Mosquito menace and official apathy

MOSQUITOES have made the life of people absolutely miserable. Heaps of garbage lying around the city serve as breeding sites for mosquitoes. Similarly, ponds of stagnant sullage are ideal places for breeding of mosquitoes and other worms and insects.

Lack of upkeep of open spaces and green belts and poor drainage have contributed to the menace. The almost 23-km long and six-foot wide open drain is also playing havoc with the citizens’ health.

Then there are 23 kutcha abadis which are without drainage and sanitation system. Residential localities developed by the private sector in contravention of municipal by-laws are also without a proper drainage system.

The anti-mosquito campaign is much trumpeted by the staff of the tehsil municipal corporation. If there is any such drive, it is confined mainly to the residences of influential bureaucrats and Nazims, Naib Nazims and councillors. Common citizens derive little benefit from it.

Besides malaria, the pollution caused by stagnant water and sullage has spread diseases like bronchitis, asthma, tuberculosis, heart trouble and stomach disorder. Government health agencies, especially DHOs, seem to have washed their hands off the anti-malaria duties. This apathy has added to the health hazards facing Faisalabad.

In this context, it is encouraging that during the coming week an intensive campaign would be conducted to educate the people on the prevention and cure of malaria. Services of health experts, medical professionals and NGOs will have to be mobilized for the purpose.

However, the efforts to control the disease must not remain confined to observing the “weeks”. The authorities should also reactivate malaria control programmes, including use of insecticides to destroy mosquito breeding grounds and by improving general sanitation. People must be advised to adopt preventive measures like using mosquito nets and anti-malaria drugs.

Health experts say research must be carried out to find alternatives to chloroquine, the drug which was introduced some 30 years ago as a cure for malaria and which is now proving ineffective because certain strains of malaria parasite have become resistant to it. Until new drugs are developed, the existing methods of prevention and cure have to be effectively used to avert an outbreak of the disease. The health branch of the Tehsil Municipal Administration has a sub-section for malaria eradication. But it has become a burden on the purse due to the perfunctory performance of its functionaries. TMA sources claimed that the entire budget meant for this section was being misappropriated for the last many years. The provincial health department was not taking appropriate steps for the eradication of mosquitoes.

During the British period, a large part of the budget allocated for the health sector used to be spent on the provision of infrastructure required to protect human beings against diseases and only five per cent of the allocation was spent on treatment in hospitals. The philosophy of that approach was not to cure the human beings after occurrence but to protect them from any disease.

According to information gathered by Dawn,, the pharmaceutical companies in the city are selling anti-mosquito mats and sprays worth over Rs1 million daily. One can guess how much money is being wasted due to the negligence of the agencies concerned.

Where is the Pakistan fund?

WHEN Gen Pervez Musharraf came to New York last year a Pakistan fund was created by Pakistani American investors, headed by former prime minister Moin Qureshi and Dr Naseem Ashraf and others, to invest in Pakistan.

It was projected that the investment fund would initially raise about $50 million and then, perhaps with the help of rich Pakistanis, the fund could increase in value.

But the investment fund, which was launched by Gen Musharraf at a press conference in New York, has produced no results at all in more than a year.

But now the fund’s main proponent, Dr Naseem Ashraf, now heads the Human Development task force in Pakistan. Gen Musharraf, in his speech to the Pakistani community this month, seemingly put Dr Ashraf on notice saying that he expected a report from him within a month to move forward on plans on human development.

Dr Ashraf, who came into limelight as a Pakistani-American leader when he raised some $5 million for the doomed Jinnah film project from Pakistani entrepreneurs, has quietly become the poster boy of sorts representing Pakistani Americans. Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, Maleeha Lodhi, has taken every opportunity to patronize and project Dr Ashraf who became part of the Pakistan delegation when Gen Musharraf was in New York.

Dr Ashraf’s Jinnah film project failed to make any mark on the American or Western scene despite assurances that it would project Pakistan’s founder in the same light as Richard Attenbrough’s film Gandhi. One could argue that Dr Ashraf’s team could have done a better job in seeking an American distributor for the film to give it a wider release (as it remained confined to special previews here) but he could not to be entirely blamed for it.

