THE life, achievements and martyrdom of Hazrat Ali Al-Murtaza, the cousin and the son-in-law of the holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), and the fourth Caliph, had a great impact on the history of Islam.

Great men covet to embrace martyrdom for a cause and principle. So was the case with Hazrat Ali. He could have made a compromise with the evil forces of his time and, as a result, could have led a very comfortable, easy and luxurious life. But he was not a person who would succumb to such temptations. His upbringing, his education and his training in the lap of the prophet made him refuse such an offer.

His simple life and piety could be described as exemplary. When he was married to Hazrat Fatima, the beloved daughter of the holy Prophet, the ceremony was performed in a very simple manner. The amount of ‘mehr’ was quite nominal which Ali paid after selling his Zirah (armour). Thus a precedent was formed that in such ceremonies no uncalled for expenditure should be incurred.

The domestic life of Ali and Fatima was a model in the annals of Islamic history. Ali would go out to earn his livelihood, engaged in manual labour in the fields of some Jews and Fatima would get herself busy in her domestic affairs. After having finished household chores she would spin cotton for the use of her own household as well as on wages basis.

Mercy and compassion were personified in Ali’s character. He took pleasure in pardoning the erring elements, searching ways and means even to forgive his bitterest foes. Pity and fear of God shaped all his actions. Born in the holy precincts of Ka’aba and raised under the care of the holy Prophet, he abhorred idolatry and was averse to evil in all forms since childhood. In his eyes Islam was the nearest and the dearest ideal. He did all in his power to promote and preserve the cause of Islam.

During the reign of the first three Caliphs of Islam, his sound counsels were eagerly sought and given. Hazrat Umar appointed him to the high office of chief justice. He was the one whom Hazrat Umar trusted most and for the period he was to remain absent from Madina during his journey to Jerusalem, he handed over the charge of the metropolis to him.

Hazrat Ali combined in his person superb and varied qualities of head and heart. An outstanding soldier, an unrivalled orator, an ardent worshipper, a profound scholar, an exemplary judge and a wise ruler — he was an exceptionally gifted person. Ali was the hero of the battles of Badr, Uhad, Khyber, Khandaq and Hunain as also the standard bearer of the Muslim army during the holy Prophet’s time. He was in the vanguard on the battlefield just as he led others in the realm of learning.

Moved by an inherent and acquired sense of justice, he managed the public exchequer even-handedly among the Muslim Ummah so much so that when his own brother wanted an increase in his stipend, he flatly refused. After disbursing the amount of Baitual Mal he felt received and thanked Allah that he had done his duty.

During his reign a Jew had stolen his horse’s saddle. The petition was made in the court of a Qazi. When Ali appeared in the court, the Qazi stood up to greet him. Ali told him that he had come as a petitioner and not as a caliph and therefore his gesture of reverence to him was contrary to the norms of justice.

In the midst of a fight with his ferocious opponent in a battlefield when he had overpowered him, the enemy spat him in the face. The honest warrior left the opponent free. Stunned at such a rare gesture, the opponent asked Ali as to why he left him when he had already overpowered him. Ali told him that he fought to uphold the cause of Allah and when he spat in his face, his personal passions were also aroused, so he left him. The opponent was greatly impressed by this honesty of purpose.

In “Nahj al-Balagha”, the collection of his precious speeches, sermons, letters and farmans addressed to his governors, we have the barometer to gauge the inner strength of Ali’s character and learning. They are gems of wisdom and valuable passages in the annals of Arabic literature.

Hazrat Ali was killed by the poisonous sword of Ibne Muljim, a Kharajite, when he was offering his morning prayers at the Mosque of Kufa. The incident took place on 19th Ramazan, 40 A.H. and he breathed his last on 21st Ramazan, 40 A.H. It is the height of compassion and unparalleled kindness that when Muljim was brought before him tied in ropes and seemingly thirsty, he ordered that he be released and given some drink to quench his thirst. Ali told his son, Hasan, that if he survived, it would be up to him to pardon him, but if he succumbed to the inflicted injury the assassin should be despatched only with one blow of sword.

In summarising the qualities of Hazrat Ali the famous historian Masoodi writes as below (English-rendering done by the writer of this passage):-

“If it be the honour to be called the first Muslim; if it be the distinction to be singled out as the companion of the holy Prophet during the renowned boycott and staying in Shaob-e-Abi Talib for three long and arduous years; if it be the privilege to become the true helper in the propagation of Islam; if it be the title to become the nearest and dearest of holy Prophet in terms of justice and fairplay, of honesty and integrity knowledge and sagacity: Ali was indeed the most elevated and most consummate Muslim....

THE issue of the public transport affects most of the Karachiites. While last Sunday’s papers may have given prominence to the news of reduction of bus fares to pre-August levels in the wake of reduction in fuel prices, awareness about lawlessness being caused by the public transport on our streets however remain less than desirable.

All the same, some snippets may give tell-tale signs of the gravity of the situation. Just last week many may have read with horror the news about a young motorcyclist in Liaquatabad who by mistake challenged a bus driver and ended up being run over. Last Saturday a young milkseller was killed when two coaches collided in Liaquatabad. The same day another bus crushed to death another young man near Native Jetty Bridge.

