Shady deals in TMA

Information about corruption, favouritism and abuse of power by the officials and employees of the Tehsil Municipal Administration has been revealed. The TMA higher-ups are learnt to have been providing shelter to the 'black sheep' in the administration.

Corruption has been reported in the TMA's sanitation wing where a majority of the employees allegedly remain absent, but receive their salaries at their homes. Many others perform various duties at the residences of their seniors at the cost of the city, whose sanitary condition is going from bad to worse.

The total number of work charge employees with the TMA is about 109. Of them, as many as 35, who were appointed sanitary workers, are currently posted as supervisors in various city union councils, but are not doing the sanitation work.

The matter has been brought into the notice of the tehsil Nazim and the tehsil municipal officer several times by the municipal administration's labour union (CBA), but the issue is allegedly being ignored by them.

Besides, the appointment orders for temporary sanitary workers are revised after every three months. The labour union office-bearers alleged that the sanitation section in-charge, after receiving illegal gratification, issued appointment orders for the new work charge employees instead of giving extension to those already hired.

The strength of employees working on an ad hoc basis is also stated to be 50, but half of them are not performing their official duties. They are reportedly serving at the residences of some of the TMA officials and for that reason treated as VIP employees. Only 25 employees are said to be performing their duties honestly.

These so-called 'VIP employees' draw their monthly salaries without performing their duties due to which the TMA is facing financial burden. The district government and the tehsil Nazim should take stock of the situation without delay. The TMA labour union has pledged to take action against such employees, who shirk work by greasing the palms of their seniors.

* * * * * *

The Bahawalpur Chamber of Commerce and Industry has expressed grave concern over deteriorating law and order situation in the industrial areas of three districts. The districts are Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar and Rahim Yar Khan.

BCCI President Sheikh Abbas Raza at a reception he hosted for DIG Sarfraz Husain and a team of the administrative staff college officials underlined the need for peace in the industrial estates.

He stressed close coordination between police and public and asked the DIG to sort out the problem permanently so that these units could be run peacefully. The DIG assured the businessmen that police posts would be set up at the industrial estates in the three districts.

He also held out an assurance that the ginners and industrialists would be provided the help of police squads during the movement of cash in the coming cotton season.

**** *

Dera Nawab Sahib, once the abode of former Bahawalpur state, is now being neglected in respect of uplift works. The town has not been provided any major facility, except the sewerage system and Sui gas during the past 36 years.

After the devolution programme, it was allotted three projects for construction of roads, streets and laying of underground pipelines for the sewerage system, but these are being executed at a snail's pace due to which residents are facing inconvenience.

These projects are under construction for the last about three years and still their completion is not in sight. As regard the health and sanitation, the Dera Nawab Sahib union council has only 35 employees, who are unable to cover the UC areas within two kilometres with over 10 bastis and mohallahs.

The Ahmedpur East tehsil council should increase the number of sanitation employees and the tehsil Nazim gear up work on the three uplift projects.

Of literary piracy

Muhammad Saeed moves from British Lahore to the old city in his book, Lahore: A Memoir. The following account may be of interest to readers: Leaving behind British Lahore, we now move on to the original city -- the Lahore of the Aryans, Pathans and the Mughals.

A tremendous rush of human beings, horses and bamboo-carts carrying vegetables, milk and human cargo and a sprinkling of motor-cars and an endless stream of bicycles is a testimony to the fact that we are really a 'free' people -- all restrictions having been thrown to the four winds. The low-land on the left, perhaps the abandoned river course, is the Mohni Road.

This narrow strip of Lahore has a strong spiritual attraction for the people. Two saints Hazrat Ali Al-Hujveri, who is buried here, and Madholal Husain, who was born here, are the two most venerated saints of the city.

Data Gunj Baksh, "The Bestower of Treasures", as Ali-Al Hujveri is known, is among the early Sufis of Islam. A contemporary of Mehmud of Ghazna, he came to Lahore, equipped with a vast knowledge gained through wide travel and contact with the well-known divines of the day.

His shrine has from ancient times attracted kings and the common-folk alive, as have his works on Sufism attracted scholars and mystics. His Kashful Mehjub (the Curtain Raiser) has been translated from Persian into almost all major languages of the world.

Prof. A.R. Nicholson, the famous Orientalist of Cambridge, rendered it into English. Kashful Mehjub records and transmits sufi'istic experiences. The book is recommended as the saint-guide for those who have none.

The book has been designed on a pattern that will, perhaps, never grow archaic, for it establishes a relationship between what the soul feels and what God reveals.

