BALOCHISTAN is experiencing a relative peace and stable law and order situation barring an incident of two blind rockets lobbed on this provincial capital last week. Both the rockets were fired aimlessly causing no damage. No one was hurt. Also, the normal crime rate has come to the lowest level in 20 districts.

However, some incidents of highway robberies were also reported on the main Quetta-Jacobabad Highway, mainly from Sibi to Bakhtiarabad section. The heavily armed bandits, in form of lashkar, were looting the passenger buses and trucks. The police or the Balochistan Levies are unable to pinpoint the gangs. Since it is bordering the Sindh province, the culture of highway robberies is also prevalent in the Naseerabad district. In cases, there was a spillover of the bandit factor from Sindh. When the army or other law enforcers put necessary pressure on the bandits they too flee to Balochistan where bandits felt more secure and comfortable.

In the recent past, powerful and influential people were found behind the organized crime in the division. Be it vehicle snatching, kidnapping for ransom, robbing the bus passengers or other serious offences, these clearly have the expression of organized crime normally patronized by very powerful people. If such offences are not controlled under the present government with no vested interest in the top administration, then the crime wave in Naseerabad will never be checked. Who is harbouring the criminals and the bandits? It is not hidden from the law enforcers. Why is the government ignoring the organized crime? Are the patrons of criminals being kept alive and effective for their future use and that too in a democratic setup? Somebody on the top will have to answer this question.

However, the economic front is subdued, slump is felt by all engaged in gainful and lawful economic activities. Generally it is quiet on the economic front. The devolution of power for the district government system is yet to resume normal functioning in economic terms. On the administrative side, the district Nazims are very much there. The Nazims and other chosen representatives of the people are yet to acquaint themselves with their real powers and authority. Officials knowing the administrative system are making explanation to the Nazims and other representatives of the people.

However, the district governments are yet to plan and execute their development schemes. To this date, a very few schemes are being launched. A very small amount of money is being spent on those schemes. At least it is not substantial to have an impact on the local economy of any district. The provincial finance department is still holding the fort and the first quarter of budgetary allocations is yet to be utilized. Probably fewer people know about the separate budget allocation and the real amount of money to be spent by the district governments.

There is no change on the ground situation in regard to the mega projects. However, the government is feeling the increased pressure of population following the air strikes on Afghanistan, mainly in the regions close to the Balochistan border, including Kandahar and Hilmand provinces.

The province is facing the unprecedented influx of people. The refugees are escaping from bombing and air strikes. Over 5,000 people entered into Balochistan in a single day on Saturday. According to unofficial reports, about 50,000 Afghans already entered into this province during the past 12 days. The government plan to keep the Afghan refugees in barbed wire refugee camps is not working. Simply the refugees are not reporting to the camps and preferring to live in townships, villages and with their relatives or mix up with the local population.

The governor, while talking to newsmen, believed that there was about half a million Afghan refugees residing in the main population centres here. But independent economists insisted that the number is close to one million. They estimate that a million more will enter into Balochistan during the present crisis. There are very slim chances that the world community will come to the rescue of the government of Balochistan in feeding the two million Afghan refugees in foreseeable future. They will continue to be a burden on the provincial economy, competing for using the limited means of livelihood.

Sooner or later, the government will have to round up them and take them to the refugee camps with coercive restrictions on their movement. The bloody incidents of last week in Quetta and Kuchlak are an example for the authorities. To this date, the investigators did not find a clue to the subversive elements firing rockets. Observers think that in the presence of a million or more aliens in Balochistan alone, the government may not find anyone. They are simply unknown people. No one knows about them.

They are violating the sanctity of international frontiers at will. They can bring all sorts of weapons to this province for sale. Balochistan is the promising and lucrative export market for the guns and ammunition from Afghanistan.