At one time most Karachiites sincerely believed that the transport crimes go unpunished, as the police owned most of the buses. The notion may have undergone some change as now mostly the Pakhtoons of the tribal areas own the public transport.

With so much of dust and smoke one really cannot be sure of anything. So why is there so much of anarchy related with the public transport in the city? But then over the past two decades is the same not true for everything in the city?

Let’s face it, the reason causing the anarchy may be attributed to a long-persisting crisis of governance in the city. The public transport may have come a long way since the Karachi Circular Railway that used to run more than a hundred trains each day. It is still is good option.

Life in Karachi has always been in the fast lane but somewhere along the line it seems to have gone in a real higher gear. During the early 1980’s the ‘minibus’ — nicknamed “yellow devil” — took the advantage of the growing impatience of the Karachiites. Till the late seventies, a fleet of 30-40 buses was considered a minimum requirement for the economic viability of the public transport operations. Minibus culture changed all that. At times even four or five partners, previously working as conductors or driving someone else’s bus, were able to get financing from some tribal moneylender and operate a minibus. In the absence of meaningful law enforcement the shoestring operation by poorly maintained buses, stopping wherever and as long as they wished, on unauthorized routes proved very effective, transforming public transport culture completely.

Since 1985 even though the condition or capacity of street network may have essentially remained same, the number of registered vehicles in the city has risen from less then 400,000 to 1.32 million vehicles. On the other hand, the number of daily commuter trips generated in the public transport in the city of over twelve million people and many working more than one job to survive is estimated to exceed ten million.

The administration, in an attempt to improve the condition of the smoke-emitting and crumbling public transport, allowed the so-called coaches to charge a much higher fare of up to nine rupees as compared to the previous fare of rupees six. Many minibuses too converted to coach with a face-lift. The so-called coach was supposed to be swift, non-stop with passengers limited by the seat. That distinction is hardly visible anywhere in the city. Even the original coaches now have much smaller seats to accommodate passengers standing in the isle and the ones trying to be seated tripping over the so-called seats.

More than anything else there is an urgent need to regulate the public transport in Karachi. The Karachi Transport Corporation, with massive duty-free assets and urban properties worth billions, has just died with so many drooling and sharpening their beaks over the rancid flesh and bones. Every major city of the world including London and New York manage and regulate the city’s own fleet of buses. But in Karachi the powers that be while hiding their incompetence or callousness and complaining of lack of resources brush aside any such possibility. Yet private concerns like a Korean company plying buses in the Punjab or the privately owned buses in Karachi all doing brisk business is a proof of commercial viability of such a venture.

The Karachiites will overwhelmingly support if an effort is made to regulate the public transport in the city. But trying to regulate by asking transporters to provide tickets to their passengers, as reported in the press last week, is a joke. Tickets have to be issued by a government agency, preferably the excise department under the city government.

Tickets issued by the city government will also help levy a cess for employing inspectors, marking bus lanes, developing bus stops, assuring vehicle fitness or extending badly needed insurance cover to unfortunate vehicles, their passengers and the crew in case of an accident.

A ten per cent cess over ten million five rupee tickets issued in a day may translate into five million rupees. For only twenty-five working days each month this may translate into an income exceeding Rs12.5 million. The potential of raising funds for regulating the public transport is one thing; the ability to levy and collect tax in an inefficient and corrupt system another.

OUR critics of literature tend to be more effusive and extravagant with words than some of our poets. But there is much fairness in Dr Mohammad Ali Siddiqui’s description of Hassan Abid’s verse as the poetry of elegant diction, serene idealism and immaculate passion. But the appellation of Dr Qamar Rais would look too involved to some when he calls him the poet of ‘Nishat-e-Agehi’. Were there such a thing in human experience as joy of awareness or bliss of consciousness , there would still be ground for disagreement with the comment. His faith in man’s deliverance from oppression apart, the tissue of Hassan Abid’s verse throbs with a sweet aching from limb to limb; its fiber is melancholic even in some of his doggedly optimistic lines such as:

Ham apna kaam kartai hain naee shamain jalatai hain Or Ba her khizan sahi mere dil mein bahaar hai

Second generation progressive poets living in the days of strident market economy have perforce to have such tenacity of will.

But Dr Rais does not stick to his tantalizing plank for long and takes note of the alienation, the turmoil and pain in Hassan’s responses to the dominant realities of his day. Koee kistarah jeeay deeda-e-bedar ke saath? The poet himself asks feeling no hesitation in revealing his state of despair.

Rahat Saeed, the editor of Karachi’s learned Left book serial, Irtiqa, who was in Islamabad after a long time for interaction with the Capital’s comrades, characterized Hassan’s verse as a fusion of Majaz’s rebellious spirit, Faiz’s gentle classicism, Majrooh’s this-worldliness and Makhdoom’s melodious sensuousness. We were discussing the publication of Hassan Abid’s three books of verse - Soach Nagar, Rang Laya Hai Junoon and Aashnayaan - in one paperback volume under a new title, Roz-o-Shab, that chronicles the evolution of the poet’s work. Now the whole of him, that is until now, is within the reader’s easy reach.

