| 23 May 2004 | Sunday | 03 Rabi-us-Saani 1425 |
Contaminated water issue: permanent solution needed
Of summer, KESC and good governance
The crazy maharajah and the mosque
Learning from Gibran
The Golden Bird
Sonia Gandhi has acted wisely in giving up a crown of thorns rather than being pricked by them on a day-to-day basis. As Queen Mother in the making she will have more power with lesser responsibility. Relieved of the trappings of officialdom she can keep her vote bank in tact and perhaps enlarge it.
India has voted for secularism. A Christian woman of foreign birth having won the election lays down the robes of the highest elected position to a Sikh, who will be administered the solemn oath of office by a Muslim, in a country which is 85 per cent Hindu. Three cheers for secular India!
What does this all mean for neighbour Pakistan? Sonia is not likely to be a major player in the Indo-Pakistan scene. This is dangerous territory for a naturalized Indian. The prime minister-designate, Manmohan Singh, is a former bureaucrat. He probably does not have the political lyricism of his predecessor, who was a poet, a visionary and a risk taker.
Last year, I had the pleasure of meeting Mr Manmohan Singh in his very modest New Delhi home. Simplicity, honesty, straightforwardness and an intellectualism grounded in facts and figures were immediately apparent - not always the best of qualities for a prime minister in the land of a "million mutinies". He recalled his interaction with Sartaj Aziz, his contemporary as finance minister in the '90s with admiration.
As a Sikh with a bureaucratic background, and a vulnerable patroness, any core talk on Kashmir is likely to be relegated to the back burner. His welcome pronouncements of consolidating friendship with Pakistan reflect the mood of the current times.
How should Pakistan react?
First and foremost, we must make sure, no jihadis cross the Line of Control. Nothing galvanizes world opinion and moderate Indian opinion against Pakistan as the perception that it shelters, abets, or acquiesces in with jihadi outfits. We should go one step further: dismantle, disarm and destroy these outfits for our own safety and peace with our neighbour.
Both countries should make happen the much hyped bus services from Muzaffarabad to Srinager and from Khokrapar. Both will be failing the public in their respective countries if these services are not commenced by August this year. We should stop dragging our feet on the Safta agreements. It will not be honest cricket, otherwise. The heavens will not fall if India has a large favourable trade balance against us.
We underestimate the genius of our people for inventiveness in trade and industry. We fail to take cognizance of new trades and cross-border synergies, which are likely to open up for us the vast middle class Indian market.
And what of Kashmir? We don't need talks. We need concrete, meaningful, silent actions on either side, which will signal intentions. Each action invites a reciprocal reaction. The reciprocal for ending cross-LoC firing by Pakistan should be a sharp curtailment of the savagery of the Indian army in the Kashmir Valley.
This has not happened. India should permit local and foreign human rights groups to monitor violations within the Valley and Jammu, and permit the APHC members to visit Pakistan and vice versa.
An event of last December which went largely unnoticed by our press and public opinion was a conclave in Geneva between some very eminent Israelis and Palestinians which actually reached a signed agreement on the world's most intractable dispute: (All quotes from The New York Review of Books issue, April 29, 2004).
"...The negotiating teams were headed by Yossi Beilin, a justice minister in the last Labour government, and by Yasser Abed Rabbo, a veteran Palestinian militant and cabinet minister, who has been close to President Yasser Arafat"....
"Security and territorial issues were negotiated on the Israeli side by retired Major-General Amnon Shahak, a former army chief of staff, and on the Palestinian side by General Zuhair Manasra, former commander of the Preventive Security Service on the West Bank, and by other experts.
