01 October 2004	Friday	15 Shaban 1425

PESHAWAR, Sept 30: With more than 30,000 shamyanaas (tents) covering an area of about 4.2 million square feet, a village coming up at Azakhel Park, some 20 kilometres from here, for Jamaat-i-Islami's three-day Ijtema (congregation), starting from Oct 1, has more to it than only being a political gathering.

The economics of the political congregation, which is being held under the security cover of 1,500-strong team of JI's militant wing, is not only encouraging for small businesses of Peshawar and Nowshera, where between 400 and 500 rooms have been booked in hotels and rest houses to provide boarding and lodging facilities to important participants congregation.

These entail equal opportunities for businesses in Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Sheikhupura and Hafizabad, in Punjab, from where 72 tons of rice, a much greater quantity of flour, pulses, vegetables, chickens and spices have been transported to prepare nine meals for the participants of the congregation, which was earlier scheduled to be held in Lahore.

Besides, more than 25,000 tents (out of a total of about 30,000 erected), piles of crockery to serve meals to more than 200,000 expected participants, more than 25,000 tube lights for illumination after dusk, tons of fuel wood, hundreds of water storage tanks for toilets, water coolers for drinking water, a large number of commodes and lot as for 3,500 toilets, more than 5,000 water taps, thousands of metres of electric cables, water supply pipes, and a large amount of poplar and sumbul wood meant to prepare ablution places for worshippers are some other items which have been transported from various parts of Punjab to the venue of the meeting.

Though it brought with it big business as the total estimated expenditures, according to JI's estimates, to be incurred to make arrangements for the three-day event range between Rs20 million and Rs30 million, the NWFP's private sector could not take much benefit of the opportunity because of its inability to compete with Punjab's businessmen.

"Obviously, we had to bring majority of the stuff from Punjab because Peshawar is a small market and it cannot fulfil our demand for tents, rice and other things," said Mian Maqsood, nazim (head) of an elaborate administrative setup the JI has put in place to make arrangements for its mega political gathering, the last of which had been held four years back in Lahore.

Scores of labourers from Punjab were seen busy installing tents at the sprawling Azakhel Park, which has never attracted people's attention as an amusement park, though established with huge public sector investment more than 10 years back.

Similarly, carpenters and masons from Islamabad and cities of Punjab were hired to make arrangements for ablution on a dried irrigation channel passing through the park, which, according to Mian Maqsood, was sprayed with insecticides to eliminate pests.

The congregation village and arrangements made to provide boarding and lodging facilities to its inmates took a heavy toll on plants and trees of the park as a result of the camp administration's decision to set ablaze long grown bushes.

This resulted in causing damage to the trunks of several of the palm trees and small plants inside the park that were engulfed by the fire. "Yes, some of the trees were damaged but we had to do that to clear the surface from bushes," said Mian Maqsood, adding that "the alteration made, wherever, in the park would be undone after the congregation for which a 'restoration committee' has also been constituted."

More than 5,000 water taps have been installed to provide water for ablution, of which 4,400 have been installed on a long stretch on the dried irrigation channel. Mian Maqsood said that apart from repairing the two non-functional tube wells installed in the Azakhel park, a total of 25 water pumps had been installed, at different places, to ensure 'unhindered water supply' to meet water consumption requirements of the congregation's participants.

A local company was hired to bore the soil at 25 places as deep as 45 feet for pumping the underground water to meet water consumption requirements. More than one firm from Punjab have been engaged to install water pumps, tube lights, sound system for announcements and speeches, and laying electric wires at the venue of the congregation.

The JI claims that the Punjab government did not permit it to hold the political congregation again at Minar-i-Pakistan, Lahore, following which the Azakhel Park, situated on the left side of the Grand Trunk Road, on way to Peshawar from Nowshera, was selected.

Sitting close to a clip board on which the computerized master plan of arrangements in the Azakhel park has been pasted, Mian Maqsood said that 270,000 participants, including 70,000 women and foreign delegates, were expected to attend the congregation.

"We have also invited the spouse of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and would also extend invitation to Begum Sehba Musharraf to attend the JI's women conference on Oct 2," said Ms Ummat-ur- Rakeeb, who is head of the administration put in place to make arrangements for the women participants.

Apart from the women members of the national and provincial assemblies and Islamabad-based female diplomatic staff of various countries, she added, delegates from the United Kingdom, Sudan, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and the United States had also been invited to the congregation.

Some 10,000 tents, said Mr Owais Qasim who is in charge of making arrangements for the women participants, had been erected to provide boarding and lodging facilities to the female participants - 15,000 of whom are expected from Karachi and interior Sindh.

"Between 12,000 and 13,000 tube lights have been installed in the women's section," said Mr Qasim, from Lahore. Among other interesting features of the three-day event are: the establishment of a makeshift hospital where 50 doctors would be assisting the ailing participants in case of needing treatment, about 20 tandoors to bake roti (dough of bread), a public call office, computer section equipped with internet facility, a sprawling area for cooking and a car park.

Some 25 teams of eight to 15 cooks each have been hired from Punjab and the NWFP to cook food for the participants, who, according to Mian Maqsood, would be charged Rs125 - registration fee - for nine meals. "We have arranged the funds by raising donations for which office-bearers of JI's organizations at the grassroots level had been given target some four months back," said Mr Maqsood.

Though he claimed that the resources of the NWFP government had not been used to make arrangements for the congregation, water tanks of the Peshawar city district government's Town-1 administration and the forest department's Nowshera division were seen parked close to the main office of the congregation village.

Similarly, bulldozers of the Peshawar district council were seen levelling the surface at different places in the park. Dustbins of Peshawar's Town-1 have also been placed at different points inside the park.

About 40 members of the cleaning staff of Peshawar's Town-1 have also been deputed to take care of cleanliness and a team of 20 to 25 police, from Nowshera district, has been deputed to take care of security outside the park, while Hizb-ul-Mujahideen men, clad in camouflaged uniform and equipped with walkie-talkie hand sets would take care of security inside the venue.