| November 4, 2002 | Monday | Sha’aban 28,1423 |
A signal from the Centre is awaited
Borrowing from one notebook for another
Towards water famine
Simplified parole procedure encouraging
Switch the channel, please
ABOUT 300 prisoners have been released on parole from Malir District Jail and Central Jail in the past four months, according to Superintendent Malir Jail, Qamar Husain Shah. The process of granting parole has recently been simplified by the Home Department.
“I am not running away,” was the quick retort of General Pervez Musharraf when he was asked about his exit strategy in his first press conference after the takeover in October 1999. When I heard the answer I thought he did not understand my question. But now it seems that it was I who had not understood his answer! He is, indeed, not going anywhere in a hurry!! Instead, he has been making the people of Pakistan run from pillar to post over the last three years as a punishment for wanting to give him an honourable exit. Despite the fact that his referendum for continuity had failed miserably to yield the ‘desired’ results and despite the fact that the October 10 elections have given a verdict for change, he continues to stick to his guns of continuity. On Saturday, even 22 days after the verdict for change was out he was assuring foreign investors in Islamabad at the ‘Oil Show’ that he had ensured continuation of his policies by the incoming government! And in order to make it doubly sure that nothing would go wrong he is asking the members of his cabinet to apply for Senate ticket to the King’s party reinforcing once again the public perception that he is the architect of the PML-Q.
Musharraf is using every excuse to entrench himself in the seat of power and prolong his rule. In the process the man, who had promised to usher in what he keeps calling ‘real’ and ‘genuine’ democracy, a democracy ‘suited to the genius of the people of Pakistan’, a democracy ‘not necessarily in line with its Western concept’, has created a House which, seemingly, would not last a single day without a helping hand from the Army. This also substantiates more graphically the disingenuous argument of the General that in order to keep the Army out you have to bring it in. The forces resisting this diabolic design have the option to make it impossible for Musharraf to help the King’s party form the government at the centre and force him, instead to dissolve the newly elected National Assembly and call for fresh elections. But such a development may, after all, prove to be the ultimate undoing of the PPP and the MMA and that too through the ballot box.
Here is what Musharraf may do if he is forced to dissolve the National Assembly: Soon after the NA is convened on November 8 and the parties inside start racing each other for the coveted number of 172, his governors would convene the provincial assemblies where without much problem governments are formed. In Punjab that of PML-Q, in NWFP of MMA, in Sindh a coalition government of PML-Q and MQM and in Balochistan another coalition of PML-Q and all other factions, groups and individuals minus MMA. This accomplished, he turns his attention back to the centre and dissolves the NA after giving a week or so to the wrangling parties to come up with a workable coalition. Then he calls for fresh elections for the National Assembly within 90 days while the provincial governments remain intact. Do you know what would happen in such a situation? The PPP and PML-N would be routed in Pervez Elahi’s Punjab (which would simply make it impossible for PPP and PML-N to breath). Pervez is capable of doing this without even the help of Tariq Aziz and Ihetasham Jaffery. In the NWFP where these two gentlemen would shift their focus the MMA’s numbers in the new NA would be reduced to a ‘reasonable’ level. So, within the next three months Musharraf will have a comfortable government of continuity even at the centre with his entire cabinet of continuity coming into the Parliament, some through the Senate, some through direct elections and some through reserved seats. And at the end the PPP and PML-N would be left with holding the empty sack and the MMA’s clout even in NWFP reduced to manageable level.
So, while indulging in brinkmanship, the PPP, MMA and PML-N must guard against giving Musharraf the excuse to dissolve the National Assembly. They must not also let the PML-Q form a minority government because finding it difficult to manage things the ruling party could advice the President within a month or so to dissolve the National Assembly and order fresh elections. And this would also lead to the same results as discussed above. The only option they have, therefore, is to form a PPP and MMA government failing which they should even try to form a government of national unity and try to help it last for five years. Once in the government, they could also try to get the PML-Q members see the dangers to the country, its integrity and national cohesion in continuing to let the Army undermine the sovereignty of Parliament.