What confers immortality upon the book is its style of relating religious experiences to the Quranic sources of enlightenment. What the Quran reveals and the Prophet practices, the sufi experiences.

A collection of such experiences forms the Kashful Mehjub. The name itself explains the function of the book: it raises the curtain. Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti was indeed correct when he said that Kashful Mehjubis a guide for the novice and beaconlight for master-sailors.

The famous Sufi poet, Maulana Abdur Rehman Jami acknowledged the book's comprehensive advice. Prince Dara Shikoh, the author of Safinat-ul Aulia and the elder brother of Aurangzeb, held it to be a unique book and a perfect guide. Perhaps the best compliment came from Nizamud-Din Aulia, according to whom a study of the book is instrumental to the discovery of a perfect Murshid.

Tasawwuf flourished in the centuries, which followed the sack of Bagdad. A chain of well-demarcated schools of sufi-ism came to be established throughout the caliphate. A large number of eminent books were written on the subject by the originators of these schools and their disciples.

But Data Sahib's book still retained its prominence. He and the Kashful Mehjub have not only brought light and hope to innumerable distressed hearts but conferred lasting fame on Lahore.

It should be of interest to present-day authors to know that even in those days in the field of poetry and tasawwuf there was no scarcity of literary pirates. Somebody borrowed his collection of poems and did not return it. The usurper even went to the extent of ascribing it to himself.

Another fellow borrowed his book on tasawwuf and did exactly the same. Data Sahib narrates these incidents and says that he had to guard against these acts of 'repeated brigandage' and had to mention his name again and again in the text in order to establish his authorship of Kashful Mehjub.

The complex at Data's shrine is undergoing a radical change. The old mosque, though a good specimen of floral decoration in exquisite colours after the Golden Mosque of the 18th century, had become inadequate for the increasing number of devotees, particularly on Thursdays and during annual celebrations.

The Auqaf Department, which took over the shrine in the early Ayub era, has undertaken programme of expanding the precincts of the shrine. This would comprise a mosque, an academy and library, a huge project. One can see from the parapet of the present enclosure, a complicated system of poles and planks tied in crazy patterns.

It is not easy to imagine the sort of structure which will ultimately emerge. It is expected to be something in consonance with the dignity of the shrine and the traditional grandeur of the city.

In order to create a spacious entrance to the precincts of the shrine the Bhati-Gate Islamia High school has been demolished. Some of its walls are still awaiting final erasure. Some sign, it is to be hoped, will be put up at the site to remind visitors that this was the site of one of the first Muslim institutions in Lahore.

Data's shrine is among the busiest places in Lahore. Even normally it is congested. But on Thursday nights the crowds are the densest. Amongst them one finds the infirm, half-naked, over-clothed, moving around with tinkling bells and clattering beads, crippled beggars, some sitting languorously outside the gates and others pushing the alms-givers around. Driven by their human cares, Kings and the common-folk alike have been coming here to find a moment of comfort and solace.

Iqbal said: "The Punjab is alive with the breath the Data has blown into its soil." Baskets of flower petals are heaped on the silk-covered sepulchre, saturating the whole atmosphere with an enchanting fragrance.

In pre-Auqaf days the shrine was a source of immense revenue. This served to maintain in idle and wasteful luxury of the people who traced their lineage to the Hindu Yugi who after an encounter with the saint rejected his ancestral faith to embrace Islam. Decline in the moral fibre of society does not manifest itself in the crumbling thrones alone but also when "ravens capture falcons' nests".

Bewildering mosaic

Only a few days ago, I was confessing to friends in Karachi that I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a Naga and a Chinese even though one is an Indian and the other a foreigner. For that matter I couldn't tell a Bhutanese from a Mizo.

It is just as absurd that Nepal, where I feel more at home because most local people in Kathmandu seem to understand my Hindi/Urdu tongue, is not part of my country. On the other hand the seven north-eastern states, where I am a clueless stranger at the best of times, are supposed to be the essence of my Indian consciousness.

It is weird but true that you have to be a specialist on the remote north-east to be able to tell the crucial difference between the cultural attributes of Kukis and Nagas, who are sworn enemies.

The situation is not too dissimilar to a reporting assignment, say in Rwanda, where most journalists from this part of the world would run the risk of not readily knowing a Hutu from a Tutsi, both instances being highly life-threatening.

Closer home, it is not too easy for a north Indian to tell the four main linguistic cultures of southern India from each other even though they are rooted in distinctly separate and rich traditions of Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.

And yet thanks partly to the British-built railways and, of course, to the English language, the southern states do not seem as remote from New Delhi as the north-eastern states do.

The confessions in Karachi came as part of my effort to explain to my Pakistani friends why Kashmir is not the only tangled issue for me, as it evidently is for many of them.