CHANCELLOR Kohl was conferred India’s Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding in 1993 when he addressed a news conference at Delhi’s Taj Mahal Hotel. There were two or three sensationally newsy things he said. One was that Britain could go to pot if it didn’t want to go along with the decision to have a common European currency. Or was it a dispute about who would get to host the European bank? His other comment was about the Airbus consortium’s decision to defy America over Boeing’s difficulties in the marketplace. And of course there could be a hundred other stories of global interest from that crucial one or perhaps two full hours of access you got with the head of the mighty German state. But no.

What does the Indian journalist, who shall remain anonymous for reasons of propriety, have to say to kick off the press meet? “Welcome to New Delhi, Your Excellency,” the journalist-turned-protocol-officer-turned-court jester says: “I do hope you are having a pleasant stay in Delhi. Sir, I am so and so from such and such paper. I have three questions for you. (never one less!) My first question is, what is your position on Kashmir? My second question is, whose side will you be on in the event of a war between India and Pakistan? And finally, sir, now that you have East Germany with you, will you help us improve our Olympic standards?” This was a year after India had returned without even a bronze from Barcelona.

Skillfully hiding his surging pity for the questioner, Kohl, a great communicator, put all three queries to rest with one sentence: “I think you are mistaking me for Kaiser Willhem,” he declared, taking off his glasses to wipe them with a napkin for effect, and then pausing to relish the peals of laughter he had unleashed across the hall, before moving on to the next question.

Such intellectual barrenness is not the preserve of a few well-heeled Indian journalists alone. There is a great need for prescribing iodized salt as mandatory nutrition for budding journalists all over the world, more so after Al Jazeera recently set hitherto unthinkable standards of focused journalism. We’ll come to that in a moment.

So when US Secretary of State Colin Powell came calling in Delhi last week, nine years after Kohl’s news conference and many more by others that must have followed over the years, nothing seemed to have changed. We have laws against child abuse, gender violence and so on. There should be a law against the abuse and misuse of journalists by their governments. But that is only possible if journalists are given their due quota of iodized salt first. To avoid the risk of sounding prejudiced about the disastrous and embarrassing performance of our journalists at Powell’s joint news conference with External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh, let me quote directly from one of several complaints that were published the next day and aired on TV channels too.

The Indian official marshalling the news conference was the otherwise genial and communicative Nirupama Rao, the foreign office spokesperson. She decided that due to time constraints there would be three questions from the American side and three more from the Indians. Fair enough. But who decides who will ask the questions? Promptly the state intervenes with all its might. Three people are chosen and given their respective questions too, according to the news reports.

“The purpose of this selective categorization, unheard of at press conferences, was soon evident,” the Asian Age complained. “The American journalists accompanying Mr Powell were more interested in questions concerning the anthrax attacks, and the West Asia crisis. Essentially, questions that did not have any awkward connotations for Mr Jaswant Singh and his ministry. The Indian journalists appeared to have been carefully selected by Ms Rao. Their names and questions were decided long before the press conference began. One was an easy question: “How can Pakistan be part of an international coalition when it has been supporting terrorism and is still maintaining diplomatic ties with the Taliban.” Mr Jaswant Singh looked happy.

The second question was a word for word repeat of a question already asked by an American correspondent on Kashmir. The journalist concerned read out the question on a piece of paper. She did not even change the phraseology although Mr Powell had answered it at length earlier. The result was a wasted effort, as the media did not get a single extra line on Kashmir out of the visiting dignitary. The third question was about the so-called Islamic bomb. This would have warmed the hearts of the extreme right in India, but was dismissed by Mr Powell as “nonsense”. This then was the entire contribution of the Indian media at the press conference. That there was a similar “media management” in play at Powell’s Islamabad press meet is hardly surprising.

Indian and Pakistan media have thrived and grown for many decades, surviving authoritarian rule in Delhi and dictatorships in Islamabad. By comparison Al Jazeera should be a rookie. And yet the little known Arabic channel has already taken the pants off many a journalistic bigwig in the ongoing war for the hearts and minds of the world. Tres bien. But I am afraid it may not be able to survive the arriving blowback for too long although I sincerely hope that I am wrong. It’s a fact that it was because of Al Jazeera, among other contributing factors, that Western brand of journalism has finally come under serious scrutiny, and this time at home in America too. But Al Jazeera’s foundations lie outside the market forces that have shored up the Western media.