The people who matter in the PML-Q are the Chaudhry brothers. They have seen the fate of the Mian brothers. They saw the establishment help launch and build them since 1982. And then they also saw the same establishment send the Mian brothers to the gallows, almost, for exercising their legitimate mandate. It seems that the Chaudhrys are also going the way the Mians went because after a point the natural antagonism that exists between a people’s mandate (no matter how defective) and the establishment’s dictatorial tendencies would cause them to fall out and then the search for replacement would begin while they would be consigned to the wilderness at a heavy cost to their name. As it is, the establishment has always controlled the country through the Punjab. And since 1971 it has done this with one ‘elected’ frontman or the other. The first man to walk into their trap was ZA Bhutto. He was sent to gallows when he disobeyed the establishment. Next, it was the Mian brothers. Even during the second Benazir government Punjab was kept out of her hand and given to proxy Muslim League led by Hamid Nasir Chattha until the Mian brothers returned in 1997. But after what Nawaz did first to Jehangir Karamat and then tried to do to the present incumbent, the Mian brothers could not lost long. It is now the turn of the Chaudhrys to play the role of the establishment’s frontman. It is to be seen how long this partnership would last. If it takes its natural course, the ultimate losers would be the Chaudhrys as well as the nation. On the other hand if the Chaudhrys veer away quickly from the establishment within the present House and strike a partnership deal with the PPP, MMA and PML-N, they are not only likely to help save the country from an imminent calamity but also rescue themselves from certain disaster.—Onlooker
MINISTRY-MAKING in Balochistan has always been dependent on dictates from Islamabad because the federal government is considered a huge magnet that attracts all to the Centre. Ministry- making before the formation of a government at the Centre is misconceived and illogical in the political context as the Centre is wielding all powers in this weakest, though largest, province of Pakistan.
All those politicians, particularly the elected representatives, involved in the efforts to form a ministry are virtually engaged in a futile exercise for, finally, it is Islamabad that would call the shots in Quetta. No group or party can rule the ‘mega sensitive’ Balochistan without patronage from Islamabad.
On the ground the foremost candidate for the CM’s slot is Jam Mir Yusuf of Lasbela, provincial president of the PML-Q. Until now no other group has formally announced its nominee. However, Sardar Yar Mohammad Rind, the man who retained his NA constituency for the fifth time, is said to be planning to vacate the NA seat and retain the provincial seat with a clear eye on the CM’s slot.
Weeks ago he told this correspondent that he would be retaining PA seat as he was more interested in provincial politics. In such a situation Jam Sahib will be facing a formidable challenge from Sardar Rind. The two had more than once and exchanged views on government formation.
Sardar Rind thought that Jam Yusuf had been engaged in a ‘solo flight’ and had thus announced his candidature unilaterally or without consulting the Grand National Alliance. It was disputed by Jam Yusuf who immediately arranged a meeting with Sardar Rind and sorted out the differences on the issue.
There are credible reports that the National Alliance, with its five MPAs, is seeking support of the PML-Q for Sardar Farooq Ahmad Leghari as a nominee for the prime minister’s slot, in return for which the National Alliance would withdraw its claim for the CM’s slot in Balochistan. It is a proposal mooted by circles close to the National Alliance. Top leaders of the National Alliance have not denied this. However, political observers do not see any bright prospects for Sardar Leghari in this context.
On the other hand, the PML-Q, mainly Jam Yusuf, is more interested in winning over the support of the MMA. For this, he has reportedly offered five ministries, including the slot of senior minister or de facto deputy chief minister, the posts of speaker and deputy speaker to the MMA.
It is a lucrative offer to the MMA, dominated by the JUI-F. The MMA bagged 13 seats, and emerged as the single largest party in the province. But with a number of independents joining the PML-Q, the strength of the Q League has risen to 16, making it now the single largest party in the Balochistan Assembly, followed by the MMA.
