Pakistani attitudes

I AM a Pakistani married to an Indian Muslim girl and we have settled in the US for the last several years.

Because of my wife’s nationality, I have had the opportunity to socialize amongst Indians and be a part of many of their social functions. My wife’s Indian circle includes friends that are Hindus, Christians and Parsis. We also socialize in the Pakistani circle where I have quite a few friends and acquaintances. I have noticed stark differences in the mentality, attitude and overall thinking of the people of these two countries.

While discussions in the Indian circles range from current affairs to movies, and from politics (Indian, American and Indo-Pak relations) to cricket, the discussions in our Pakistani social group is generally confined to Pakistan and Islam. Pakistanis are more interested in my wife’s attitude towards Hindus and how Islam is treated in India.

There is a lot more focus on the fact that ours is a Sunni-Shia marriage and that my wife does not wear the traditional Muslim dresses. In short, I have noticed that the people in various Pakistani circles we move in, seem to be obsessed with Islam, Kashmir, India-bashing, as well as America-bashing, in spite of the fact that they have made it their home.

Almost 80 per cent of our Pakistani friends are convinced that Israel and the Jews do have some hand in the WTC attacks and it has all been done to malign Islam as it was becoming a fast growing religion in the world. The recent Gujarat riots in India are, in the opinion of most of them, a part of a conspiracy by the Indian government to eliminate Muslims in India.

Very understandably, my wife does not enjoy our social involvement with the Pakistani circles although she is otherwise an extrovert. While this does cause occasional tension between us, deep down inside, I myself find the conversations in the Indian groups more stimulating and multidimensional. There is no petty mindedness there. ‘Assalaam-o-alaikum’, ‘Namaste’, ‘Hi’, ‘Hello’ and ‘What’s up’ are all equally accepted forms of greetings.

The long-winded point that I am trying to make is that as Pakistanis, we certainly seem to be paranoid about our country, religion and beliefs. When it comes to India or Hindus or Kashmir, we seem to lose all objectivity and let our paranoia govern our thinking.

We must give up this kind of petty thinking. Urdu and Pakistan and Islam are not that weak so as to be threatened by such transient cultural influences.

The early we break such shackles of insecurity, the faster we will progress.

MOHSIN KHAN

Detroit, US

How much time can we save?

DEAR me, we are in for another culture shock. So now, from Sunday 7 April, we are to go on to Daylight Savings Time.

Eight am yesterday is going to become 9 am today. But hang on, let us be sure of this: or is it going to be 7 am today? What does it mean to ‘set the clock forward’ and what ‘back’? This is all very confusing.

I am, you see, many, many ordinary Pakistani people. I live in a village. I live in a rural town. I am a poor and a middle-class schoolboy and schoolgirl. I am a sugarcane grower who has to deliver his crop to the sugar mill at a given hour. I am an ordinary shopkeeper.

You must understand that in this age of cheap imitations, I too possess a watch. But no one has instructed me in the ways of the new cultural ‘technologies’. What is all this about Daylight Savings Time? What is all this about saving energy?

Even in the towns and cities, many like me use only the barest minimum of light bulbs, and perhaps the odd fan.

If I am a shopkeeper, I keep my shop open during the hours when it is convenient for my customers to step out for shopping. Believe me, in this I am no different from my peasant brothers and sisters. I live and work by the rising and setting of the sun.

Who will teach me, the culturally confused Pakistani, the new cultural regulations about ‘saving time’? For me, time has always been in Nature, not something outside of it. I neither save time nor spend it. I simply live in it.

And now I, the writer of this letter, think back across my historical memories, and I recall 1954. Mr Mohammad Ali Bogra, then lately our ambassador in Washington and intoxicated with Western practices, had returned to become prime minister of Pakistan. The fashion was for ‘modernization’. He decreed that we would henceforth change from the decadent practice of driving on the left side of the road to driving on the right side.

My late father, A.D. Azhar, who was endowed with visionary wit, commented: “It has taken our bullock cart five thousand years to move from the middle of the road to the left. How long will it take now for it to learn to move from the left to the right!”

Happily, that momentarily inspired reform was soon abandoned. But then I think: how many of our ‘reforms’ are inspired by a complete divorce from the cultural realities of our land and its people.