David Kimche, former deputy head of Mossad (the Israeli CIA) and then director-general of the foreign ministry, attended the last session and helped refine the text (of the accord)"
"...According to the Geneva accord, the PLO would formally recognize Israel as a Jewish state and simultaneously create a demilitarized Palestinian state, each maintaining its capital in West Jerusalem and East Jerusalem respectively; with only small exceptions, Israel would withdraw to its pre-1967 borders i.e. from all of the Gaza Strip and nearly 98 per cent of the West Bank, compensating the Palestinians for the remaining two per cent with a land grant abutting the Gaza Strip; Israel would cede sovereignty to the Palestinians over the Temple Mount - Noble Sanctuary in East Jerusalem, while retaining sovereignty over the Western (Wailing) Wall; Palestinian political prisoners would be released in stages.
Palestinian refugees or their heirs would largely relinquish their "right of return" to their lost property inside Israel but could receive compensation for it. Any repatriation would be subject to "the sovereign discretion of Israel".
"...Dr Menachem Klein belonged to the inner negotiating circle. An eminent academic and adviser to Beilin and an expert on Jerusalem,".... "The hardest issues were territorial, the division of Jerusalem, and the Palestinian right of return, Dr Klein said,".... "In any final peace agreement many details must be negotiated, but I predict that 90 per cent of the final deal will duplicate the Geneva Accord. It's not a perfect document; it's a package of compromises. A unitary bi-national state, comprising Jews and Arabs, is a delusion.
Most Israelis want a Jewish state. On the other hand, an apartheid regime - Prime Minister Sharon's unilateral project of withdrawing from some areas and enclosing the Palestinians behind walls and fences - will inevitably lead to more opposition from abroad, a Palestinian revolt, and failure. Sharon won't admit the limits of force, but Palestine can't digest his project, and eventually both he and Arafat will realize that the only choice is the Geneva Accord."
"Polls suggest that most Palestinians would accept financial compensation for their lost property in Israel, but the 'right of return' remains a matter of deep conviction to many Palestinians who cannot be described as radicals."
The extremist organizations in Israel and Palestine have rejected the above accord. Hamas and the Islamic Jihad would wish to throw the Israelis into the sea, or settle for a bi-national state controlled by the Palestinians. The Sharonite Israelis have a project to contain the Palestinians in three "Bantustans" ejecting the surplus Palestinians and driving them to Jordan. None of these extremist views can sustain.
I narrate the events of the Geneva Accord reached between respected independent individuals as an example of what could be done in Kashmir.
Would such an eminent persons' group from India, Pakistan and Kashmir respectively help resolve our core issue? It certainly worth a try! Such a group must consist of eminent, independent, highly respected personalities from either side and Kashmir who have the courage and vision to agree to concessions for a peaceful future in the subcontinent.
There have been a number of "tracks" between our countries consisting mainly of retired bureaucrats and army brass. If they have actually reached agreements such as the aforementioned Geneva Accord, these are unknown at least to me.
These tracks appear operating in an endless time schedule and appear to lack the stamp of eminence, or public backing, or sufficient determination. One hopes that Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, the initiator of the current peace process, will, from the heights of Manali (his summer retirement home), lend his prestigious support to the unfolding process.
As today's elder statesman of the subcontinent enjoying popular support in both countries, he is ideally placed to head the eminent persons' group. Bestowing on him a high Pakistan civilian award should be considered. He would not be the first Indian prime minister to receive it (and that too from a Pakistani army general/president).
The last Indian election has done that country proud. It is not India's military and economic prowess, but the strength of its institutions that today stamps its leadership in South Asia.
The radiance of this event might mark a turning point in strengthening civil society in Pakistan which perceives itself to be in eternal competition with India. If this competition helps eliminate the ghosts of religious frenzy, sectarianism and terrorism, the more we compete with India the better.
The writer is a member of the National Assembly.
E-mail: murbr@isb.paknet.com.pk
Contaminated water issue: permanent solution needed
The death of five people in Hyderabad, with hundreds of others being treated at various hospitals for water-borne diseases, shows the gravity of the water issue which had been foreseen by experts and citizens quite some time ago. Nobody knows how many have been affected by the contaminated water being used in other towns and catchment villages.