Naturally, the PML-Q is more interested in seeking the support of the MMA in Balochistan than using its power and influence to win over the smaller parties. Political observers thus think that the PML-Q’s offer to the MMA is fair enough for the latter to accept it. According to a PML-Q MPA, the offer is more than the MMA’s expectation. Indications are that the MMA would accept the offer rather than lose a chance to be in the government after having secured such a big support of the electorate.
At the same time, the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (Ponam) is also wooing the MMA for forming a government with the support of four parties — the Balochistan National Party, Balochistan National Movement, the Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party and the People’s Party Parliamentarians.
The JWP is, however, keeping a safe distance from Ponam and its policies for obvious reasons instead of keeping all options wide open for parleys and understanding with any grouping. So, it would be too early to say whether the JWP would join the government or sit in opposition.
Another indication is the resumption of seismic survey for energy resources by the BGP, a Chinese company, in the Bugti tribal agency. The survey was suspended last June after which the Chinese left the Bugti area in haste as security environment for foreign experts had deteriorated. Now they are back. An advanced party has already arrived to resume the seismic survey for oil and gas.
There are no reports about resumption of oil and gas exploration in the Marri tribal agency or the Mengal tribal area in central Balochistan. Oil politics will play its part in Balochistan in near future and the oil and gas companies, including the multi-nationals, will definitely play their part in provincial politics.
Daulatabad gas of Turkmenistan is being pumped to Gwadar for sale to the outside world or for making additional energy resources available to the world market for which total tax exemption is being demanded on Turkmen gas. It is the first real pressure on Pakistan. What about the royalty or security services for the safe passage of the huge gas pipeline from Saindak hills to the Gwadar coast in Balochistan (Pakistan)?
HAMID Sheikh was once editor of the defunct Civil and Military Gazette, Lahore. He died on May 28, 1971, as Feature Editor of The Pakistan Times, in which capacity I got to know, and learned to love him. Sheikh Sahib, as he was known by seniors and juniors alike, would talk as he would write and more often than not, his talking columns were infinitely more interesting than his written pieces. I have today chosen a column Sheikh Sahib wrote almost exactly a year before he died —- May 25, 1970. Sheikh Sahib breathed his last on May 28 the following year. “He would have been 52 in July,” as his own paper wrote. Not yet 52? I always thought he was much older — he looked the part. But when he got to talking, he would appear to be as young as 22. The Sheikh Sahib had charisma. He would tell you stories of the Lahore of his youth and you would be transported to the city as it might have been in the days of kings and queens, fairies and fiends and ogres and imps and elfs and goblins and things. Things you held in romantic awe. You were repelled by, and yet drawn to, the magic that was Lahore.
I could go on but the column I have chosen today was, “A special breed of men.” Sheikh Sahib began:
The first six volumes of Urdu classical drama will be officially published tomorrow (May 26) and the occasion will be marked by a ceremony which will be held at the office of the Majlis-i-Taraqui-i-Adab, 2 Club Road, to pay homage to the memory of the man who planned the gigantic task of collecting, editing and publishing the entire body of Urdu classical drama treating it as a literary genre, in thirty volumes. The man was Syed Imtiaz Ali Taj.
Syed Imtiaz Ali Taj believed that Urdu classical drama was an integral part of the Urdu literary tradition spread over a century. It passed through three stages, namely, the play of the royal stage, the play of the public stage and the play of the commercial theatrical companies. These three stages are also the three stages of technical as well as literary development of drama but they had been lost to the students of literature simply because the texts of the plays had never been treated as sacrosanct. People saw the plays for entertainment and read the texts however made available to them, only to supplement their theatrical entertainment. Actually authors seldom published them.
Actors, or some commercial people, produced texts from memory, whatever they could recollect of them. Thus, in a way, Urdu classical drama had been lost with the disappearance of the commercial stage. It deserved to be rescued from oblivion and given its proper status, a status that Syed Imtiaz Ali Taj thought Urdu classical drama deserved as a genre of literature.
This he believed and set to work to prove.
