| 17 April 2005 | Sunday | 07 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1426 |
Will corporate sector help buy snorkels?
SYED Abid Ali was distantly related to me but, more than that, he was a close friend. Retiring as director-general public relations, Punjab, he headed the same department for Wapda for sometime.
Earning a second retirement,he joined a prominent English daily of Islamabad and served as its correspondent in London. Later, he devoted his energies and talents to organizing welfare activities of the BCCI Foundation and helped innumerable journalists and performing artistes to tide over their personal problems, mainly financial. Finally keeping away from all hectic work because of ill health, he settled down in Islamabad where he passed away last year. His book of memoirs, The Way It Was, has been published posthumously. It has been ably edited by the renowned columnist, Sheikh Hafizur Rahman.
Divided into four parts, the book covers his days as a student of the Government College at Lahore, then his contacts with such cultural icons as Faiz, Sufi Tabbasum and Sadequain, followed by despatches from London and some miscellaneous pen sketches.
In the first part of the book, while talking of his days at college and making friends with many well-known figures of later years, he has also devoted an intimate piece to Abdullah Malik, and also to the well-known poet of film songs, Tanvir Naqvi, who was also related to him.
As the London correspondent of the Islamabad-based daily, Syed Abid Ali sent some extremely interesting despatches. One related to the White Paper issued in 1979 by William White law that he termed “sex discriminating and racist” as also the British Home Office advice to refuse entry to Asians on the basis of “abnormal sexuality.” Another is about the ban placed on smoking in its conference hall by the Trade Union Congress that was greatly resented. The members contended that they did not want smokers to be relegated to the corridors and toilets like “naughty school children” and persisted with their “freedom to smoke”.
As they say, a man is known by the company he keeps. So it was with Syed Abid Ali. If one goes through his pieces on Faiz, Sufi Tabassum and Sadequain, his mental attitude becomes more than clear. His relations with them were not only intimate but also emotional.
The entire book is so interesting that one can read it from end to end in one sitting. It is part of our recent history and deserves to be considered as such; Credit must be given to the Babar Ali Foundation for producing it in a most befitting manner.
*****
AS written earlier, the blind professor, Dr Muhammad Iqbal, revived the monthly sittings of his Bazm-i-Fikr-o-Khayal soon after moving here from Sargodha. The third session of this Bazm was held this month at the residence of its founder. Presiding over the function was Col Masudul Haq while the chief guests were Dr Khurshid Rizvi and the police officer, Neelma Durrani.
Opening the proceedings, the host, Dr Iqbal, initiated a discussion on what goes to convert a normal person into a poet.
Col Masudul Haq said that falling in love produces the sparks for composing verses but when a person manages to possess his lady love, the fire of love loses its glow. However, Sheba Taraz was of the view that personal feelings not only produced poetry but also paintings and the like. Nasreen Nikhat Sabzwari was more to the point. She said that poetry was an expression of one’s feelings. But Prof. Khurshid was quick to interject. He said that feelings were a part of every person but that was no guarantee that the person would end up as a poet. Poetry was an art which needed some basic qualities which could be brushed up through hard work. The popular TV artiste and poet who was present also asked to present his views on the topic. His reply as humorous, “Oh,” he said, “it is the harangues of my wife which are responsible for making me a poet.”
The programme was rounded off with a mini-mushaira in which all poets present participated.
*****
THE literary organisation, Adab Serai also held its second Monday-of-the-month session. Since it was the month of Rabi ul Awaal, the main conversation that evening revolved around devotional poetry. It was followed by some worthwhile compositions by the poets present.
— Ashfaque Naqvi
EACH time there is a fire in a multistoreyed building in Karachi, there is every sound reason for the citizen to be sceptical about the quality of save and rescue effort that would be made available, in that emergency. And were he to be reading some recent news reports about the state of the city government’s fire department there is reason to believe that the average Karachiite could be both anxious and panicky.
And were he to read what City Nazim Niamatullah Khan has said on Thursday —- wherein he has asked for help from society to set up fire stations in this city of over 15 million people, he would surely be cynical and further sceptical about the future. Where is all that money going to come from? Keep wondering, really. We are too busy making money, all of us.
And so is the business community and what is known as the corporate sector. Quite often the social responsibility they demonstrate and practice in reality is in theory. In the umpteen workshops and seminars and assorted speech making occasions where the rhetoric does not match the reality. The evidence of what I am saying lies in the fact that the city nazim has appealed to philanthropists, and some of the banks to help the local government in establishing fire stations and acquiring a snorkel. I also saw him making this appeal in a news report on a private TV channel. He was referring to the Habib Bank Plaza and the 26 storeyed Muslim Commercial Bank in particular. And the city government’s snorkel can handle only a building up to 10 floors.