Remember that from the early days of Reuters when the pioneers of wire journalism used homing pigeons to ferry information, the emphasis has been on the market-moving story. Half million killed in Rwanda never really mattered in the same was as the coffee crop getting adversely affected by the holocaust. The crop story gets priority clearance — it’s called a snap — since it sets off alarm bells at the NYSE that has a cascading effect on Hang Seng and Nikkei, Dax indices and so on. Al Jazeera will not be able to move the markets with its political astuteness. And that being the case it will have to find some other means of funding to keep afloat to prevent it from becoming a one-war wonder.

THOSE who abide in this city are punished at every step for being alive and in Karachi. Too many problems make life an ordeal. Let’s say water is the primary need. How many localities receive water with any regularity and in adequate quantity? Or how is one to make sure it is fit for human consumption. If you talk only of water and of the problems, difficulties, irritations, related to water, a hundred problems stare in the face.

Air should have taken precedence over water because a living being can survive without water for some hours, even days. Not a moment without air. What kind of air do we breathe in this city? It is mostly saturated with diesel and petrol exhaust, dust, sand, stench, tiny insects, excessive humidity and contamination of more kinds than even experts may be able to count or define.

Every third citizen is suffering from some form of allergy. Asthma is the bane of life of at least seven of the 13 million human beings that live in this city. Skin and eye irritations are common.

Air has another pollutant — noise. It includes noise from vehicles, the rickshaw must be the worst among the culprits. Then there are hundreds and thousands of buses, trucks, tankers, taxis, container carriers, motorcycles, scooters. Noise pollution in Karachi is taking a heavy toll of the nerves of the citizen.

How about food? Can anyone of us swear that he/she is sure that milk and milk products, meats, poultry, spices, even tea leaves that comprise our daily diet are wholesome and free from adulteration? Millions of us are suffering from one disorder or another because there is so much of adulteration in items of daily food. It is a common experience to watch truck-loads of meat being carted without so much as a plastic sheet as covering and protection from flies and dust. Alongside you might see a garbage truck, equally exposed.

What about transport? It is the lifeline in this huge metropolis that is also the country’s largest industrial, commercial, trade, finance, and crime centre. Karachi’s criminals also use transport, ranging from two wheelers to more wheeled ones. In this city everybody is on the move, all the time. Transport chaos is a problem for everyone. One feel awful, watching schoolchildren struggling on the roads.

Transport is not the only agony and eyesore on the roads. All of us must have hearts of stone, not to feel squalid at the permanent pageant of the disabled, maimed, demented beggars at the busy intersections. That many of these beggars are in robust health, prime of youth, or in innocent infancy only adds to the moral degradation that a sensitive citizen must feel inside. Those who throw money at these wretched people, only complicate the conflict of conscience deep down.

How does a citizen feel about crime that hits Karachi in wave after wave? A sensitive citizen is assailed by disbelief when his/her newspaper has no report of a sectarian murder, or the day’s car snatching is below the average of a dozen. Crime in Karachi is now a profession that has absolutely no hazards. Ever heard of a murderer finally convicted? What is the ratio between crime committed and criminals convicted? Impressive indeed is the number of people held by the police every day.

Once the cleanest in South Asia, this city is now so dirty that to call it a rubbish heap from end to end would be the understatement of 20th and 21st century combined. There is not a street without piles of filth and the underground gutter flowing above the surface. Overflowing gutters, rising mounds of garbage greet the citizen at every turn and corner of the roads and streets, indeed of life itself.

Finally, fellow citizens be of good cheer. By the grace of God, we now have an elected City Government. It is the elected administration of Pakistan’s most literate and, in ways of speaking, also prosperous city. It should be a model. Karachi City Council held its second meeting last Saturday. There was more of rumpus than debate. Did they talk of any of the killer problems and evils that beset life in Karachi?