He collected innumerable versions of about a hundred plays which he wished to compare, edit and correct in order to produce their standard texts. He worked for two decades on this project and had seen eight volumes through the press before the hand of an assassin cut his work short.
At the ceremony, ...., learned people will talk about the merits of his efforts and erudite comments will be offered assessing the results of a vast project of literary research.
This is as it should be but it is not all. Apart from these formal gatherings of the select there are scores of diverse circles in the heart of Lahore in which private tributes, personal expressions of affection and love, are already being paid to his memory.
The number of people of our generation, who came into contact at some stage or another with Syed Imtiaz Ali Taj is legendary; old actors musicians, scene painters of the old theatre, workmen, radio people, printers, educationists, readers, listeners, children, old men, all his friends. They all speak of him as they knew him and each knew him in a very personal way, in his own way. One has to hear them talk of him to realize the multi- sidedness of his character, and how each aspect of his character charmed those who appreciated only that in him.
Then, in this multitude of those who knew him there are people, a small circle, a circle of the veterans of Lahore, which is not especially literary which is not erudite, which is not even noticed: it is a circle of people who have lived all their lives in Lahore as the elders of this community, a community which to them is a special breed of men. To them Syed Imtiaz Ali Taj was one of the bright boys of Lahore, one of those boys who went to school here and who were noticed because they did things: such boys were always under the protection of the veterans because the veterans knew that these boys were good. The veterans knew that they were naughty and all bright boys are naughty; they are never mischievous. As an example of his naughtism they will tell you that Imtiaz Ali of the house of Maulvi Syed Mumtaz Ali together with his friend, the Bokhari boy, was a well known uninvited guest at every wedding feast in Lahore that happened to be held on a Sunday. These two boys used to come and stand outside Mochi Gate early every Sunday when their college was closed. Every marriage procession passed this gate, of course, and as soon as it passed in front of them they joined it without hesitation as if they had been specially invited to it. They seldom knew who was getting married and where the feast was. They were interested in feast and to it they went. Usually everyone knew them, and even if they were not known to the party, who could dare ask two bright boys of Lahore to get out? They were naughty boys.
Another veteran will say that Imtiaz never missed a theatre in Lahore even though theatregoing was not very much for respectable young men of old established families. The veterans knew that he was a good boy and, therefore, he could be in the theatre. No one dared tell tales on him.
There are hundreds of such stories about him, stories about this man who loved to collect naughty stories about his elders and write them and publish them. Who has not read the stories about the late Maulvi Moharram Ali Chishtiee (who in his youth was one of the naughtiest boys of Lahore) written by Syed Imtiaz Ali Taj?
Well, when the veterans of Lahore who are not very literary, call someone a naughty boy of Lahore, they mean that this man belonged to that special breed of men which only Lahore produces, and by saying that they pay the highest tribute that can be paid to him, a tribute which no learned man, no man of erudition, can equal. That tomorrow learned men will pay their tribute to the memory of this man of letters only proves that the veterans had been right all along on a special breed of men.
Sheikh Sahib used his initials — H.S. — for his columns and he also styled them as ‘Notebook’. So I have only borrowed from one notebook for another.
IS it not an unmitigated shame that a city that makes the highest contribution to the nation’s treasury should be wailing about water day in and day out and nobody in authority here or in Islamabad is listening. After air, water is the most basic need for sheer survival. As it is, air in Karachi is heavily polluted but we manage to breathe and live on. As for water, it is not available even in polluted form. Or, one might say, whatever little of it is available is mostly polluted.
We have a huge government organization that is supposed to look after the water needs. Above it we have the city government, then the provincial government. On top of this juggernaut there is the federal government. This city is standing by the Arabian Sea. And with all that, Karachi is short of water to the point of being faced with famine of water.
As far as one can see, nobody - from the City Nazim to the provincial governor to the federal government - is one little bit worried or even embarrassed. How insensitive can governments get? To say that we are on the verge of water-riots is only to pretend not to see near-riot situation in scores of corners of this gigantic city. What are we waiting for - deaths due to water famine? If this situation persists, we may soon have that experience also.