However, now he has come under severe criticism for his role in organizing a delegation of the Pakistani Americans, headed by Saghir Tahir, a legislator from the New Hampshire Assembly which most Pakistanis here consider non-representative.

The so-called Overseas Pakistani Foundation gave a wrong assessment of the state of affairs in the United States following the Sept 11 attacks. While they maintained that there was no discrimination against the Pakistanis in the US, the facts belie the assertions of the delegation and the statements of the delegation have outraged the Pakistanis.

It’s one thing to create harmony and peace but rejecting the pervasive dangers which confront the Pakistani community living in the US since Sept 11 is a bald-faced lie.

The fact is that since the Sept 11 attacks the Muslims have become targets of hate crimes and discrimination. Some could argue that such a situation is a consequence of the Sept 11 attacks, as Pakistan was thrust into limelight after it was discovered that the attackers were part of Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda group, which was given shelter by Afghanistan’s Taliban regime which until then was supported by Pakistan. But it is also a fact that no Pakistani was implicated or directly involved in the attacks. In fact, Pakistanis died in the attacks and were just as much shocked as were the average Americans at the tragedy.

Since then, hundreds of Pakistanis are in the US law-enforcers’ custody. One Pakistani citizen was murdered last month in Dallas, Texas; a former Pakistani journalist was beaten in the New York City; one Pakistani student was beaten in the INS deportation cell in the presence of INS officials; several other beating cases reported from other parts of the United States. Over 165 Pakistanis were arrested by the FBI on suspicion of connection with the WTC attack, most of them were shifted to the INS in violation of the law.

The American tragedy of Sept 11 has charged the attitudes and priorities of the American citizens by and large. The pervasive discrimination and hate crimes against the Muslims have not dissipated despite efforts by the Bush administration to calm the Americans against reprisals against the Muslim community.

Dr Ashraf would be well advised to concentrate on preparing the human development report which is so crucial to Pakistan’s future and stop dabbling in Pakistani-American politics over which he has no handle now that he has shifted to Pakistan, temporarily.

PRESS ATTACHE: While, on one hand, Pakistanis are facing the spectre of hate crimes and discrimination, on the other hand an over-ehtusiastic Pakistani diplomat managed to create a case of discrimination issue out of a traffic altercation in New York recently.

Such incidents could very well harm the case of Pakistanis who genuinely need help in combating the scourge of discrimination. According to the correspondent of NNI news agency in New York, Zahid Ghani, Rizwan Khan told him that she and her husband were orally abused by a “White American” who hurled racial slurs at them at a busy street in Queens, New York.

“At first, she alleged that the perpetrator of the racial slur was a “White American” but later at a meeting in front of newsmen at her office in New York she retracted the statement saying that the person was an “Arab American,” Mr Ghani said.

“By retracting her first statement she has changed the whole complexion of the story,” Mr Ghani added.

Ms Khan is now trying to underplay the incident following a rebuke from the foreign office that she went to the press before informing them of the alleged incident.

Pakistan’s foreign office believes that the incident was blown out of proportion by the press counsellor.

The Pakistan diplomats at the UN mission are pretty upset with the incident which made headlines in Pakistani papers and created problems for the Washington embassy. One Pakistan diplomat said: “Ms Khan has overreacted by calling the media before even telling us about it.”

Pakistan’s Consul-General Hafiz Mallik in New York told Dawn that Ms Khan has so far not filed a bias incident complaint with the New York City police.

Ms Khan, who was recently designated to look into complaints of hate crimes against Pakistanis living in the US by the spokesman for the president, Maj-Gen Rashid Qureshi, claimed that she herself became a victim of a hate crime. She alleged that the New York police declined to register the case against the offender, a White American. But later recanted saying that the officers at the police station where she went to lodge the complaint told her to go to another station where they have computers to lodge such complaints.