The answer is a resounding NO! They talked only of women’s clothes and the alcohol shops supposed to be in aid of our religious minorities. Not a word about the water shortage, food adulteration, transport mess, and the crimes that so frequently include cold-blooded sectarian killings. These few of the hundred heart-rending problems confronting 13 million people are not their problems.

Our elected City Fathers must be the most irredeemably ignorant people if they do not know what a world of corruption money minting hides this diabolical hypocrisy about alcohol. And what on earth do these self-appointed moral police mean by wailing about the perfectly decent clothes our respectable women wear in normal daily life? It is obscene to engage in loose talk about our women’s clothes.

This is charlatanry as its immoral worst. These elected people insult their city when they ignore the real problems and try to create a hue and cry over crudely contrived non-issues. These City Fathers ought to realize that their first concern in Karachi ought to be the gutters and the garbage. If they cannot see this, they only betray some kind kinship with the culture of gutters and garbage.

The kind of stuff heard at the City Council meeting should warn the citizens. These people have taken the first sly step on the road to Talibanization of Karachi. The taunts on women’s clothes is the first move to put the women in shuttlecock burqa. Heed this warning.

KARACHI: A rickshaw-driver had his leg fractured in a road accident. He was taken to a hospital where a doctor plastered his fractured leg. His relatives became enraged. They howled and hissed, whispered and wailed. The doctor asked them to keep quiet.

When one tries to hire a rickshaw for Saddar on I. I. Chundrigar Road, the driver replies with scorn: sorry, I have to go to Keamari. He kicks off the engine and roars away his vehicle. This is a daily occurrence in the city. Everyday, with the break of dawn, people face this irritating problem. Rickshaw-drivers haves their own code of earning and living. In this city, like all other cities in the country, public transport is rickety, and taxi-cabs are expensive. So people who want to travel in a somewhat sane atmosphere are left with no option but to fall back on rickshaws, which are comparatively inexpensive than tax-cabs.

But rickshaw-drivers are alleged to have no manners. They use obscene language even in the presence of women and children. They vomit out whatever comes to their mind. It has been observed in Lyari and several other areas of the city that rickshaw-drivers have no compassion even for the sick and the elderly. Despite the plea of passengers that they have little money and their fares are high, they remain unmoved. Those who are unable to pay the amount, no matter in what difficult circumstances the intending passengers are, drivers ask for, they say no and zoom away their rickshaws, leaving intending passengers helpless.

Once a man accompanying a pregnant woman flagged down a rickshaw to take the woman to a hospital, but several rickshaw-drivers refused to take them as passengers. Finally, somehow the woman and her attendant travelled to the hospital, but the woman delivered the baby at the gate of the hospital. One can well imagine the ordeal the woman faced because of the inhuman behaviour of rickshaw-drivers.

Besides, rash driving is a normal thing for rickshaw-drivers, in the process putting lives of passengers and their own at risk.

A team of acrobats from a foreign country during a visit to Karachi was asked by a press reporter when he had felt the worst fear in his life, he said laconically that when he was travelling in a rickshaw in this city.

The way with in which rickshaw-drivers behave with passengers is highly despicable. A bitter man, airing his view, said what one can do when everything goes under the nose of law, in this city. The poor has to suffer, and there is no one to help them.

The rickshaw-drivers have their own story to tell. They have to bear the brunt of insults heaped on them by the traffic police. Passengers also insult them. Worn out with fatigue, after driving rickshaws from morning till late night, rickshaw-drivers are prone to losing their tempers. The cost of living has gone up steeply, and inflation is eating away the value of the currency. In such a situation one should not expect decency from poor rickshaw-drivers, say drivers.

After the ban on cycle rickshaw during the Ayub regime, people had heaved a sigh of relief. It was indeed a commendable step. But after the ban on cycle rickshaw, people became more exposed to the whims and fancies of autorickshaw-drivers.