| 13 January 2005 | Thursday | 02 Zilhaj 1425 |
Poetry collection launched
Commenting on protests triggered by an acute shortage of drinking water in Sukkur and Hyderabad, Kawish points to the irony that a water crisis has gripped the cities are located on the bank of River Indus and are also served by a canal.
On top of it, the daily writes, people in the authority have been coming to Sindh to convince its people about the need for building the Kalabagh. They argue that the dam will help save water going waste in the province. However, the current water crisis nullifies their claim and proves that Sindh, named after a river, does not have water enough to meet its requirements.
Coming to the Hyderabad situation, the paper says that civic agencies hold the provincial irrigation department responsible for the crisis but the latter blames the civic agencies.
The tax-payers have nothing to do with the blame game because they want the civic agencies to ensure an uninterrupted supply of water. And it is not only the matter of water supply, the agencies have even failed to cover manholes which take lives of children every other day.
In the absence of a system of check and balance, the agencies shrug off their responsibility on the pretext of paucity of funds. Regardless of who is responsible for the state of affairs, the paper urges the Sindh government to take action to end the water shortage and to apprise the federation about water shortage in the province.
Awami Awaz writes that while residents of Qambar are still agitating against the killing of four people who were protesting against the creation of a new district, the provincial government has opened another Pandora's box by moving to bifurcate Hyderabad district without consulting people.
It says that the government should consider recommendations of the Hyderabad District Council on the issue and concentrate on resolving people's problems, instead of creating new ones.
Ibrat blames lack of preventive measures for the outbreak of the skin disease lieshmania in four districts of Sindh. It calls upon the provincial health department to take adequate steps to prevent the disease from spreading further.
Hilal-i-Pakistan points out that one parliamentary committee on Balochistan has recommended restoration of provincial autonomy while the other has proposed abolition of the concurrent list.
It says that the issue has been lingering on since the suspension of the 1973 constitution by the military government of Gen Ziaul Haq and has recently led to unrest in Balochistan. Unless the issue is resolved and provincial autonomy is restored, the paper says, it will be futile to expect any improvement in the situation.
Poetry collection launched
Be-sada Dareechay, a poetry collection from Parveen Nazir Somroo, was launched on Monday at a largely attended meeting of writers. Dr Jamil Jalebi presided over the function while speakers included Prof Saher Ansari, Mahtab Akbar Rashdi, Qaiser Zaidi and Dr Saeeda malik, minister for population welfare and women development, who was also chief guest of the evening.
The Lobby, an NGO meant to promote literary, sponsored the launch. Dr Jamil Jalebi recalled that Mrs Somroo's first poetry collection, titled 'chiragh Sar-i-rahguzer', was published two years ago.
Bringing out another book just in two years reflected her devotion to poetry. Parveen, as earlier speakers remarked and emphasised by Dr Jalebi, had spent a life filled with hardships and emotional stress and faced them bravely. The life she lived was found in her ghazals and verses. The preface of the book deftly written carries her experiences in the past years.
Ms Mehtab Akbar Rashdi reminded that a couple of years ago, on the occasion of the launch of Soomroo's first collection, she had advised the poet to drop her sheepish emotions and style in self-pity, be strong and adopt a bold yet modest style in writing. Mrs Rashdi was happy that her advise was carried out. Her poetry was now highly appealing.
Prof Ansari read out quotations from the poetry collection and admired her prose and also poetry. Qaiser Zaidi, whose publishing house released the book, admirably recalled some of her verses like one: Khoon pani ho ya Samander ho. She was much applauded for the following couplets.
Barood, maut, firqa parasti, tabahean
Shaitaan ke thay kaam jo insan ker gaya
Phirta hai kaun kasae dil lay ke dar bader
Yeh kis key Tooftey hain saharay yahan wahan
Earlier, Rizwana Soomro, daughter of Nazir Somroo, briefly spoke her "most loving and caring" mother. Javed Hasan did the compering.