As it turned out, the incident was nothing more than a traffic altercation which she turned into a bias incident. Considering that she is the point person for the spokesman for the president, she also phoned every correspondent in New York. As the report hit the Pakistan papers, she started to backtrack.

Border tribes feel left out of scheme

THE Afghan situation continues to dominate the Balochis-tan scene since the coalition against terror launched military strikes on Afghanistan on Oct 8 last. Balochistan, by all standards, is a frontline province. The US and Britain have stationed its finest fighting machine off the coast of Makran from where the US warplanes are carrying out bombing missions, besides using other airfields in the region.

Balochistan’s two regions in the southwest and north bordering Afghanistan remained the main areas of interests for serious observers. The war for Kandahar is going on in the northern borders of Balochistan while there is relative peace on the region bordering the Chaghai district where the Taliban reportedly have surrendered. The opposition forces have taken control and rarely there are reports of fighting in the region. However, the US warplanes carry out fewer bombing missions in the region, hitting some targets.

The most interesting development have taken place in the three provinces of Farah, Nimroz and Helmand where the overwhelming majority of Baloch tribes are residing. The Baloch tribesmen have formed their own provisional council of elders that governs the province of Nimroz. Mir Karim Shagzai is leading a five-member provisional council running the administration of Nimroz and its adjoining Baloch areas.

The tribesmen inflicted a defeat on the Taliban militia. Gen Ismail, a former governor of Heart, is ruling the whole western region of Afghanistan. He is getting support from Iran. Russia, Iran and Uzbekistan assisted him in fighting the Taliban. However, the troops loyal to the Northern Alliance, mainly to Gen Ismail, were stopped from advancing to the Baloch province of Nimroz and its adjoining areas. Thus the region is outside the influence of the Northern Alliance.

The Baloch tribesmen were critical of the Taliban for ignoring their national, social, political and other rights during their five-year misrule over Afghanistan. The Baloch people were discriminated against and denied representation in the government. Before the Taliban regime in 1995, the Baloch tribesmen had adequate representation in the government of Afghan Mujahideen who took over power from the government of Dr Najeebullah Khan.

They were given due recognition and their cultural and political rights were safeguarded and Radio Kabul would broadcast a Balochi programme which continued until the Taliban took over power during the regime of Benazir Bhutto.

According to leaders having contacts with the Baloch council of elders in the Nimroz province, the council is least interested in remaining in Afghanistan because there is little likelihood that the Baloch would get representation in the future political setup. So far they have not been invited to attend the proposed Berlin conference under the UN umbrella for forming a broad-based government in Afghanistan. They have taken exception to the implicit political and diplomatic recognition granted to the Northern Alliance government in Kabul by the seven countries ignoring the other Afghan provinces.

They have expressed their desire to seek merger of their province with Pakistan, or they would prefer an independent Baloch government in Nimroz. Karim Shagzai has reportedly established contacts with nationalist leaders in Balochistan, seeking their support to consolidate their power.

Baloch tribal areas are spread over to 41,000 square kilometres covering the provinces of Hilmand, Farah and Nimroz. The region is adjacent to the Chaghai district and the Iranian Balochistan. Common tribes are settled in all the three parts of Balochistan having close relations and links for centuries.

The British, with the Goldsmith Line, giving parts to Iran and Afghanistan divided Balochistan under the Khans of Kalat. However, the borders with Iran are recognized by the government of Pakistan as Iran was the first country in the world that accorded a formal diplomatic recognition to Pakistan in August 1947.

The border issues were settled during the days of Ayub Khan in the late 1950s. Gen Raza headed Pakistan’s boundary commission with Iran. However, a Baloch member of the defunct West Pakistan Assembly, Baqi Baluch, had challenged the decision of the boundary commission handing over Mirjava to Iran. Finally, the Supreme Court of Pakistan rejected his petition.

There is an interesting situation on this border and the Pakistan officials are yet to offer their comments on the recent developments in Nimroz, Hilmand and Farah.