For literary comment, the easy way out is to look for influences that in poetry would be difficult to escape from unless one were a beast or god, as Bacon said. Rahat was not quibbling when he chose ‘fusion’ in preference to ‘influence’ to analyse the characteristic elements of Hassan Abid’s verse. The working of influences may be but fusion is not a process of mixing together, it is a chemistry of transformation in which the crucible of change is the poet’s self itself. The chiselled elegance of his neat statement is Hassan Abid’s own, as also its ease and flow: Hum thay aur tum thay par gaey woh din Achchay din thay guzar gaey woh din

Leafing through the collection it may occur to even the casual reader that you have to have a personal culture to fashion the mode of your emotional content. You trim each fold and fall of the garb; the lesser poet dons the entire fad. In Hassan you see this cautious avoidance of the cant though he allows passion its raw contours when singing of the struggling masses. He would not fine-file them as would Faiz. This personal culture works like a sieve or a wavelength that filters out the stimuli and the poet seems to have a bandwidth of his own to broadcast his song. This is Hassan’s distinctive mark if you talk about influences. There is nothing unusual about it. This is how the creative process works.

Any discussion of Hassan Abid’s work would be incomplete without reference to the sensuous quality of his imagery. It is in the situational frame that the tactile body of his imagery emerges with effect: Uska dil bhi chaha tha lamas-e-lab ki hiddat ko Band theen haseen ankhen, neend ek bahana tha In dil mera dil, a poem he wrote in hospital after suffering a heart attack, the entire pathological sequence is described in vivid sensations:

Dil mein ek sozish-e-pinhan ki khalish ho jaisay Ya kisi aanch ki behti si tapish ho jaisay Jaisay aahista magar ho kafay sangeen ka dabao Koee duzdidah nazar cherh dey jis tarah se ghao

Hassan Abid’s nazm has the same finesse as we find in his ghazal. The lyrical quality flows from line to line, the emotive content sustains the body of thought and even when formless and free as in prose formats the integral unity is not disturbed. But it is in the endings that you see the artistry. The drama seems to begin there. In his ghazal, Hassan is not wary of length and has no paucity of subjects to end matters summarily. Roz-o- Shab displays not only his growing attachment to classical statement but also the breadth and reach of his poetical material. He is not one to be remembered for a few good verses or a couple of quotable lines. His work has a sustained quality. There is no trivial material there to skip over. You read him from page to page.

Hassan Abid should have won more acclaim and, indeed, could have but being shy of self projection, opposed to public relationing, allergic to mushaeras and having not yet been discovered by TV or ghazal singers, he proliferates in seclusion, drinking deep the joys of abiding friendships for which he has ample time from not having to chase the distributors of name and fame. A worthier compensation there could not have been.

PEOPLE of Sialkot district are still awaiting the promised revolutionary changes after the completion of the first hundred days of the local body system.

This has been revealed in a study of 100 days of the Sialkot district government. Not a single development project could be executed in the health sector, municipal services and physical infrastructure during this period. The district government has failed to solve the problems of the masses who continue to struggle to get a relief for their minor problems.

The local administration is even reluctant to check price hike during Ramazan, claiming it does not have the power to fine any profiteer or trader involved in hoarding.

The district government consists of 11 government departments. More than 30 government departments have been merged into these 11 departments. Sports and culture and information technology departments have yet to be established. No executive district officer of these departments has so far been appointed, while the literary department is also without a single staff. However, the EDO (literary) is present in his one-room office.

The basic hindrance in the new system is that the head of district government departments is merely a showpiece and working as a staff officer of the district Nazim. The plus point of the system is that all the powers that were lying at the divisional level have been transferred and delegated to officers at the district level.

The Sialkot district Nazim had promised designing of a new transfer policy in the larger interests of the people in health and education departments. The promise has not been fulfilled so far. Even the proposal for the passage of a law against quacks could not materialize.

People think that instead of bringing a positive change in the working of government departments, the Nazims have added to the chaos by limiting themselves to solving individual problems. They have even failed to evolve a monitoring system to oversee the performance of different departments.

Those familiar with the working of the new set-up say government officials are not initiating programmes to help Nazims run the business of the district government smoothly. Also, the Nazims lack the strength and know-how to handle the administration.

The local journalists community is of the view that only the nomenclature of the bureaucracy has changed, otherwise the system is running as before and the Nazims are being accommodated by the government in line with the past practice regarding public representatives.

“The Nazims have failed to create the impression that they are bosses,” some people say.

Those who have an access to Nazims succeed in getting some of their problems solved, but the majority of common people have to follow the same routine of greasing the palms of officials to get things done, they say.

According to the lawyers’ community, as there is no system in place to know the working of a particular department, the Nazims have no way to find out what is wrong and how it can be corrected.

Opposition to the Nazims for the sake of opposition has also been contributing to the ineffectiveness of their offices. The Nazims have many powers to correct the system. All they need is a nod from the government and a little guidance to assert themselves.