Every other day we hear of water pipelines bursting and millions of gallons of water going literally down the drain. We also hear of leaking water lines and broken drains getting mixed up leaving the poor citizen unable to tell one from the other. Nobody knows for certain but it is now common knowledge that a great amount of the badly needed water is lost because of leaking lines. This apparently has been the case for ages and the water managers do not seem to know what to do to stop this drain.
The citizen is simply horrified to read in the newspapers that while the people suffer, water tanker operators are minting money. This is about the most hideous form of profiteering from human misery and distress. How is one to dispel the grim apprehension that this water tanker mafia may have come to have a vested interest in water scarcity? This leads one to wonder if at least some part of the shortage is actually contrived by those who expect to make a packet out of it.
This kind of misgiving should give the people behind the water tanker commerce some food for worrisome thought. Most of the people in the water tanker trade are under direct government control. Is it really true that the Rangers are the patron of water tanker operators, if they are not directly the real operators? Be that as it may, the Rangers had better try to set the record straight. What kind of a sustainable nexus can there be between a purely law and order agency and trading in a commodity like water that happens to be chronically in short supply? A service like the Rangers should not be anywhere near a profit-making enterprise. Government servants are not allowed to hold any position of profit. This should hold equally good for government services.
What passes a normal citizen’s comprehension is the government’s inability to consider the idea of making full use of the limitless availability of water from the nearby Arabian Sea. Anyone with a pair of eyes and a grain of grey matter should see the Gulf States and learn the simple lesson of desalination of the Arabian Sea water. Once stretches of desert, the Gulf states are now green from one end to the other. They have gardens, orchards and what have you. Some of the world’s fabulous playgrounds are now to be found where until yesterday one saw nothing but desert sands. Sharjah is now the stage for some of the world’s most prestigious international cricket events.
Dubai can rightly boast one of the most picturesque golf courses of the world. What do we have in Karachi? Water famine and those in authority are not even aware of this calamity. If they were, they should be having sleepless nights and restless days. But evidently they could not care less because there is no water shortage in the Governor’s House or in the residence of the DG Rangers. Or in the house of the City Nazim. One can be sure that the KWSB chief, too, is not feeling any pinch though more than half of Karachi is thirsty and unwashed.
If there is not much that the city and provincial governments can do, let them at least try to commission a feasibility study of an imaginary desalination project of adequate size and capacity to serve this cynically neglected city and its hugely wronged 14 million good people. This is not asking for the moon, although the moon is no longer all that far or inaccessible in the 21st century. One should like the governor of Sindh to try to answer one simple question: Why we in Karachi cannot do what Sharjah can?
Every month Home Secretary hold a meeting with superintendent of a jail and certain police officers which is attended by some other officials.
The superintendent proposes release of certain prisoners on the basis of their good behaviour in the prison. Usually cases of the sole breadwinners of a family and those convicted of minor offences gain precedence. If the police officers are also convinced that the release of a prisoner would not lead to any law and order situation in the city, then his release on parole is agreed upon there and then.
Prisoners accused of murder that is not premeditated can also be released on parole. This is a departure from past practice when release of prisoners on parole was limited and granted only after a lengthy and cumbersome procedure.
Superintendent Qamar Husain Shah welcomes this move. “Prisoners who are first time offenders and those guilty of petty offences, such as possession of a small amount of drugs, should be considered for parole,” he says. By simplifying the process of parole, the authorities have helped ease the problem of overcrowded jails that is a common feature. For instance, there are 3,553 prisoners in Malir jail which has a capacity of 693 inmates.
It is rare that a prisoner released on parole commits another crime and returns to jail. That is why certain non-governmental organizations (NGOs), like the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, which work for prisoners’ welfare, have always been calling for a more liberal parole policy.
They also support the system of parole because those arrested for petty offences are often kept in prisons as under-trial for considerably long periods of time.
The NGOs believe that rehabilitation of such prisoners can best be within community, and not in prison, through parole and probation.