However, the local people expect that the borders with Pakistan would remain stable, posing no problem for this country, i.e. in respect of narcotics and gun-running. The drug barons from the Farah province operate in this region as the Helmand Valley, with its overwhelming majority of Baloch population, produces bulk of poppy which is converted into deadly white powder in heroin labs operating in the same region.

It is hoped that the huge heroin dump left behind by the Taliban would be destroyed and not sold to the outside world. Secondly, there would be no gun-running through the unmanned borders with Pakistan after the Taliban fighters have abandoned or sold their weapons. At least Pakistan should not be an export market for the huge arms and ammunition dumps in Afghanistan.

Finally, the area is strategic in the context of future oil and gas routes from Central Asia to South Asia or its export to the whole world. Now the US-dominated UNOCOL can construct the suspended gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Sui in the Bugti tribal area supplying natural gas to India. It will be an end to the controversial Iranian proposal to sell its natural gas to India via Pakistan. Similarly, the oil pipeline can connect the future oil terminal at Pasni on Makran for export to the world oil market.

Sachal Sarmast: song of the soul

THOUSANDS of devotees from all over the Sindh, the country and abroad are expected to attend the three-day annual Urs of Hazrat Sachal Sarmast, a great saint and poet of seven languages. The Urs celebration or Mela as it is commonly called, would begin on Wednesday (12th Ramazan) at his shrine in Daraza Sharif, Khairpur district.

Born in 1739, Sachal Sarmast, whose real name was Abdul Wahab Farooqui, spread the message of love of God and humanity through his poetry.

He adopted the pen-name of Sachal (truthful) because of his love for truth and earned the title of Sarmast (chief ecstatic) for his ascetic way of life and iconoclastic poetry for which he is also called Mansoor Sani.

The poet’s verses embody the eternal message of mysticism. He was fond of Sama (mystic music) and would always be found absorbed in meditation. He enjoyed an absolute command on seven languages of the subcontinent, including Sindhi, Seraiki, Persian and Urdu, and earned additional titles of Shair-i-Haft Zuban and Sartaj-us- Shuara. His unmatched poetry comprises Kafi, Bait, Ghazal, Musnavi, Musaddas, Mukhammas, See Harfi, Jhoolno, Gharoli, and of course Hamd and Naat.

There are about nine compilations of his Persian poetry, including Diwan-i-Ashkar and Dard Nama, which mainly consist philosophical verses. His Sindhi and Seraiki work is superb and expresses divine love in allegorical form. His Urdu poetry is also worth reading and with the Urdu verses of Bedil of Rohri, it throws light on the significant yet unnoticed contribution of Sindh towards the development of Urdu language as well as poetry.

Sachal Sarmast used to insist that he never wrote conventional poetry, rather it was the product of divine inspiration. Under the influence of continued deep meditation, he went through strange feelings and was overwhelmed by ecstasy. In this state of extra-sensory perception he uttered verses which were noted down by his followers. On coming back to (worldly) consciousness, he denied having uttered such verses meaning that they were not deliberate utterances but result of divine inspiration. That is why his poetry sometimes contains thoughts deemed strange and obscure by non-Sufis.

Since he was an ascetic and led a life of piety and self- discipline, he lived up to the age of 90 years. He passed away on Ramazan 13, 1242 Al-Hijiri (1829 AD). He was laid to rest beside the graves of his father, grandfather, uncle and cousins in the mausoleum later on built by Mir Rustam Khan Talpur, ruler of Khairpur State.

As a Sufi preacher of goodwill, love and fellow feelings, Sachal rose from the heart of Indus Valley as a torch- bearer of truth. He spoke boldly and urged the people to get united on a single platform. His heart embraced all men and religions. He spoke in all important languages of the subcontinent and insisted on the development of the spirit of inquiry into both religious and worldly matters. He also urged the people to suppress their desires for the greater good of humanity and peace and prosperity of the world.

His immortal poetry continues to inspire us in these troubled times. Though the flower is no more, its fragrance ‘lives in the senses which it quickens’ and continues to refresh the soil of Sindh.