The present situation is directly due to the water shortage that has plagued us for two decades, and created heated debates in assemblies, political parties and experts' forums. But, owing to polarization, no permanent solution has been evolved, except the 1991 water accord which too was tampered with in 1994.
The water issue involves many factors but the basic element is the availability of water at source. This is a technical issue and it should have remained so. But unfortunately it has been converted into a political football.
The existing situation is that the flow of water downstream Sukkur is too low and whatever quantity (something around 3,100 cusecs) is discharged for the Kotri Barrage is lost on the way. Not a single drop has flowed downstream Kotri since December 2003.
Before the water issue arose, the Manchhar Lake used to serve as a reservoir for lower Sindh during the off or winter season, at least for meeting the drinking water needs of the catchment areas and the habitations on the banks of the Indus. Manchhar, once the largest fresh water lake of Asia is a big reservoir. It has 16 rivulets from the Khirthar range and the Aral Canal from the Indus. It is a dual system.
While during the monsoons the rivulets and Aral fall into Manchhar, during the off season, when the Indus recedes, Manchhar's water is released through Aral into the Indus to meet irrigation and drinking needs. The Aral canal is capable of carrying enough water to cater to both requirements and has a regulatory system with gates.
In the early 1990s, a proposal to throw saline water and other effluents from Balochistan, Punjab and upper Sindh resulted in the Right Bank Outfall Drain (RBOD) Project. This was prepared to drain out poisonous water into the Manchhar Lake, and ultimately into the Indus. For years, 600 cusecs of this toxic water flowed into the lake every day, with the result that its whole aqua culture has been damaged.
Almost all the flora and fauna are diminishing at a colossal rate. In the beginning this had little effect on the lake but now the level of injurious ingredients has reached dangerous proportions. In 1991, the then minister for environment, was informed about this, but no effort was made to save the situation. It was only after a hue and cry from Sindh that in 2001 it was agreed that instead of throwing poisonous water into the Manchhar Lake, the RBOD should be extended separately to pass through Nai Baran, Kotri to Gharo Creek. But the project has yet to be completed.
This month's catastrophe is the result of not releasing enough water in the Indus downstream Sukkur. In April last year, the minimum quota was released which was enough for meeting people's needs and raising the underground water level to a sustainable level from Sehwan to the delta.
This year, no such action was taken with the result that the irrigation department opened the gates of the Aral canal of Manchhar which let the poisoned water into the Indus. When people started falling ill, the authorities pleaded that the Aral canal gates were opened for only a little while, to acquire samples and that the water was not as contaminated as mentioned in newspapers.
The question here is not of the degree of poisonous ingredients in the water. It is of the system which we follow. We have a 1991 water accord accepted by all parties and an authority to regulate water shares for all federating units. It has a formula of giving water to every unit for every fortnight. Had we strictly followed that, the present situation could have been averted.
Of summer, KESC and good governance
For all the promises that politicians and decision makers make to the people of Karachi, it is hard to think of what has really been promised to the city, when it comes to ensuring that it will have enough stable supply of electricity, not just in summer but through out the year.
As one cynical citizen said to me during the week that the only promise that seems to have been made is that of the privatization of the KESC, and by implication, that is supposed to solve the lingering problem of power shortage, which has even begun to spark power riots now. See what at the new sabzi mandi this week. Where is privatization? by the way.
It is certain that the planners in the KESC have plans for the city, but, year after year, the shortage is growing and so is the impatience and the anger of the people. One wonders why the KESC does not make those plans public, so that this city can know what kind of life lies ahead, vis-a-vis their electricity needs. Right now, one is in the dark on this count as well.
There were times when the utility would periodically and candidly spell out its plans. Perhaps it has realized that it is better to maintain a low profile, or no profile, when it comes to telling us, about the kind of scenario that lies ahead, say a couple of years from now. Will this city be self-sufficient and organized for stable provision of electricity in 2010? Can anyone answer, wonders a resident of Gulshan-i-Iqbal, who complains of power shortage every night.
