| December 1, 2002 | Sunday | Ramazan 25,1423 |
Welcome step against the scourge of beggary: City presents a pleasant look
The vermicellies we will eat!
ISPR’s high noon & twilight
Present PCB setup responsible for cricket’s decline
So much is being said and written about the hazards of eating or drinking food prepared unhygienically. A little carelessness in this regard can prove fatally disastrous. There are all kinds of warnings in this respect being issued from the WHO (World Health Organisation) down to the DHO (District Health Officer). But who cares!
With the inauguration of the era of parliamentary democracy, the high noon of the ISPR would seem to approach its end.
Pakistan’s most popular sport cricket’s fortunes hit rock bottom in the last three years during which time the military government boasted of good governance, accountability and transparency.
THE issue of shifting vegetable market from a congested area to its new site near Karachi Mor remains unresolved for the last 22 years, causing a problem for the residents and commission agents.
The shifting of the market was approved in 1980 during the tenure of the then Punjab agriculture minister, Tariq Cheema, now district Nazim. A total of 78 kanal of government land was reserved for the market to construct about 60 shops. A decision to allot the shops to commission agents on merit was made, but it could not be implemented due to reasons best known to the officials concerned. Later, it was decided that about 30 per cent quota of shops would be auctioned for commission agents.
The old vegetable market is located outside Multani Gate, a thickly-populated area. Vendors and others have illegally occupied the roads around it obstructing the smooth flow of traffic, which is blocked during peak hours. Several times, the tehsil council sanitation staff has cleared the site of garbage, but, insanitation still poses a health hazard. Some commission agents have also constructed cold storages in this area. They are reluctant to move to the new market and are creating difficulties for the authorities.
Dawn learnt that the main obstacle in the shifting is that the government site of the new market has still not been approved by the Board of Revenue, Punjab. The new allottees and commission agents are demanding that the shops to be handed over to them should be duly transferred to them. The department concerned has already sanctioned an amount of Rs10 million for the development of new site. But procedural formalities are delaying the functioning of the new market. There is a need to expedite the implementation of the plan which will help generate additional income for the government and the market committee as well as provide job opportunities.
DR Captain Muhammad Shafiq (retired), a social worker, has complained to the authorities that heroin is being openly sold in Basti Himatiyan. He has sent letters to the officials of Anti-Narcotics Force and police asking them to take action against those involved in this business.
During a meeting with Dawn, Dr Sharif regretted that the ANF officials informed him that such cases were not covered by them. Teenagers also were addicts and one such teenager had died due to addiction some time back.
THE chief engineer, irrigation, Bahawalpur zone, Usman Akram, at a press conference here last week said three ponds would be completed in Cholistan by Dec 31 at a cost of Rs30 million.
With their completion, the Cholistani people will be able to get water for agriculture and for their livestock. He said to restore the first portion of abandoned Abbasia Link Canal (from Panjnad Headworks) which was constructed by Wapda in 1993 at a cost of Rs1 billion, Wapda and Irrigation Department will now be spending a total of Rs150 million on its rehabilitation. Currently, he said, a work plan had been drawn up, and it was expected that the rehabilitation of Abbasia Link Canal could be completed by April next, bringing about 200,000 acres of Rahimyar Khan district under the plough.
A MEDIA workshop on violence against women was organized here recently under the auspices of the Social Welfare Department and Unicef. Former minister Shaheen Attiqur Rahman, who presided over the workshop, urged the NGOs and human rights bodies to come forward to protect the women and help reduce violence against them. The workshop was mainly participated in by the office bearers of NGOs and women organizations.
Those who spoke included Begum Qamar Shafi of an industrial home, former education director Chaudhry Abdul Majid, Lahore SP (women police) Farkhanda Iqbal, former principal of the Government Degree College for Women, Bahawalpur, Prof Shamshad Begum, Majeed Gill and Prof Dr Sajjad Piracha of the mass communication department of the Islamia University.