Another positive development is the promotion of sports in prison. Although Rule-256 of the Prison Rules advocates arrangement of outdoor games, such as volleyball, deck tennis and badminton, in prisons by the jail superintendent if the space permits, this rule is not observed by the chiefs of most prisons. The rule also calls for indoor games, such as cards, carom or chess, to be allowed to the prisoners at their own expenses, but most of the prisoners are not aware of this facility being lawful.
The objective behind this rule is to keep the prisoners engaged in constructive activities rather than leaving too much time at their hands. “Idle mind is devil’s workshop,” as Justice Z. A. Channa had once observed.
Now the IG Prison, Brig Nisar, is taking keen interest in the promotion of sports in prisons. Volley ball is most popular among Malir Jail inmates and some 60 to 70 of them play the game. A match was also played between prisoners’ teams from Malir Jail and Central Prison last year and also this year. The first match was won by the Malir Jail team which was awarded a trophy while the second by that of Central Jail.
Some 50 Malir Jail inmates play cricket and about 30 football. Qamar Hussain Shah says that balls and bats are arranged sometimes by the relatives of the prisoners and sometimes by certain donors and well-wishers.
The prisoners are allowed only tennis balls to avoid injuries to the players and others in the jail, he says adding that bats are taken back for security reasons.
Supporting the idea of allowing sports in prisons, the superintendent called for encouraging it as much as possible. Volley ball is popular in the prisons of the interior Sindh, he says. He, however, pointed out that small prisons, like those in Nawabshah, Dadu and Mirpurkhas, cannot arrange for outdoor sports as they don’t have a ground within the jail premises.
A lot of people who are not journalists seem to have think that the media is a very glamourous profession. As a reporter, or a columnist, or even an editorial writer, you will come across people who upon finding out your profession will say “Oh acha you’re a journalist.” And, quite annoyingly actually, they will proceed to ask you who is going to make the next government, or for some ‘inside news’. This of course means that these people assume your some kind of divine entity who has access to a secret vault of information. And when you tell them “Jee, I really don’t anything more that’s already been printed, and even that is sometimes more guesswork and extrapolation, then they refuse to believe you and say that your hiding things.
Well, the reason I say all this is that it relates to issues raised recently at a seminar at the IBA on the role of the media and its influence on society. Other panelists included Ardeshir Cowasjee, Saira Kazmi, Masood Hashmi, the deputy MD of Orient McKann, and Ejaz Mian, IBA’s head of marketing.
During the course of the speeches several male and female students asked why was it that television was showing so many things that were, in their opinion, running counter to “our culture” and “our values”. One student also asked the panel that why wasn’t the media “fulfilling its responsibility”. One female student, who said she was a Christian, asked why minorities were portrayed in such a stereotypical way on television. Saira Kazmi empathized with her but said that the fact of the matter was that minorities were portrayed at all on domestic television. Another student, wearing a headscarf, said that women in general were shown in a very cliched way in advertisements, dramas and all kinds of programming to which Ms Kazmi replied that she (Saira Kazmi) would be thrilled to see someone like the questioner going out and driving a car.
Mr Hashmi and I responded to the questions that related to the alleged display of “vulgarity”. Taking a cue from his speech that the media reflected society’s values, he said that the fact that woman were now not wearing a dupatta on theirs head simply meant that such things were now becoming acceptable. In any case, by no means do the majority of women cover their heads or faces. Mr Hashmi and me also pointed out that viewers and audiences always had a choice and this was that they could always watch something else or switch to another channel.
In response to several related questions, Ms Kazmi pointed that she was just one of many people who made dramas and she could not be expected to change everything though she was doing whatever she could. She also said that it was a bit unrealistic to expect the media to change everything and that the views of people were important. In that context, she also told the audience that they were like “sheep” — presumably that public opinion was quite susceptible to be being shepherded or manipulated. However, she later qualified her remark saying that she really liked sheep.