So what does he do when there is a power failure (the reasons don't really matter, do they, he laments); he uses the rechargeable light and the fan that he has invested in. I have mentioned this example deliberately to bring in the point that the Karachiites have begun spending on rechargeable lights and fans, in a substantial way. There was a time when all that was required by perceptive individuals was to have a standby torch in the home, or what was called a 'hurricane lantern' that was fed on kerosene oil.
I am reminded of power failures in the past. Of course we have always had them. But see where we stand now. It seems that for all the promises and rhetoric that we have had, we have been unable to give to the people the electricity they need, and been a failure when it comes to making them realise that they have to pay for the electricity they use.
It is here that the incident that took place at the New Sabzi Mandi needs to be mentioned. Two bank branches were set on fire; a very disturbing four column photograph appeared in this daily on Thursday along with details of what happened on Wednesday. One reason cited for the violence was the protest against the prolonged power failure that the market was subjected to, and the reason reported for this was the non-payment of dues by the traders doing business there.
There is good reason to be disturbed at the details that were given. Imagine that the non-availability of electricity and non-payment of its dues by the consumers becomes a cause for societal unrest. Something is amiss, it seems. Something needs to be done before it gets too late.
Also in the news, in the last few days, has been the promise that a power rate reduction has been approved by the federal cabinet, in principle. The cabinet took this decision on Wednesday and the news of the power rate cut and that of the power riots appeared on the same day. Something symbolic about it?
The cabinet has left the quantum of the downward revision in the power rates to the ministries concerned and if the actual rates are to be announced in the federal budget, scheduled to be announced on June 5, then like the rest of the country the people of this city also wait for the power rate reduction in a context where prices of the most of everyday-use items have gone beyond the purchasing capacity of the common man.
The statistics that the planners provide on this account bring no relief to the man on the street in real terms. The list of where and how he pays more all the time, and how respectability and self-respect of the white-collar class has diminished with time, are amply reflected in the routine conversations around us.
At other times it is manifest in the silence of the people. They are so frustrated, angry, and confused that they don't know what to say. Speechless in their life's sorrows, aggravated by a weariness, and a sense of futility that makes them profiles of how the common man can be down and out?
One hears from numerous citizens that they have power failures or cuts or undeclared loadshedding daily and even at night. Entire densely-populated neighbourhoods suffer, and there is a long summer that lies ahead. lt is just the third week of May and there is June that has yet to be undergone. An afternoon daily has carried a banner story this Friday afternoon that the "power crisis may linger for the next two months," and that the government was busy with the KESC's privatisation.
It explained that the federal and Sindh governments had not paid attention to the fact that the supply of electricity to this city needs to be increased. It said that the power consumption in Karachi had crossed 2,1OOmw, and that due to the recurring shortages that were being experienced on a daily basis the negative impact on trade and industry was also hampering performance and productivity. When will that privatization take place really?
What is the long-term solution to the power shortage that Karachi faces? That is a question that no one seems to be asking, and even if it is being raised it is being done so ineffectively and so indifferently, that nobody is truly trying to answer it?
It seems we have reached a stage with regard to public attitude and perception, whereby anger and violence appear as the easiest ways of expressing public reaction. This is particularly dangerous in a city, which seems to be on the verge of losing its patience all the time.
Everybody seems to have lost all patience, grace, decorum and discipline, when it comes to realise that this is a developing society, where due to decades of neglect and faulty perception and planning it has become difficult to cop with the needs of growing population. Power and water shortages, when combined, are enough to create serious trouble in a city, that is already battling dangerous themes.
The KESC's many problems are both new and old. The older issues relate to non-payment of dues and illegal power connections or 'kundas,' which often cause power fluctuations and failures. These 'kundas' remind one of the high unaffordable cost of electricity. They also remind one of the fact that the affluent and the influential also steal electricity for their air-conditioners and other heavy duty consumption. For reasons not hard to understand, the KESC has not met with the kind of success that it should have in its campaigns on this count. Industrial consumers default in their own ways.