IN a city that has a curious congested mix and variety of banners, often ugly and gaudy, there is a new one that strikes the citizen, with its text reflecting a point that we all argue about. A point that we all underline with vehemence, something we argue about, and lament, and sometimes end up talking of the “begging bowl” that we have had as a country. The subject here is beggars. And the banner being referred to relates to beggars on the city’s streets. Take into account there are beggars on the streets, all over the country, making one ask without any embarrassment: what does it all symbolize? Surely it does mean more than simple poverty.
This is perhaps the first time that one has seen such banners in town that have texts that dwell on the theme that professional beggars give to any society a bad name; that they are a disgrace. And that the hand that gives is better and dignified as compared with the hand that begs for alms. These have been put up by the city government of Karachi, and the city Nazim, Mr Naimatullah Khan, has launched a drive against all beggars in the city, in the last week of Ramazan. It makes one wonder why it wasn’t launched earlier - even though there are cynics who believe that like the encroachments in Saddar these beggars (who are now off the roads) will be back soon. Around Eid time or after that. The point is that while we do initiate good work, we can’t sustain it, as a people. There is lacking a continuity in our efforts, howsoever well meaning and needed they be.
There is, of course, an inherent relationship between beggars and Ramazan. And as the weather in Karachi moves towards winter, the beggars from upcountry, to escape the chill and sting of the winds there, will migrate to the Sindh capital. So the timing of the drive against beggars is appropriate.
The city government has set up ten points in Karachi where these beggars are being rounded up, and the campaign will continue after Ramazan. What was emphasized by the city Nazim at the main camp near Regent Plaza Hotel, was that a purpose of the exercise was to “launch an aggressive campaign for the masses to discourage giving of alms, including Fitrana and Zakat to these professional beggars.”
Indeed this is the time to give Fitrana and Zakat and other forms of giving as well. It is a season to share with the less fortunate and the totally unfortunate and the dispossessed. It is time to think of the poor - and it is time to remember that the poor in this society are growing. Poverty has risen, and so has unemployment. The story of our social woes, of our collective sorrows is not to be repeated here. It is well known - but ignored, underplayed at times.
But what is perhaps not so well known (or is it?) is the public attitude to alms and alms giving. The rich generally have not given back to Pakistani society what they have got from it. That is the bottom line. Had they done so, the state of Pakistan society would not have been what it is today.
Thoughts get distracted to what I saw on a Pakistani television channel on Thursday evening, this was hearing a former Pakistan president, Mr Farooq Leghari, speak in the strongest possible language and describe as Haramkhor those people who had cheated and looted this country of its money, resources and assets. And that had this not been so, our poor would not have been so poor, and the country not so deep in debt. I was shocked to hear this anger and tone of the former president, who has been known for his moderation in most instances.
One reflects on these banners up in Karachi and thinks of the beggars in the city, and the fact that most of them comprise a mafia of sorts. One fears that there will come a time, as the rich poor gap widens, when these beggars will become still more impatient. There is also a visible perceptible impatience in the common man and this too is reflected in the militant manner in which beggars ask for money now. Whether they are traffic lights, pestering motorists and passengers in public transport vehicles, or whether they chase you in the bazaars, or hospitals, or railway stations, or mosques, or outside schools and colleges, or offices, just anywhere, they are demanding, pushing and shoving their way. It sometimes is ugly, and at other times it is so scary. Some of them look like criminals, though they may not be so. And at times there are criminals operating as beggars. Of course, there are a handful of genuine men and women in some instances. Surely not all men and women pleading for charity with tears and stories are counterfeit beggars.
As one contemplates more the theme of these banners, some thought also goes out to the state of Pakistani society, to the state of its politics, and its ongoing conflicts.
It makes you wonder of how long it will take to reach a stage where these beggars will disappear for good. Right now they have been thrown out for a while, even though this too is a good sign. Most citizens appear relieved, and the awful sight they presented at traffic lights and other mainstream locations has been switched off. If there was tourist traffic in the city it would have left a decent impression. Which makes it imperative to mention that Pakistanis, howsoever unhappy they be with the state of affairs of this country, are uneasy when they are with visitors from overseas, and have to be confronted by beggars. The poor image of Pakistan as reflected by them is something that we all are familiar with.
