Bank, International
Monetary Fund(IMF) and IFC is generally believed is aimed at to allevilate poverty from
the countries in quest of funds. Contrary to this concept, the IMF has become notorious
for unleashing price hike in developing countries specially in Asia region.
The World Bank and the IMF contrary to their charter are continued to
pressurise the governments for imposing additional taxes on such commodities which have
diversified effects on commodities essential for life. The recent case of such World Bank
and IMF anti-poor behaviour is the condition of levy of general sales tax on Electricity,
Gas and Petrol in Pakistan.
According to reports,
Pakistn has agreed with the IMF and World bank to impose GST on Petrol, Gas and
Electricity before the release of the next tranche of $270 million. Although it is claimed
that levy GST would not bring any extra burden to the consumers. But sooner or later the
levy of GST would ultimately have its cost push effects over all segments of the economy
which may prove back breaking burden on the middle income group which is already vanishing
from the social life. It means that there are going to be only two groups of the
population in this country i.e. the rich or the Poor. How long the rich would survive is
the question that would be answered by the time alone.
Abdul Karim Chandio
Karachi
MORE FOR LESS
I want to focus on technological
advancement of computers. Computer is going on spreading in the whole world like a
spiderís web. But as everybody might be known about the disadvantage of computer which
drives out of this sentence
ì It is not letting done any invention of more than its power
These days, especially in house hold sector, people are very much
worried and confused about the computer technology, its merits and demerits and above all
the expenses because expenses are the major problem. We are the people of developing
country even after the ìNuclear Bomb Explosionî. We are agri-based countrymen. We cannot
afford to have the high-tech technology while we also do not need it as much as we should.
To keep pace with the competitive era, people are buying very costly
computers helplessly because they have to fulfill the needs of their childrenís and time.
These days only the softwareís like Ms-office, word, excel, power-point, graphics
softwareís and some network related softwareís which are produced in accordance with the
current needs. But actually we do not need all that. Such high-tech softwareís does not
equal the worth we are paying for.
Most of the works either in Business sector or
Household sector are done through above-mentioned softwareís. Microsoft creates the whole
problem. Microsoft manufactured Windows 95 that could not be installed on normal
386/486/586 computers effectively. It must need Pentium machine. Then Internet and WWW had
been launched. It also need Pentium machine and Win 95 or onwards. So, just to fulfill the
needs that based upon Microsoft softwareís and to capitalize on internet one must need to
buy Pentium and Win 95 which cost ranges from 30,000 to 90,000. Now, you can imagine, it
is not the justification. I would call it as legal, lawful and on-record dictation by
Microsoft. So, everybody is kneeling down and helpless. We cannot do anything and paying
more for less.
HIMS(MBA) SAMEER AHMED KHAN