India is coping with, brutally confronting in most cases, nearly a dozen separatist and armed insurgencies. I asked my friends if they had ever felt as confused about the logic of their nation as I was about mine.

For instance, how did they as Pakistanis regard the Quaid's vision of 1948, which I saw embossed on the main wall of the parliament house in Islamabad, in which he had decreed a Pakistan where everyone, including Hindus and Muslims, would have equal rights as citizens? And if such a Pakistan was indeed possible, then why shouldn't the liberal Hindus of India be allowed to make a beeline for it? Why shouldn't liberal democrats belonging to any Indian community flee to a successful secular, democratic neighbourhood as envisaged by Mr Jinnah because a similar Nehruvian ideal envisaged for India is being daily trampled upon and abused by resurgent rightwing lobbies? My thoughts evoked a mixed reaction, including a few loud protests.

Anyway, coming back to Delhi last week, I did a quick check through the newspapers about the dominant stories from the north-east, just in case I had exaggerated the point about the region's alienation from the rest of India.

One of the reports related to quiet talks between Naga 'insurgents' and Indian officials in, of all the places, Bangkok! And all this was coinciding with the visit to Thailand by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who surely must have been briefed about the progress of the talks.

A second, more worrying, report came from Manipur. The newly launched Tehelka newspaper, a bold weekly tabloid, carried a front-page picture of a dozen naked Manipuri women who were protesting against an upsurge in the daily atrocities by Indian security forces. "Why India is losing Manipur", screamed the headline.

There is a siege under way of the state capital of Imphal, says the report, in which 75-year-old Thockchom Ramani, secretary of the Manipur's Women's Social Reformation and Development Samaj, is interviewed.

And then you begin to understand how deep- rooted the anger against the Indian state is. It was largely because of Ramani's initiative that the hitherto private rage among the Manipuris over a spate of custodial and encounter killings by the armed forces found a stunning public expression - the naked protest by a group of women on July 15.

It forced the world's eyes to focus on Manipur, said the Tehelka report. "Our anger shed our inhibition that day. If necessary we will die - commit self-immolation to save our innocent sons and daughters," said Ramani, popularly known as Ima. According to the reports a fortnight after that dramatic moment in Manipur's long history of dissent, the spontaneous outburst of anger has gathered more steam.

The people of Manipur are unanimous in their hatred of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958. The act must go, and now, they say. The same law is wreaking havoc in Jammu and Kashmir.

In fact India's north-eastern states have the distinction of being home to Asia's longest running insurgency. The Nagas, under Angami Zapu Phizo, launched an insurrection against independent India way back in 1956.

Since then, the Naga insurgency has spawned similar protests across the region that still remains on the periphery of national consciousness. Each of the seven states in the region today has some insurgency or the other, often setting the agenda in its geographical area.

There are at least 15 major banned groups in the region. Include smaller groups, and the number is close to 40. Over the last decade, at least 11,000 people, including security forces, civilians and militants, have been killed in insurgency-related violence in the four major states of Assam, Manipur, Tripura and Nagaland.

These are all Indian people. And yet they are all so different from 'us', the Indians, the people that the world, including all the Pakistani friends, usually dialogue with.

* * * * *

Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram is a lawyer by profession. Recently some industrialists tried to corner him when they asked why in his latest budget Mr Chidamabaram had spared the lawyers from service tax.

"The best answer to that is - there is a popular belief that lawyers render no service," Mr Chidambaram shot back. In his budget for fiscal 2004-05, Mr Chidambaram has raised service tax rate from eight to 10 per cent, besides bringing in 15 more services in a bid to integrate tax on goods and services. This has angered many in the service sector, as some of them were so far enjoying tax holidays for decades.

Pirs and chaudhris

Pir Pagara was said to have been in full form when he announced the other day that his Pir League was breaking away from the "Jat" League, the Unified Muslim League, and reviving its own identity.

This is the first break in the PML after the merger of various factions carried out under Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain's stewardship. The Pir is a temperamental person and often lets his personal likes and dislikes dictate his decisions, but his move is not likely to be without repercussions.

Others disgruntled with Chaudhry Shujaat might feel emboldened to strike out on their own. The process may pick up pace once the party president steps down as president in favour of Shuakat Aziz later this month.

Meanwhile of course, Pir Pagara's exit marks only one more twist in the troubled history of Muslim League. The party has been used and abused almost since independence. It has united and fallen apart and given birth to many offshoots.

It has always served as a tool for palace machinations. It was here in Karachi that the Convention Muslim League had taken birth in the fish aquarium during the Ayub Khan regime, with Z.A. Bhutto galvanizing the faithful.

