| December 18, 2005 | Sunday | Ziqa’ad 15, 1426 |
Time to damn the dam
What is the message that goes out both to the citizens and to the visitors (any tourists?) in the face of the growing levels of security alerts and security measures that are being introduced in Karachi?
We had that One-Day international between Pakistan and England on Thursday providing good cricket for an excellent crowd. But wait. Does it mean that each time there is cricket of this level to be played in town, we will end up closing down about half the city? Does it mean that really? I like cricket, but I have to think whether this cost is to high, laughed a zealot who watched the game on the telly. We’ll get to the security that cricket needs in this day and age in a while. As one writes this column on Friday evening, and keeping in mind the context that the Prime Minister is in town, there has come another traffic police communiqué which advises (or is it warns) the citizens to stay off Sharea Faisal (once again) on Saturday and Sunday so as not to get inconvenienced because of the VVIP movement. And because it is a security need. Timings and duration are obviously undisclosed. So wait, and suffer and bear, indefinitely. These communiqués don’t mention alternative routes. Given Karachi’s congestion and town-planning there aren’t any real options. Take it or leave it, that is the best option. I can imagine what kind of Saturday it could be for poor Karachiites. But what about emergencies. Bear in mind that the JPMC, the NICVD, the Kidney Centre, and the Children’s hospital are all off the Sharea Faisal. Trapped ambulances? Pray that does not happen. There was a time when newspapers carried regularly newsitems about the arrival and departure of the President and the Prime Minister. Now security needs warrant that this information be held back. Fine. But then security measures are growing at the grassroots level in such a manner, and extent, that one feels that the Karachiites are being taken hostage, remarked one pedestrian who was stopped from crossing the road in the vicinity of five star hotels on Club Road. Another person who works at Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Road area has begun describing it as a “kind of war zone”. I am unable to resist the temptation of mentioning the days (or times?) when one of the smaller pleasures in Karachi was to go to PIDC house for a “meetha pan”. With the current ban on car parking in the PIDC area, we can imagine the downslide in meetha pan sales!! We are turning modern, and trying to be secure too. It is relevant to mention here the heightened degree of security steps that were in place on Friday afternoon when the Prime Minister, Mr Shaukat Aziz, inaugurated the 17th Biennial Cardiac Conference at the Pearl Continental. These security measures were not just clamped outside the hotel, and in the neighbourhood, but also inside the hotel. For those who need to be updated on what these measures can include here is a list. An invitation card cleared by the authorities can remind him to bring his national identity card or passport, along with the invitation card and the envelope. Then it is also stamped (politely with thanks!) that mobile phones, and cameras will not be allowed. Sometimes even handbags are prohibited. After that when the guests enter they walk through a metal detector and then go through a body search as well. Even shoes are “scanned”. Let me remind that this security clearance is required after one has gone through the hotel security check.
I can understand how citizens keep wondering what is happening to our lives in the name of security. VVIP security cannot and should not mean a nuisance and harassment for the common man. The Prime Minister in his address to the heart doctors on Friday, at one point remarked that Karachi was a big city, and, therefore, had tension as well. Which is to imply that Karachiites had tense lives. Here I may add that this tension aggravates not just when the security measures are experienced by citizens, but also at the thought that there is VVIP presence in town. Nevertheless it is a very challenging assignment to provide security and ensure that the people are not “held hostage”. A redeeming aspect of the traffic jams that are caused by these security measures is that December is not as suffocating, weather-wise, as our summer days. Count this as a blessing?
There were reports about traffic jams on University Road despite publication of a traffic management map. Now cricket has its enthusiasts, and while they are happy at the success of the one day game, they were somewhat surprised at the extent of security that was put into place for it. Tariq who spent a day at the National Stadium believes that given the discipline and excitement that the crowd demonstrated security measures could have been moderate and reasonable. Such opinions and comments have a reflective impact in most cases. For the security cover that was in evidence for the match, or for VVIP movement, are we then to ask whether, without these measures Karachi is an insecure city. And that is it the way to attract tourists. Of course, Karachi is looking for tourists, not just for the money they bring in, but also the good they do to the image: soft and hard image. But it is perhaps a moot point whether the sight of a variety of weapons, in ready to shoot position, held by armed uniformed men, puts off a person, or lends to the visitor the comfort of security and convenience. But as we have talked of cricket and VVIP security, thoughts turn nostalgic. The young would find it inconceivable to know that there was a time when Presidents and Prime Ministers in this country did not need so much security, and neither did cricketers, for that matter. Neither did we eat our bun kababs and chicken-tikkas under the watchful eyes of private armed guards. Or go to mosques guarded by loaded guns, for that matter.