So much to say really, when you see these banners and realize there is a drive against beggars. Of course, they will return from the Edhi homes. It is society that has to accommodate them, and it has to be a society where the affluent, and the haves must or should share, their goodies with the less fortunate; share willingly that is. Not just in Ramazan but throughout the year.
Our photographer, G.A. Zaidi, has a nasty eye. Always looking for the ugly side. He could have easily photographed this ‘cute’ little donkey painted, (probably) with the same colour in which these vermicellies were soaked! But, then he has a ‘nasty eye’! This young boy driving the cart (who clearly comes within the prescribed limits of child labour against which Pakistan is a signatory to a certain international charter) must have found some time to wait outside the factory from where he might have loaded this stuff on his cart.
Apparently, he seems to have found the container of this ‘edible’ colour which is mixed with the flour to make these vermicellies lying somewhere within his reach while waiting. Seemingly, he failed to resist the desire to paint his donkey the same saffron colour and evidently using a brush or some other object he had fulfilled his desire. How many times he might have dipped that brush or whatever object he used to paint and inscribe whatever is written on the donkey, only God Almighty knows.
And there is every possibility that after completing the job he might have left that item dipped in the container filled with the saffron colour at the end of the task! But, there is one good aspect. These vermicellies were already prepared and ready for marketing before this young cart-rider (not much different from the TV serial ‘Night Rider’) seems to have done his job!
But, what about the next load of this cargo! Forget about the WHO and DHO warnings. Enjoy a nice ‘Eid’ with lots of vermicellies!
Ever since the Kargil episode and its full sensational disclosure in May 1999 it had been virtually the high noon of the ISPR and its chief, Maj-Gen Rashid Qureshi, drifting gradually into the twilight region. His absence from the print and electronic media through the past few weeks had been widely noted.
So, one might say, had been the markedly depleted coverage of his chief, Gen Pervez Musharraf (major policy statements etc excluded). However, as the all-powerful head of the state, Gen Musharraf’s discreet use of the media would be out of his own calibrated choice than on account of any external compulsion.
The ISPR, under Brig (now Maj-Gen) Rashid Qureshi, virtually stole the thunder of all the other PR departments of the government in effect, of the ministry of information itself. Never before in the history of the country, through peace and war, had the directorate been so much in the limelight as through the past over three years. (1999-2002).
After the assumption of absolute state power by Gen Musharraf as chief executive, in a quiet coup on Oct 12, 1999, the ISPR became the most important single PR organ of the military (or the country’s) regime; and its chief, Brig Qureshi the doyen of the information / media services. While Qureshi ranked with foreign office spokesman on the podium through official briefings, he out-performed the latter as the chief executive’s and his military government’s sole spokesman.
Throughout the bitter post-Kargil India-Pakistan exchanges; the much-trumpeted July (‘01) Agra summit, its unfortunate failure and the longest-lasting India-Pakistan military stand-off since December last, Qureshi, promoted major-general, dominated the world media on Pakistan’s affairs. What with India’s jarring mantra on Pakistan’s role as a sponsor of international terrorism, no BBC / CNN / Fox story would be complete without a number of audio- visual clips projecting Qureshi.
The traumatic episode of 9/11 (‘01); the sudden collapse of the Taliban regime and their complete disappearance from Afghanistan brought its immediate neighbour, Pakistan, into the limelight of the world media as the single most important key player in America’s war against international terrorism. Gen Musharraf, dismissed as the military leader of a failed or failing pariah state like Pakistan even on the eve of 9/11, became President Bush’s righthand man in his ‘crusade’ against terrorism and its principal incubator, Taliban Afghanistan (1996-2001).
Already in the limelight of the world media ever since the high-profile Kargil episode, emitting more fire than light, the post 9/11 (‘01) charivari, brought the ISPR and its chief to the center-stage as the country’s overarching media grandmaster, specially in respect of the foreign press.
From September through November / December, 2001, Islamabad was easily the world’s busiest capital as the hub of perhaps the largest number of the press corps, practically from all over the world.