Earlier, Iskander Mirza, fed up with the Republican Party, had tried to rope in the newly arrived Raja Mahmoodabad to head the Muslim League. The 1958 coup had saved the Raja from much ignominy, and he had gone away to live in London.

Despite this history, every ruler finds at some point that he needs the Muslim League. So it goes on, in one form or another, and continues to split with every new set wanting its slice of power and pelf. It has had its share of pirs, chaudhris and khans. Is it now waiting for a general?

Giving policemen a lift

Three policemen signalled a friend to stop his car at the intersection of Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan Road and the Mai Kolachi bypass last weekend. They looked exhausted and were leaning upon their guns.

Relieved that he had paid the motor vehicle tax the same day, the friend pulled up and wound the car window down to ask them why they had stopped him. They wanted him to give them a lift to the Artillery Maidan police station.

While the friend was not particularly keen on travelling with policemen after dark - there have been cases in which armed men posing as police officials robbed unsuspecting drivers - he asked them to get into the car and sit on the back seat, which was partially occupied by his guitar.

Two of them managed to squeeze in. But try as he might, the third one, apparently the senior colleague, couldn't find enough space on the seat. In a commanding voice the senior colleague ordered the friend to put the guitar in the boot.

Refusing to comply with his instructions, the friend asked them to either leave behind one of their colleagues or find another good Samaritan willing to take them to their destination. The police official then ordered one of his reluctant juniors to stay behind and stop another car.

On their way to the Artillery Maidan police station, the official first badmouthed his senior colleague for being pigheaded. He said that the over 100 police officials who kept guard outside Ziauddin Hospital in Clifton every time Asif Ali Zardari fell ill and was admitted there were without transport at the end of their duty.

Nor were they given an allowance to pay for their ride back to their respective police stations, he said, adding that consequently most of them had to ask unwilling drivers to give them a lift.

Cinema closures

The closure of the 56-year-old Nishat Cinema a few weeks back once again brings to the fore the problems faced by cinema houses in the city. It seems that the trend of watching movies in cinema houses has slowly died down in Karachi.

Many fear that Capri and Lyric Cinemas, two of a very few still operating in the city, would soon wind up. However, there are many who argue that it is not cinemas that has gone out of fashion but the poor quality of films being produced that has forced people to take comfort in VCRs and television.

To add to this is the high level of provincial taxes imposed on cinema houses in Sindh. Cinema owners say that the temptation to sell their properties to real estate developers is great but at the end of the day, these theatres are icons of the city and need to be retained.

The only ray of hope many see in the future is the possibility of allowing Indian movies or joint productions between India and Pakistan or the better British or US films being brought to the big screen. Should this happen, the crowds will once again return.

Of walkers and joggers

Over the years Sea view beach and the marine drive, called Beach Avenue, have improved considerably. The streetlights installed on the beach five years ago are still working. Public toilets are also there, and they are well maintained. Benches have been installed and garbage bins placed, though they remain largely under-utilized.

In the morning, pigeons, mynahs and crows feed on the leftovers before the sanitary staff appears on the scene. By about 8.30am the pavement, if not the entire beach, is fully cleaned. Helping the sanitary staff members are the rag-pickers, who collect pieces of paper and cartons.

There are many walkers. More people walk in the evening than in the morning, but if one wants to walk in peace then the best time is at sunrise or immediately after that.

You develop nodding acquaintances with other walkers if you take a stroll or jog in the morning on a regular basis. There are two or three groups of retired people who assemble there after their Fajr prayers.

Then there are groups of women that come out of the nearby apartments at the crack of dawn. The only people you miss are the foreigners who until three years ago used to walk on the beach or the pavement religiously.

Humourist Mushtaq Ahmad Yousufi who was a regular morning walker is not to be seen these days. But one does see a couple of high-flying senior executives walking fast. Some come to the beach armed with walking paraphernalia. They have a stick to ward off the stray dogs, who disappeared long ago following an anti-pye dog campaign.

These people also sport a cap, and wear T-shirts and jeans, not to speak of joggers. There is one person who walks in starched kurta-pyjama and wears chappals, but he doesn't seem to be in a hurry. He listens to music on his portable cassette player. The way he shakes his head indicates that he mostly listens to classical music.

Apart from Mushtaq Ahmad Yousufi one misses Captain Sadiq, a retired PIA pilot who used to walk his dogs every morning. Every time he would hear the sound of an aircraft he would look up, and if it happened to be a Boeing 747, he would drift down memory lane and would invariably tell anyone walking with him that that was the last aircraft he flew. One doesn't know where he has disappeared.