THE absence of a sincere national dialogue on the construction of a big dam upstream of the Indus continued to dog inter-provincial relations this week. The Chaudhrys of Punjab, for once, came out clean on the issue, saying the dam was a national need and must be constructed even it were to cost them their stranglehold over the country’s politics. Those belonging to the so-called ‘forward bloc’ in the ruling PML, however, doubted the rulers’ ability to convince their counterparts in the other three provinces as to the good the dam would bring to the entire country and not just Punjab.
The opposition parties, particularly the PPP and the PML-N, are lying low on the issue, at least at the provincial level. Media reports and talk shows on TV revealed that both Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, during their respective terms in office, were convinced that Kalabagh dam should be built in the greater national interest. But before either of the leaders was able to evolve a national consensus on the issue, they were prematurely booted out of office. The stated position from both the leaders now is that going ahead with the construction of the dam without first achieving a national consensus would be disastrous for the country.
This was also the theme of many seminars held in the city, as well as the talk shows on TV on December 16, the day Dhaka fell to the Indian army back in 1971. Speakers, many of whom served in key positions in the former East Pakistan, donned the self-righteous mantle and pointed fingers at the generals or at Z A Bhutto, holding one or the other responsible for the break-up of the country. Some drew analogies between the then prevailing distrust between East and West Pakistan and the current inter-provincial relations in what is left of this country.
Drastic comparisons aside, it is also time one asked some of these people as to their personal loyalties back in the days of the full-blown Mukti Bahini insurgency in the then East Pakistan. Could anyone of them step forward and have the courage to admit that they themselves were willing partners in meting out unjust treatment to the Bengalis? They should also be held responsible at least as prisoners of conscience for having been part of a system that was so lacking in justice and fair play.
A similar mental paralysis now grips the rank and file of ruling politicians and officials belonging to Punjab, who may like to call themselves honest and conscientious, come another day, another time. The fact is that you cannot ignore the trust deficit that exists between the three provinces on one side and Punjab on the other. The opposition to the construction of Kalabagh dam may well be based on flimsy or imaginary grounds, as some say, but opposition it is. It cannot be summarily rejected and arbitrary decisions imposed by a government that is woefully incapable of taking its own MPs along in all the four provinces.
The right thing to do at this time would be to damn the dam until the civil-military establishment is willing to loosen its grip on the political process. Let there be fair elections held, if not now then in 2007, and let the people’s genuine representatives come forth with a mandate that would empower them to take important decisions on the construction of big dams, on an equitable National Finance Award and on shortening the Concurrent List, that biggest divisive instrument, whereby successive federal governments — many of them unrepresentative — have played havoc with the will of the people.
Asking for the moon as it may sound, let the voice of sanity be one from Punjab this time round. But the million-dollar question remains: is there a single leader in this largest of Pakistan’s provinces who would dare to rise above self-interest and raise such a voice?
THE trial run of the Amritsar-Lahore bus service was conducted amid much fanfare on both sides of the border this week. The Indian government has also approved the running of a direct bus service between Amritsar and Nankana Sahib in Pakistan. Both these services are going to benefit the thousands of Sikh pilgrims that visit this country every year to offer prayers at their holy places. The fare of Rs900 for a 32-mile journey between Lahore and Amritsar is rather steep and defies explanation by the tourist department that the bus service will be run on a non-profit basis.
As far as Pakistanis are concerned, there has been no relaxation of travel restrictions between the two countries. East Punjab, by and large, remains out of bounds for Pakistanis despite improved relations between Islamabad and New Delhi and the two governments of the respective Punjab provinces. There is no plan by either government to set up visa offices in Lahore and Amritsar to facilitate travel between the two bordering cities. The least Pakistan should have done was to push for a reciprocal deal with India that could have allowed Muslim pilgrims from here to visit Ajmer in Rajasthan in exchange for facilitating the Sikh pilgrims’ travel to Pakistan.
THE education department has finally decided to purge the primary school syllabus of additional subjects like Social and Islamic Studies. This is being done with a view to reducing pressure on young pupils who would now be studying only four subjects: Urdu, English, Mathematics and Science. The new, saner and modern policy would come into force in 2007, which is a case of ‘better late than never’.
Meanwhile, booksellers and publishers have protested against another policy decision taken by the education department, which has shifted the start of new academic year from March to August. This is being done at the national level, and it would go a long way in easing the problems of those students who have to seek admission in the next class in another city or province.
The only downside of the policy in the first year of its implementation is that booksellers will have to wait for another five months before they make a killing. One wishes the education department also had a policy on subsidizing primary schoolbooks for students who don’t have access to free books offered by the public school system. Private schools are filling a big gap in the education sector but these should not be allowed be become totally commercial, bloodsucking enterprises for providing a basic service. —OBSERVER