It is a great loss to the world of literature that Sachal Sarmast’s work has not been translated into major languages of the world and the humanity at large has not, therefore, been able to derive benefits from his storehouse of wisdom.

Faiz remembered

NOVEMBER is the month when Faiz Ahmad Faiz said farewell to us after over 50 years of remarkable affinity with the people for whom he wrote poems. The way his exit from our literary scene has created a vacuum is noteworthy in the sense that hardly any other poet — except Iqbal — in this century had meant so much to his readers as Faiz did.

Faiz brought an uncommon fervour to the literary sittings he attended. Whenever he would recite his poems, the audience was mesmerized.

Idara-i-Zahne Jadid commemorated his 17th death anniversary in a simple manner. The floor was open to those who could discuss Faiz in the context of his interviews in Urdu edited by Sheema Majeed’s Batain Faiz Se along with Hasan Rizvi’s collection of interviews.

Dr Mubarak Ali, in his introduction to Sheema’s book, has emphasized the importance of these interviews. It is in one of Faiz’s interviews — published in Qaumi Digest — that Faiz Sahib dilated on his father’s background. Son of a shepherd that Faiz’s father was, he became a Khidmatgar in Masjid Wazir Khan, Lahore, where he was spotted by the Afghan consul who picked him up for schooling and, subsequently, sent him to England for higher studies. Faiz’s father rose to a high position in British India’s foreign service and served for a while as ambassador to Afghanistan.

Faiz’s father was knighted and he also wrote a history of Afghanistan. The way Faiz Sahib has narrated the humble origin of his father is a good enough proof that he knew what it was to be a common man and no wonder then that it was in his genes to work for the poor. Faiz Sahib rose to be the representative of Pakistan workers at ILO meetings.

Faiz Sahib’s interviews were taken by Dr Ibadat Barelvi, Krishan Gold, Amrita Pritam, I. A. Rahman, Sohail Ahmad Khan, Javed Shaheen, Masood Ashar, Muzaffar Iqbal, Shafi Aqil, Ahmad Faraz, Salim Mansur, Mukhtar Zaman, Salim Mansur, Dr Asif Farrukhi, Akhlaq Ahmad, Ataul Haq Qasmi, Amjad Islam Amjad, Arif Nizami, Dr Salim Akhtar and Tahir Masud.

Among these interviews, his panel interview with Safdar Mir, Hasan Rizvi, Farigh Bokhari, Qateel Shifai, Geelani Kamran and Ajmal Niazi is by far the most important. Some of the interviews are about the Urdu language, Palestine and the Progressive Writers Association and the Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case.

His panel interview with Safdar Mir and others is important in the sense that there was a time when Faiz Sahib regarded the Iranian Revolution to be more important than the Russian Revolution. The interview appeared on February 13, 1983.

It was a time when the persecution of the Tudeh Party was on. This interview makes Faiz Sahib speak out his mind on almost all the important issues. Be it literature, society, religion, culture, or the power game which characterized Pakistan politics, here we are face to face with a poet who had his finger on the pulse of the world.

One interview is about Maulana Maudoodi. The poet had no adverse feelings about the Maulana and rather regarded the latter as a good pen. The two were once together in jail in 1953. Faiz Sahib got an opportunity to discuss literature with the Maulana and found him to have a fine literary taste. He praised the Maulana for writing a lucid prose.

Faiz Sahib’s views on the Urdu language also need to be restated because his views on the language are closely interlinked with his views on Urdu literature. He thought that Urdu was undoubtedly a lingua franca and a great language, and did not belong to the Muslims alone.

About literature, he said the tradition of Urdu poetry was irrevocably linked with the tradition of Persian poetry. He thought Ghalib to be the last poet of the classical tradition who wrote the elegy of a great culture which was dying before him. To him, Iqbal was the greatest poet of the post-Ghalib era who epitomized the blend of the Western and classical Urdu tradition.

ICC has penchant for shooting itself in the foot

WE have this extraordinary situation. Both parties are in the wrong, the ICC and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The ICC has legality on its side and very little else. The BCCI has a righteous sense of grievance but has clearly flouted ICC rules. The United Cricket Board of South Africa acted entirely on its government’s instructions and can be considered a benevolent neutral, a neutrality that clearly benefits one party.