Now keep in mind that as space in town shrinks, the trend is to go vertical; residential and commercial both. If snorkels are required surely these too are needed in adequate number. From the scenario that is unfolding, one does not ever see city or provincial governments having money or will to meet this challenge. It is here where the generally detached and disinterested corporate sector in this society comes in. In this city, for example, there is so much that the world of trade and commerce could do, and needs to do. Not just for the fire department of Karachi, but for the numerous fields of neglect that imperceptibly grow as urbanization expands.
And the difficulty and the challenge in this urbanization is that the corporate sector (private and public) have failed to deliver what is expected of them. In fact one Karachiite contended that the corporate sector has over the last 57 years not even indicated the awareness that was its moral responsibility. That is one of the sad aspects of this corporate failure. In a way, the rich, the affluent and the powerful have not done enough, and what makes it worse is that they do not have any sense of guilt and they have alibis and explanations for what they have done, and where they have failed. Very conveniently, they blame sometimes politicians and sometimes the civil and military bureaucrats. Never themselves! And in this never-ending devious blame game, both the city and the citizens suffer what we may choose to describe as civic pain. Little wonder then that City Nazim Niamatullah Khan has had to appeal specifically to banks like HBL and MCB which have tall buildings, which may need the snorkel and the fire tenders in an emergency.
In passing one may also mention that the banks, which are offering what they regard as dream options for extravagant consumer spending, are prime candidates for doing community welfare work. There are other corporate sectors too, but the contribution is small. What is done on ground is too little, and too late, and our collective woes, misfortunes and inadequacies are growing.
What is particularly disappointing and noticeable is that the majority of the citizenry here does not even have the awareness and the perception that a dependable, well equipped, efficient, prompt fire tender service is needed in Karachi. Strangely, citizens are being made to spend on phones, and acquire other status symbols. Look at the emphasis there is on information technology. Contrast this with paucity of resources for Karachi’s fire department.
One disturbing news report in Dawn stated that 30 out of a total of 52 fire tenders were lying idle or out of order because of a shortage of funds. (It is said that the fire department’s annual expenditure is Rs150 million, as against Rs50 million it will receive as fire tax.)
The worry only heightens when this report, quoting sources admits that the city government’s civil defence and fire department was unprepared to meet any disaster or natural calamities, were they to hit the city, God forbid. Nevertheless, one fire tender which was borrowed by Ghotki district when President Musharraf visited that place 18 months ago is still lying there. It cost Rs13.5 million, one learns. Karachi’s limited number of fire tenders is occasionally loaned to other places in Sindh, including Tharparkar for the Prime Minister’s election campaign. As one writes, I am reminded of an angry Karachiite who says that for all the zealous fund-raising that goes on fashion shows and musical evenings that are held in town (often discreetly and without fanfare and publicity before the event) there is no collective campaign by public opinion leaders and the so-called elite to have a reliable fire tender service. “Don’t they realize they themselves could need it one day?” he asked. And then another colleague pointed out that while the majority of Karachi’s fire tenders were out of order, imported cars and bullet-proof limousines were being bought for the decision makers here as well as in Islamabad.
Let me return to the city district government’s press release that was issued to mark the fire fighting demonstration and the handing over of fire tenders in Nazimabad on Thursday evening. The city nazim has offered to name the fire station after the sponsor/donor. He is also looking for snorkels. He is looking for support, which doesn’t seem to be coming. That is not all. He is also appealing to Karachiites and the affluent to realize that today this city has 20 fire stations, and it needs 120. That is to underline the fact that Karachi is short of fire stations by 100. Stop and pause, please. This is grim, grave, scary, and a sorry state of affairs. Even deplorable! We should step in and stop this.
Will this money come from the individual citizens who could contribute small sums to build the capital that is needed? Or will the corporate sector and its numerous powerful but short-sighted associations rise to the growing, yet dormant, deficiency of having a meaningful fire service in a city of 15 million men, women, and children. My mind shudders at the thought of a catastrophe striking, and we being caught blind to reality.
If one wants to read the public attitude towards the urgent need for fire tenders, one can see that vehicles do not give way for ambulances and fire tenders very easily. We live in a world of make believe. Not just in the umbrella of cable TV, but in a real life!.