THIS is apropos Umair Javed’s article “Punjab’s apathy” (March 3). The writer made sweeping statements about Punjab and drew erroneous conclusions contradictory to facts.
The losses borne by the British in two Punjab wars in the 1840s were the heaviest in their advance from the east.
So heavy were the losses of the 24th Foot Regiment of Her Majesty’s Armed Forces in the second Punjab War in the Battle of Chillianwala that it lost several of its regimental colours and suffered a casualty rate of 60 per cent and 30 years later in its war against the Zulu tribe in South Africa the battle prayer it offered was: ‘O Lord … save us from the ignominy of Chillianwala’.
The British later went on to raise Jat and Rajput regiments from Punjab. Punjab’s canal system was no ‘gift’ to it. Twenty-five per cent of Punjab revenue was taken by the central government of India. And it was with these revenues that the system was built.
At partition East Punjab had to be compensated for the loss of the irrigation system and the Pakistani representatives (both not from Punjab), Mr Ismail, Pakistan’s first High Commissioner to India and Member of the Arbitration Tribunal, and Advocate General Waseem did not even raise the point of sources of rivers and their distribution.
It’s a known fact that workers from Punjab ventured into the building of the Panama Canal, the Canadian Continental Railways and many Shanghai projects, to name only a few in a long list.
Government College, Lahore, produced two Nobel laureates, Hargobind Khorana (from Kabirwala, Punjab), and Abdus Salam (from Jhang, Punjab).
As regards Punjab’s apathy to the long march for missing persons from Balochistan, would the writer like to mention how many joined the march from Karachi?
Haroon M. Waraich
Islamabad
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