Electricity has also been made expensive because of the various government taxes that are tagged to the bill. Citizens have argued that these taxes are unjust in a context where the government is steadily and surely trying to give up its responsibility in such crucial areas like health, education, and so on. Despite an increasing hype about privatization, the government's operating cost is not getting lowered. The government machine is expanding and so are its costs. Therefore, consumers feel justified in demanding withdrawal of such taxes and surcharges on things like the KESC bills.
With reference to this power cost, it is imperative to mention here that the prime minister has also directed that the present prices of petrol and petroleum products should not be increased. This should help in an indirect manner also by keeping the cost of electricity stable, besides providing relief to the common man.
I have revisited this electricity failure in the midst of summer theme, not in the hope that any immediate good will come of it. It has been done to share with citizens the miseries and the misfortunes of suffering the erratic, unreliable and demeaning manner in which power supplies are cut off. As I have said before, the reasons are many, and we have heard them umpteen times. Where is that thing called good governance, Mr KESC?
The crazy maharajah and the mosque
Two of the most fascinating incidents in the torturous ten years after the death of Maharajah Ranjit Singh pertain to his son and grandson, Maharajah Kharrak Singh and his son Kunwar Naunehal Singh...two kings of Lahore who died within a day of each other in an intrigue that saw the end of Sikh rule.
The two maharajahs had a fascinating relationship with the Muslims of Lahore, and, in a way, that relationship still persists, little that we know about it. This is a tale of two tales, each linked by fascinating utterances by a weak, and some would say, crazy, Kharrak Singh, the son of Maharajah Ranjit Singh. Born on Feb 9, 1801, he was married to Chand Kaur, daughter of Jaimal Singh Kanhaiya, in 1812.
The Maharajah brought him up in the family's martial tradition and assigned him to a variety of military expeditions. While barely six years old, he was given the nominal command of the Sheikhupura expedition (1807); was placed in charge of the Kanhaiya estates in 1811; and deputed in 1812 to punish the rebel chiefs of Bhisnbar and Rajauri. He was invested with the command of Multan expedition (1818) as well as of Kashmir (1819). He was also sent on similar campaigns undertaken by Ranjit Singh for the conquest of Peshawar and against the Mazaris of Shikarpur.
It was during the reign of Maharajah Ranjit Singh that Kharrak Singh decided to build a house for himself. He summoned the chief architect and ordered him to find the most distant point from where Maharajah Ranjit sat daily. This was said within the hearing of his father. The architect did not know what to say. Maharajah Ranjit Sindh smiled and said: "The mad fool wants to die away from his home." "No, I will be killed where I stand today, but till then I want to live as far away from this point as is possible," retorted Kharrak Singh. The maharajah surely thought his frail son was crazy.
So a suitable place was selected at the very beginning of the Lahori Gate Bazaar. The plot selected had a mosque to one side. A few Sikh advisers wanted the mosque knocked down, but Kharrak Singh refused to touch it. Instead, he ordered the Imam of the mosque to come under his protection, had a Rs10 monthly salary made official, and exhorted the Muslims of Lahori Gate to use the mosque more frequently.
Other houses in the area were cleared for the royal haveli of the crown prince, and work started on a beautiful building, which took two years to complete. The people of Lahore, who used to come to see this exquisite haveli, naming it 'Dingi Haveli', and all because Kharrak Singh had approved a dent in the design to accommodate the little mosque. It was in this house that Maharajah Naunehal Singh was born on Feb 11, 1820.
There were times when prince Kharrak Singh would walk out after hearing the 'azaan' and would start knocking on the windows of his Muslim neighbours, ordering them to come to pray. The frightened Muslims would promptly turn up for prayers, and a pleased prince would then distribute sweets.