No mediaman would consider his coverage complete without an interview with the DG, ISPR. Unless lucky to manipulate an exclusive, he / she would hardly mind pirating one for the authenticity of the story.
One would get a glimpse of the DG, ISPR on one’s TV set almost as a daily fare. As for the national press, his statements would hit the front-page headlines as frequently as one might recall.
Whereas it would be hard to deny or belittle the importance of doing things in the line of duty, regardless of one’s personal preference and convenience, one could conveniently opt for a lower personal profile in the PR field at no cost to one’s professional performance. A public servant, regardless of his rank and status, should have little or no personal interest in his dealings with the press except for projecting the official point of view as best as possible. And that would be specially true and relevant in the case of the ranking military officer concerned.
Traditionally, also the ISPR has all along been a silent service in the best tradition of official anonymity and military security. During my own five years as ISPR chief (1968-1973) the directorate scrupulously observed the golden principle of official anonymity. That had been in spite of the manifold grim realities of martial law (Yahya’s 1969-71); civil disobedience, the Indian invasion and defeat in East Pakistan and, finally, war and ceasefire in West Pakistan.
Between October and December, 1971, Pindi had been the hub of a battery of mediamen from all over the world converging on the ISPR and pressing close to it much in the same manner as might have been in the first two or three post-9/11 months the ISPR briefed and dealt with them, as best as it could avoiding anything like a personal projection at any level.
I had to face a battery of foreign media men once or twice a day on the basis of the agreed ‘ground rules’ which, among several other points relating to war coverage, also provided that the press would not name the briefers and other government spokesmen in press reports as far as possible. Except for odd breaches here and there, the ground rules were observed fairly well.
Of course, in the absence of the glut of the TV channels and real time transmission of the news via the global satellite networks today, press briefers of the ‘70s could have got away with a lot of anonymity. Not so the their counterparts, today, even with the best of their effort. Nevertheless, the number of exclusive interviews and certain element of personal projection that goes with them could certainly be kept to the minimum as indeed it should be. No foreign media could possibly force the briefer or the spokesman to agree to an interview against his / her own wishes.
Interviews, even, the few well-rehearsed, are invariably liable to fall prey to the interviewer’s often, pre-planned provocative questions. An experienced interviewer can always lure the interviewee into his trap and make him talk a little more than he would have wanted to. And that is where the problem lies and must be avoided at all costs.
Speaking as a former ISPR chief, I’d still think that the golden principle of relative, if not absolute, official anonymity could be observed in spite of the pressure of today’s global satellite media. Perhaps, a twilight region might suit the ISPR, as the PR wing of the military, better than the high noon of blazing personality-oriented coverage.
The writer is a former ISPR chief.
Unfortunately all three ingredients have been missing at the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) headed by Lt Gen Tauqir Zia who took over reins of the board in 1999.
Pakistan cricket suffered because the PCB chief thought himself above board and that he could do no wrong. In fact, Pakistan has become a laughing stock amongst the cricket playing nations.
Maybe his lack of knowledge or over enthusiasm, but the fact is that the PCB supremo destroyed the team which was perhaps one of the best in the world but today is just rated above minnows Bangladesh and lowly Zimbabwe simply due to the decisions taken by him directly or indirectly.
Tauqir cannot blame anyone for the cricket decline as he is all powerful chairman of the board, chief selector, manager, coach and financial wizard all rolled into one.
Anybody who thinks that Tauqir has a team of experts, selectors, coaches, analysts, trainers, psychiatrist, etc is simply living in a fool’s paradise. Everything is done by Tauqir himself.
In his early days he had some advisors but at present he is master of all and needs no expert or advisor. Whether he realises it or not, it is a ground reality and once he bows out of office all those who are at the moment holding important posts will vouch for the fact.
All cricket controversies are centred around him. Sacking of managers, coaches, advisors, selectors all take place on his whims. As a result indiscipline has crept into the team. Everyday one finds one player making a lame excuse of taking rest and then flying to some other country to play for extra financial gains.
The players are not treated at par. There are different rules for different players of the same team which has promoted love and hatred among the players and kills the team spirit.