ASLAM AZHAR

Islamabad

India & Indus waters treaty

MR B. A. Malik has provided very illuminating historical background on the Indus basin dispute and the subsequent treaty between India and Pakistan. However, he dismisses the idea of India being able to rescind the above treaty, because of international obligations and the absence of physical infrastructure in place for interrupting river flows to Pakistan.

This may be true in the near future, but Dr Adam Nayyar (Dawn, Jan 10) had earlier raised some long-term apprehensions in this regard.

Wullar Barrage, upstream of where the Jhelum river enters Azad Kashmir, would give India control over not only stopping river flows but also in flooding the lower riparian. India had already attempted to construct this barrage some years ago but was stopped from doing so because the treaty was in place along with the Indus Water Commission, a watchdog body. This barrage would also allow India to flood the Kashmir Valley at will.

Khapala Dam on the Shyok River in Indian occupied Kashmir (a tributary of the Indus entering Baltistan) would seriously affect flows in the Indus and proportionately increase the effective silt load from the Gilgit River into the Indus downstream from the Rondu Gorge. This dam would also impact on the current design of the proposed Basha Dam.

Only a few months ago, according to press reports, India was able to effectively reduce the flow into the Chenab River for a short period. It was not explained how and why.

It is important that a thorough debate be initiated on this important issue.

KHURSHID ANWER

Lahore

Architectural compromise

THIS refers to the interview of architect Nayyar Ali Dada (Dawn, Gallery, March 20). I am afraid the interview does not portray a man who has reached the pinnacle of his professional competence, but not without compromising on the principles of his vocation.

I remember him carving out a “VIP gate” at Emperor Jehangir’s mausoleum in 1998 during the reign of Mian Nawaz Sharif as prime minister, and his brother Mian Shahbaz Sharif as the Punjab’s chief minister. The Sharifs wanted a VIP entry through this gate for which a helipad outside Shahdara Town and a link road was being developed.

The northern wall of the Mughal monument in Shahdara was broken for the gate though the existence of such a gate in the north part of the building has not been mentioned by any Lahore historian.

Mr Nayyar Ali Dada was the architect and, as a Dawn report of that period shows, he lost no time in producing historical evidence to the effect that the gate did form part of the original scheme of things.

SADIA MARYAM

Lahore

Wapda’s unrealistic claims

LAST week the chairman of WAPDA in a television interview aired on Khabarnama claimed that the performance of his organization was more than satisfactory, to such an extent, that there is no loadshedding throughout the country.

Ironically, from the very next day — rather from the same night — various blocks of Gulshan-e-Iqbal, especially blocks 1, 2 and 5 were subjected to loadshedding. This couldn’t happen at a worse time, especially for students who are busy these days preparing for their matric exams.

In fact, nowadays, there is loadshedding for an hour and a half in the day, when the temperature is on the higher side, and then again for an hour or so at night.

This practice has been continuing for the past week or so. Officials at the KESC complaint centres have no answer when you call and ask them either the reason for the outage or when it will end. Senior officials of the power utility are requested to look into the matter urgent. Also, it would make sense if the top management refrained from making tall claims since later events usually prove these wrong.

The loadshedding schedule, if at all necessary, must be announced in advance for the convenience of everyone.

SYED ABRAR HUSSAINI

Karachi

Water shortage in Buner

I WISH to draw attention to the problem of my village in the hope that the SDO of the public health engineering department of Duggar in Buner will take notice.

Our village Bampokha is thickly populated, it has a population of around 15,000. Water is an important source of life. I regret to say our village has no proper arrangement for the supply of water to residents. There are pipelines but they leak in many places, and much of the water is lost. In fact, many of the leaks are such that the water flows on to the roads damaging them in the process, and this also reduces water pressure.

The village has only one tubewell which was installed many years ago. Clearly, Bampokha’s increasing population means that there is now a permanent shortage of water for its residents. People want to reach the moon and beyond but here we don’t even have water.

Perhaps, the district Nazim will be kind enough to look into the matter.

M. IJAZ BUNERI

Doha,

Qatar

Foot in one’s mouth

LONG years ago, Lahori had quoted Ann Richards from the book, Parliament of whores. Commenting on George Bush, the present president’s father, she had said: “Poor George, he can’t help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth.”

Then, naming some of our own politicians, Lahori had said: “Well Richards might have said the same about them