The 'Dingi Haveli', or the Haveli of Kharrak Singh, was to become the centre of power for a few years in the last days of Maharajah Ranjit Singh. Prince Naunehal Singh was a much more aggressive person like his grandfather. The frail Kharrak Sigh ascended the throne in June 1839 on the death of his father. From the very first day he had to encounter the envy of his powerful and ambitious minister, Dhian Singh Dogra, whose haveli inside the old walled city still stands. Dhian Singh resented the ascendancy of the royal favourite Chet Singh Bajwa, a trusted courtier who had also been Kharrak Singh's tutor.
The Dogras started a whispering campaign against the Maharajah as well as against Chet Singh. It was given out that both were surreptitiously planning to hand over the Punjab to the British and that the Sikh 'Khalsa' army would be disbanded. To lend credence to these rumours, some fake letters were prepared and discreetly intercepted. Gulab Singh Dogra, Dhian Singh's elder brother, was charged to work upon Prince Naunehal Sigh, then travelling in his company from Peshawar to Lahore.
Matters came to a head when, on the morning of Oct 9, the conspirators entered the Maharajah's residence in the Lahore Fort and assassinated Chet Singh in the presence of their royal master, who vainly implored them to spare his life. Maharajah Kharrak Singh was removed from the Fort and he remained virtually a prisoner in the hands of Dhian Singh.
Prince Kanwar Naunehal Singh took the reins of government into his own hands, but he was helpless against his powerful minister, who continued to keep father and son separated from each other. Doses of slow poison were administered to the Maharajah, who died on Nov 5, 1840. One well-known account claims Kharrak Singh telling his son: "If you think you will be a maharajah, time will show you that you will never be one."
But the plot did not end there. After Maharajah Kharrak Singh was cremated along with four wives and seven servants just next to where the samadh of Maharajah Ranjit Sigh exists outside the Lahore Fort, the new Maharajah of the Punjab, Naunehal Singh, was returning to the fort when the doorway to the fort mysteriously collapsed, killing the new maharajah of one day. The crazy sayings of Kharrak Singh all seemed to becoming true. The Muslims of Lahori Gate pledged to serve the family of Maharajah Kharrak Singh, who had saved their mosque.
When the wives of three Maharajahs of the Punjab, Ranjit Singh, Kharrak Sigh and Naunehal Singh, died, they were all cremated outside the old walled city far away from the fort and near where the River Ravi once bent at a point where today stands the Islamia College, Civil Lines, just opposite the office of the SSP of Lahore. The samadhs of the wives of the three maharajahs all are at the same place.
The biggest in the centre is that of Datar Kaur, mother of Kharrak Singh. To the right is the samadh of Maharani Chand Kaur, wife of Kharrak Singh. To the left is the samadh of Ghulab Kaur, wife of Naunehal Singh. A contribution for these samadhs came from the people who prayed at the little mosque inside Lahori Gate. Sadly, today the offices of the college operate inside these three samadhs.
But the tale has an even sadder tail. One of the first acts of the British on capturing Lahore was to order the razing of the beautiful haveli of Kharrak Singh. It was ordered that 'Dingi Haveli', a building Lahoris loved, be razed to the ground. In the process, the little mosque was also razed. The bricks was removed to build houses in the new cantonment of Mian Mir. A stark open space was left. Though new houses came up, that open space in our collective memory must always remain.
Learning from Gibran
Khalil Gibran, the poet, philosopher and mystic, is one of those writers whose works have a timeless appeal. His writings, which touched upon almost every aspect of life, have inspired innumerable people all over the world, and his original works which were written in either Arabic or English have been translated into numerous languages.
While Khalil is more famous for the books that he wrote in his brief lifetime, (he was only 48 when he died), he was also a practising artist and expressed himself through drawing and painting as well. His philosophy of art has a relevance for artists even today, and it is this aspect which has prompted me to write about him.
A brief biographical sketch of Khalil Gibran may be of interest to readers.
Born in 1883 in Lebanon, Khalil's family migrated to the US when he was a young boy. He studied in various schools in Boston but was sent back to Lebanon by his parents for his college education in Beirut. He later went to Paris and eventually settled in the US because his writings were considered too rebellious in his homeland.