Some day former great Javed Miandad becomes the blue eyed boy of the PCB chief and then loses grace, then Wasim Akram gets top priority and is dropped, enters Mudassar Nazar and he becomes the hot favourite and then disgraced. One day Shoaib Malik becomes the pinup boy of Pakistan cricket and then thrown out of the team, then Faisal Iqbal becomes favourite to be discarded in the next breath.
Likewise Rashid Latif, Saqlain Mushtaq, Danish Kaneria and host of other players are given top priority on one day and summarily dumped the other day.
This policy of Tauqir has totally shaken the confidence of the players including Saqlain Mushtaq, who is rated as one of the best off-spinners in the world. One day he is dropped and the next day when he is recalled he wins “Man-of-the-Series” award. It happened in the just concluded two-Test series against Zimbabwe.
Earlier, Saqlain and Wasim were dropped from the Asia Cup when Shoaib Malik was having golden days with the PCB and Pakistan lost. Similar is the case of Shahid Afridi, who holds the world record of scoring fastest century in one-day matches.
Shahid’s confidence has been totally shaken. Can anybody with proper frame of mind think that a player who holds the world record sent down the batting order as low as No. 8. In recent times, he batted at No. 8, 7, 6, 4, 3, and one. No psychiatrist can manage to maintain mental equilibrium of any player who is shunted up and down like a goods wagon in a shunting yard.
The PCB chief, is himself responsible for creating disharmony and ill will in the team. How come when Shoaib Akhtar is injured, the PCB at first decides to send the doctor to Zimbabwe but later decides against it.
And when wicketkeeper Rashid Latif is injured he is sent to South Africa and after getting clearance from the South African specialist is recalled to Pakistan by the PCB doctors for final check up and then not allowed to rejoin the team.
This is the most glaring double standard of the PCB chief whether he accepts it or not and whether he likes it or not. It is the ground reality and this kind of double standard has simply shaken the team spirit.
Can the PCB chief, explain the nature of injury to Yousuf Youhana and Inzamam-ul- Haq in the recent past when they were sent home and have been selected for the Zimbabwe tour. Was their injury a political one? It was definitely not an injury which forced the PCB to recall them from Kenya.
Both players were diagnosed with serious injuries and the PCB medical board which went to extent of expressing their doubt about the availability of Inzamam-ul-Haq for the World Cup.
The PCB, got a slap in their face when both Youhana and Inzimam-ul-Haq made miraculous recoveries within a month and proved their fitness by scoring runs. What the PCB chief and the team management or the PCB’s so called medical experts have to say about the injuries.
The latest controversy about the wicket-keeping department has cropped up just when the World Cup is round the corner. Rashid Latif, the other day announced his retirement from Test cricket. It was on the cards as the spineless, chief selector, Wasim Bari, who himself as a wicket-keeper failed to find or make up his mind in naming the best out of Rashid Latif, Moin Khan and Kamran Akmal.
If Bari cannot make up his mind on the selection of wicket- keeper one can safely say he has no say in the team selection and he is simply a rubber stamp. Then the question is who selects the team.? The answer is obvious.
Rashid has announced his retirement because of the treatment he received from the PCB chief and time will prove that Tauqir for quite some time had been using Moin Khan card by inviting him and then not including him in the team. How long a player can stand the black-mailing by the establishment off the field and then perform on the field.
The names sent to World Cup organisers and announced to the press the other day exposed the designs of the PCB selection criteria when Shahid Afridi was named among the all-rounders whereas Shoaib Malik has been selected among the middle order batsmen.
Saleem Elahi has been selected in the openers slot with no proven record. Scoring centuries against Zimbabwe’s club standard attack is no achievement. Saleem was recalled for the African safari from nowhere just with the sole purpose of giving him a chance against the mediocre attack.
As a result of all these one-man decisions, the cricket team stands totally disorganized and disjointed. Nobody knows who will be going to South Africa and who will be leading the team in the World Cup.
If the PCB had any designs or will to win the World Cup or stake claim, it would have by now almost finalised the final 15 and even decided the first playing XI. It would have given the players confidence and given them an opportunity to plan the things in advance and not living in makeshift apartments.