The beach and the pavement remind you of the famous lines from Lord Tennyson's poem "For men may come, and men may go / But I go on forever."

email: karachi_notebook@hotmail.com.

Involving people in decision-making

Any system in which the overwhelming majority of the people is marginalized from broader economic participation stands discredited and should be seen as discriminatory. This view was expressed by Dr Greg Mills, director of the South African Institute of International Affairs, during a visit to Karachi for discussions with Pakistani academics.

Dr Mill's observations were obviously based on the South African experience, but he emphasized, in a long and amiable chat, that the relationship between the political environment and the economic sphere was crucial for every developing country. Political and economic reform together defined the shape of a country's political economy.

Dr Mills also believes that the whole concept of national sovereignty and security had undergone a radical change since 9/11. "When we are talking of concepts of security today, we are not talking of concepts of state security. We are fundamentally talking of human security, talking about livelihood and opportunities of peoples."

This new concept of security redefines the notion of sovereignty, state sovereignty and sovereignty of the people as opposed to states. That can happen in an external environment.

But a corresponding set of reforms was needed internally. And that is why not just in the Middle East, not just in Islamic societies, not just in Arab countries, but in many countries people are questioning fundamentally how to improve the linkage between citizens and state.

Arguing about the different concepts of security, which leave room for foreign intervention, Dr Mills said it no longer meant state security alone. "We are talking of human security, talking about livelihood and opportunities for peoples.

One thing that 9/11 did was that it focused attention on how we improve the opportunities for the lot of the people in the developing world - those people who have been in a sense not only sidelined and marginalized by globalization.

They certainly haven't benefited the way people in the developed world have. This new concept of security really redefines the notion of sovereignty, state sovereignty and sovereignty of the people as opposed to states.

Dr Mills said: "If we are concerned about this human dimension to security, then we have to strengthen that link and responsibility. The fundamental issue is how do we in a post-9/11 context deal with human security problems in a way that it may be strengthening the linkage between citizens and the states".

In a society where any group, gender group, racial or ethnic group, was excluded from full participation in the economy, the rulers often found themselves in a precarious situation.

That is why, according to Dr Mills, most people accepted the economic logic and political necessity of giving a much better opportunity to black people in the South African economy who had suffered under 350 years of racial separation and legislated discrimination.

Gains of French Revolution discussed

KARACHI: The Historical Events Committee of the Arts Council on Saturday hosted a discussion on 'French Revolution: for equality and freedom.' Presided over by Jamiluddin Aali, the discussion was addressed by Sindh education minister and noted historian Dr Hameeda Khuhro, Dr Qutbuddin Aziz, Ghazi Salahuddin and Sajjad Mir.

The opening paper was read out by Prof M I H Izhar Haideri, while Prof Anis Zaidi conducted the event and presented a brief synopsis of the intellectual movements which later brought about revolution in France.

While Mr Aali in his discourse described the course of events during the revolution and said that it had a lasting effect on the politics in Europe and elsewhere, Prof Khuhro had a different opinion."

Yes it is a wonder story, it had no deep effects like Marxist revolution and therefore soon it disappeared," she contended. "Personally, I am in favour of evolution, rather than revolution," she said.

There was a long history of movements which paved the way to the bloody events, Killings, guillotine and later political changes, she said, adding there was no justice in the courts which was one immediate cause of the turmoil.

Dr Khuhro favoured gradual development of the society, passing through phases and bringing forth democratic values and parliamentary rule in the process. Quaid-i-Azam had the same vision, as he was impressed by the political thought of the post-industrial revolution era in England, she added.

Dr Khuhro advised the writers and intellectuals to create enlightenment and awareness among the people to bring about a change in the society. Mr Salahuddin terming the French Revaluation a product of great philosophers and intellectuals like Voltaire and Rousseau, said it gave the French society liberal thought, equality and an urge to attain human rights.

Oppression of the peasantry and denial of justice to the common people were the immediate causes of the revolution, he said, adding that one might compare the conditions with the situation in our country, with the difference that the French intellectuals were very strong.

Our middle class was numerically weak, while it had lost its connections with the villagers, he said. Widespread ignorance, a 'sickening' contempt for the West and liberal thought seemed to be big hurdles in any change for the better. Through the French Revolution, he said, people got rid of feudalism and the clergy, adding that it had many lessons for us.

Prof Zaidi recalled Martan Luther, his movement against the iron hold of Pope and the clergy, and in support of rational thought. There was a chain of events, which later burst into revolution in France, bringing in its wake a change in the minds of the people in Europe and the rest of the world, he added.