As for his art work, that too, was original and unconventional, though he also resorted to portrait making of well-known personalities in order to make a living. In any case, it was the human form which was the main focus of his attention and in his creative compositions, he employed the human form in various postures to create his imagery.
It is Khalil Gibran who said that 'art is life, life is art, all else is trite and empty in comparison'. He also wrote that 'art is one step from the visibly known towards the unknown'. A deeply spiritual man, Khalil believed that art was the best means to get to know the greatness of our Creator. His exalted view of art prompted him to write that 'art is a step from nature towards the Infinite'.
A strong advocate of creativity and originality, Gibran was of the view that 'Art arises when the secret vision of the artist and the manifestation of nature agree to find new shapes'. Indeed, while man and nature cannot be separated, simply imitating the images of nature cannot fulfil the highest goals of art. It is when 'art penetrates into the immanence of nature in order to unveil what our bare eyes cannot see', that we can try to seek the meaning of existence.
The Golden Bird
Today, with apologies, I intend to pursue a rather male-centred theme. As we are aware, there is a rather painful religious duty, or rather sacrifice, that Muslim men are expected to endure. Some may have memories of this event in which, traditionally, an unsuspecting boy was taken to a 'nai'. Some family elder or the other would say something like, 'Oh look at that beautiful golden bird', and as the unsuspecting boy looked up, the deed would be done.
To paraphrase Shakespeare, the unkindest cut of all. One side effect of this, is that unlike Britain, bird watching is not a very popular hobby in these parts. In fact, by and large, we stay away from naturalism entirely. As with many other traditions, this one is on its way out with modern medicine. These days, as I have found in the case of a nephew, the sudden strike has given way to a new approach in which a metal ring achieves the same purpose slowly and painlessly.
The ring, it is a very very innocent looking instrument for the grave purpose it achieves. The next time I am about to be given anaesthesia for any operation or have gone bird-watching, I plan to check carefully to see that this dangerous instrument is nowhere in the vicinity.
I wonder in passing, if other parties have paid enough attention to this medical advance. Take airport security personnel for example. Have they been trained to recognize this new menace? A few years ago, I tried to travel on a PIA flight carrying an umbrella. The alert security men immediately confiscated this item. When I complained that it was only an innocent umbrella, they said that innocent or not it could cause grave injury and so could be used to threaten the pilot.
Personally, speaking if I were a pilot and someone threatened with either an umbrella or this innocent looking ring, I would be a lot be concerned about the ring. And the concerns do not end here. In this violent age, many institutions have to be protected. I would urge the security details of all high government officials to carefully search every person for this instrument. And if you discover one on anyone, they must immediately be locked as being a serious threat to... well, let's just say a serious threat.
The personal they say is the political. The country as a whole has gone through similar experiences and surprises to those I have just described. For example, every few years in our history, some leader or the other has said oh look at the golden bird (or one unit, or national language, or Islamisation) the people have been distracted, suddenly felt a sharp pain, found that their democratic rights have been... trimmed.
Unfortunately, collectively, we seem to be slow learners and are still liable to be distracted. There is also the fear that with modern methods, the same democratic trimming may be achieved gradually and painlessly. We must be on our guard for innocent looking rings everywhere.
Speaking of modern devices, I have just got a new mobile phone set. The earlier one was stolen, and it seems in the short time that it was missing, it functioned as a public call office in the MAO College hostel. This is because I have been receiving dozens of messages from relatives to pass on to various students to the MAO College. Being a polite person, I have informed all callers that the number for the hostel is now different, but not all were convinced.
One lady in particular, suspecting me of laziness in not fetching her son from his hostel room, was very insistent and in the end, I promised that I would deliver her message if I could. So here goes: Mr Shakil from Vehari, if you are reading this, please call your mother.
Just to end on a topic related to where I started, Winston Churchill, when already elderly and a member of parliament, was approached by a colleague who whispered to him that his fly was open. Churchill shook his head and said 'Don't worry, old birds don't fall out of nests'.