I spoke briefly, and mainly to point out clarify certain comments made by the students. One was, again in reference to the alleged display of “vulgarity” on television, that the media should have a responsibility to the “masses” to tell them what to do. It’s probably more important that if the media must tell the people what to do — a debatable point in itself — it should not be telling them what to watch on television but rather that they should be more tolerant of differences of opinion and to understand that these differences might show up in different ways through the way people dress or behave. This is not to say at all that universally accepted norms of decency or decorum must be flouted but just that there should be flexibility on this issue of “vulgarity” on television or in the print media. And in any case, even in a prudish and conservative country like ours, whether one likes it or not skin probably does sell.
Actually if you look at this whole debate, are we adults idiots that we can’t even be given the right to watch or not watch a show on television. What’s with these people, why don’t they just switch the channel?
A few days ago I came across in an English evening paper a photograph of a high society do arranged at a well-known artist’s house. The house in Clifton also doubles up as a museum for the artist’s work and gallery space for his son’s outlandish and rather expensively priced sculptures.
However, the occasion this time was the launch of a calendar by a foreign multinational. Apparently, the artists had helped design the calendar and the company’s boss was on hand to inaugurate the launch of this corporate calendar. On hand were also several dozen glitterati of Karachi and many social movers and shakers.
The artist, perhaps best known for his portraits of various military dictators and civilian autocrats, and his son often organize well-attended lavish social gathering related to the museum/gallery they ‘curate’.
The launch of these calendars, however, is further proof that many of our well-known artists are only too willing to do work for commercial interests rather than out of any particular creative urge.
Karachi has often suffered in the past, and continues to suffer, the fallout of all kinds of violent acts. First it was the many years of ethnic conflict, followed by sectarian incidents. And then came a period of relative calm, only to be blown apart (no pun intended) by the blasts outside the American Consulate and the Sheraton and the PC. The end result of it all was a series of travel advisories from almost every western country under the sun warning citizens of all kinds of dangers if they stayed on or visited the city.
However, in the recent past, I have seen quite a few foreign faces at stores, driving on the road, attending seminars, and even walking by the side of the road. It’s probably too early to tell when and if things will return to normal because if its not the Al Qaeda then it could be even the continuing political uncertainty that might affect the city in some negative way.
Anyway, talking of travel advisories there was an immediate — and expected — one for travel to Bali (though many foreign tourists, it is reported, have chosen to defy it). One wonders whether the State Department and the Foreign Office will now also issue a stern travel warning for travel to Moscow. After all, the theatre where the very tragic hostage drama happened, and where over a hundred people died from inhaling the very gas used by their own government (which still refuses to tell the public what was used), is only five kilometres from the Kremlin. And, to make matters worse, Russian officials are, as reported by the New York Times, refusing to tell the Americans what gas they used to incapacitate the hostage-takers.
At least we cooperated with the Americans. Why single out the people of Karachi for this rough treatment?
A banner in Urdu put up on Sharea Faisal opposite Kashif Centre and Mehran Hotel tells passerby and motorists to keep the cantonment area clean. Ignoring this order can result in dire consequences, as one colleague witnessed while driving to work one morning.
She saw a paan chewing and spitting pedestrian suddenly being manhandled by two young men. They had stopped him and were berating him for spitting on the footpath. He asked to clean up the mess. One of the young men went so far as to put his hand inside the paan-spitter’s pockets. He pulled out a starched white handkerchief, handed it to the man and asked him to wipe the paan stain with it.
The polluter did as he was told, despite some initial reluctance. He was also fined Rs50 and handed a yellow-coloured receipt — saying that the cantonment authorities had issued it — for the fine he had paid.
Seeing this my colleague approached a traffic constable standing nearby to find out what was going on. The constable explained that the two young men were Karachi cantonment board scouts. He said it was their duty to walk around the cantonment area in plain clothes and be on the look out for anyone who dirties or litters the area.
The constable, my colleague claims, narrated another incident where a person was made to lick back the saliva he had spat out because he had nothing else to clean up the mess he had created.
—By Karachian
email: karachi_notebook@hotmail.com