There is, first of all, Mike Denness the match referee who acted like a Roman Emperor (Rome has spoken, the case is closed) but who, in the process of handing out some very harsh decisions, himself did not follow the laid-out procedure.

For example, by fining Sachin Tendulkar and banning him for one match, he found him guilty of ball-tampering. In that case, the ‘tampered’ ball should have been changed. It wasn’t. This a breach of the law.

Furthermore, the ball is in the possession of the umpires after every over and they can inspect it whenever they like. The umpires did not report any tampering with the ball to the match-referee. This means Denness went by what he saw on television. Could he not have got on the inter-com to the umpires and appraised them of what he had seen? Or was he not on speaking terms with the umpires?

In fact, in all the decisions he took, he acted on his own, there were no complaints from the umpires and the match-referee may have the authority to act arbitrarily but this violates the spirit of the rules. The umpires cannot be marginalised or worse, ignored. To the extent that there is no appeal against the match referee’s decisions (which goes against natural justice) the ICC’s own hands were tied, proving yet again that the law is an ass.

The ICC has a penchant for shooting itself in the foot. It could easily have mollified Jagmohan Dalmiya by holding the punishments in abeyance till a special committee reviewed them on the grounds that they were excessively harsh.

In other words a certain amount of flexibility could have been shown. As matters stand, the match-referee has more powers than the President of the United States. He, after all, can be impeached for abuse of power and this is precisely what Denness did — abuse power. He converted the match referee into a one man judge, jury and hangman. More than that he changed the ICC code of conduct into a penal code.

But as matters stood, the ICC had no option but to stand by Denness. Not to have done so would have been to abdicate its authority. I think some sort of via media could have been worked out between Dalmiya and Malcolm Gray and now England’s tour of India has been put under stress.

Will India play Virender Sehwag who was banned for one Test match? He did not play in the Centurion Test match but since the ICC declared that an unofficial Test match, the ban on him stays, according to the ICC. India, on the other hand, do not accept the match referee’s punishments and wants them reviewed (no provision exists for this) and so there is a stand-off. It can be avoided by dropping Sehwag but that would be to accept the ruling of Denness.

Instinctively, I am on the side of the Indian Cricket Board because the ICC has never been even-handed and seems to have one set of rules for countries from the sub-continent and another set of rules for the others. But legally India’s position is untenable. Denness may have been a hanging-judge but he was the match referee and had been accepted by India at the start of the series.

The ICC as it is presently structured is seriously flawed and I think a team of management consultants (who should not be from Australia or England) should be brought in and the ICC should be re-vamped in two important respects, the match referee’s post should be abolished and the umpires should become final arbiters of what is fair or unfair play and Paul Condon’s Anti-Corruption Unit should be shown the door. Investigation of match-fixing should be left to the police and the ICC has no business to be running a detective agency.

Throughout this row which is escalating by the day, one element has been missing which is commonsense. Even though he had absolute, arbitrary powers, Denness should have consulted umpires, issued warnings to the two captains, kept the lines of communications open.

The media pounced on the row, throwing objectivity down the drain and taking up fixed, emotive positions. The South African position has changed. Suddenly, it finds that if the cricket world were to split the Cricket World Cup 2003 could be in danger. Having acted in support of India South Africa is fast back-tracking. Is the shadow of Ali Bacher looming around?

The ICC has had its authority challenged and it has responded in its own blundering way. Which is to treat India as if it was still a part of the British Empire, albeit the brightest jewel in the crown, in that it has the sponsors and the money. But the issue is too minor to have made it a matter of national pride.

Personally, I don’t think Tendulkar was guilty of ball-tampering and if the Indian players were appealing excessively, so too were the South Africans, particularly Shaun Pollock but they got off scot-free. It is this that rankles. I don’t think we should have two Australians running cricket. That is why there is talk that cricket will split on racial lines.