| May 22, 2006 | Monday | Rabi-us-Sani 23, 1427 |
Water woes may not go
CRUCIAL talks with Pakistan on demilitarising the Siachen Glacier and a visit by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Srinagar this week run the risk of subversion by hawks on both sides. They include media lobbyists, military brass, as well as bureaucrats who instinctively fear the idea of peace striking roots between India and Pakistan.
Their fears are summed up well in an Urdu couplet: ‘Wo gharib dil ko sabaq miley ke khushi ke naam se dar gaya!/Kabhi tum ne hans ke jo baat ki to hamaara chehra utar gaya!!’ (The heart feels secure in nursing time-worn grudges and gets frightened at the prospect of good news/When you smile at me per chance, therefore, I cannot help look disbelieving and grieved).
Tipping the balance against any such ‘good news’ coming out from the above events are two extraneous factors. The Indian prime minister is in the middle of a make-or-break battle over caste alignments within his own Congress party. To further queer his pitch, the hardline Hindutva opposition, which was bruised badly in recent state polls, is also seeking to claw back into the public gaze and has launched a highly visible attack on the government’s Kashmir policy.
Dr Singh has two options to deal with this situation. He can be bullied into submission by the opposition-bureaucrat combine. That would be easy. But in yielding to them he must bear in mind the strange truth that Indian hawks share a close resemblance with the armed militants who launched a vicious attack on a Congress party rally on Sunday at a stadium in Srinagar. The objective of both is to thwart the peace process by poisoning the atmosphere at one of its crucial junctures.
The alternative for Dr Singh is to boldly wade into the crisis and deal with the issues head on. If he chooses this approach, he has a fair chance of leaving an imprint as a bold leader with a vision for the arriving future of South Asia. This way can also turn his domestic political quandary on its head.
Given the incremental nature of the India-Pakistan dialogue few can expect a pulsating progress, much less a breakthrough from Dr Singh’s Srinagar visit. He is circumscribed by his own chosen format in which he is expecting to talk to a whole range of Kashmir’s political leaders at a roundtable conference. Neither the Hurriyat nor the other major players from the resistance groups are expected to participate. So the roundtable already looks like a semi-circle of pro-India power-brokers.
Be that as it may, there is still a lot that can be creatively done to salvage the visit. What does the average Kashmiri want from the Indian government at the moment? They want their dignity back, their human rights restored, their fellow compatriots freed from prisons and their tormentors punished. All this is highly achievable within India’s constitutional framework at no political cost to the otherwise besieged prime minister.
He can make a beginning from Delhi itself to make his intentions clear to his Kashmiri audience and those in Pakistan and elsewhere. He can secure the release of a Kashmiri woman from Delhi’s Tihar jail. Zamrooda Habib was picked up in February 2003 for allegedly carrying a few things she had received from then acting high commissioner of Pakistan, Jalil Abbas Jilani, for Prof. Abdul Ghani Bhat of Hurriyat Conference and other resistance leaders.
The case against Jilani was ridiculed even by Indian diplomats, both serving and retired, who thought he had been framed by a ham-handed home ministry under Lal Kishan Advani’s watch. So he eventually came back on countless missions as his country’s point-man from India in the foreign office. On occasions he must have even met the prime minister. In any case, Prof. Bhat has held talks twice with Dr Singh. We are told of the prime minister’s riveted attention to his expositions on Kashmir which are invariably laced with phrases from Persian poets and philosophers.
So the men are out, but the poor woman, Zamrooda Anjum Habib, has been left to rot in Delhi’s notorious Tihar jail. Those who have followed her story say she was tortured and abused too. Dr Singh should read the letter Zamrooda’s sister has sent to international organisations.
For 13 years before her arrest, Zamrooda was working as a human rights activist. She had received an email to join a women’s conference in Bangkok, which brought her to Delhi. She was picked up by the Delhi police and booked under an anti-terrorism law dealing with financial crimes.
“Anjum’s health has deteriorated in jail, and sometimes her health becomes very precarious. In the process of befriending other human beings, she has become separated from her own friends.” With their eyes on scoring political points, BJP leaders have warned the prime minister to back off from any plan to militarily disengage from Siachen. The government, given its vulnerability before hawkish advice, timidly stated that there is ‘no question’ of India withdrawing any soldiers.
Only last April the leaders of the two countries had sought to ‘expedite’ the process of settling Siachen. (Their other resolve that has been torpedoed by the hawks is the re-opening of the Mumbai and Karachi consulates in January this year.)
The Indian prime minister may have read excellent arguments by Indian analysts who have decided to take on the hawks. One such was Lieut-Gen (retd) Harwant Singh who wrote an incisive analysis in The Tribune last week.
While India insists that before the troops from the two countries pull back from their positions, the same should be delineated on the maps and authenticated by the two sides. Pakistan baulks from such an agreement.
India suspects that Pakistan will occupy the vacated positions on the Saltoro Range. “If one is to surrender to suspicion and mistrust, then even if positions are authenticated, mischief by Pakistani troops is still possible,” argued Lt-Gen Singh. “They could occupy the heights vacated by Indian troops, an agreement notwithstanding. So, authentication of positions by itself is of little help in case of bad faith.”
As an alternative to the authentication of the positions, India could instead show its positions to the international media. Mark the Agreed Ground Position Line (AGPL) on the ground and take satellite pictures and publish these. We are looking at an uncomplicated solution to the Siachen tangle. Draw up an agreement requiring both to demilitarise the area and insert a provision in the agreement that in the event of occupation of the vacated positions of the opponent, by either side, it will confer the right on the other to take recourse to actions to redress the situation. For bonus the retired Indian general is also offering Dr Singh a chance to get out of Delhi’s political doldrums and become a man of global significance.
Think alcoholics, and you think of glassy-eyed men, staggering all over the place, clutching on to a bottle of booze, says a report in The Hindustan Times. But now women alcoholics are suddenly tumbling out of the closet.
According to Dr Nikhil Raheja, a Delhi-based psychiatrist and therapist, alcoholism in women is growing at an alarming rate of around 10 per cent. “Even five years ago, we had no women patients,” he says.
At Delhi’s Masihgarh Church — where meetings for Alcoholics Anonymous are held regularly — there are 14 women who attend meetings now. And Dr Megha Hazuria Gore, clinical psychologist, agrees that an increasing number of women are admitting to alcohol problem and seeking treatment for it. “Women today see drinking as a part of acceptable social behaviour,” she feels.
jawednaqvi@gmail.com
The twin menaces of water and power shortages have made Karachians’ life miserable. When faced with either of them, it is difficult for the beleaguered consumer to decide which one of the crises is harder to bear.
Well, people probably existed even when there was no electricity and they all were not kings and queens who could afford attendants to fan them in the summer months. There is, however, no evidence that humans ever survived without water.
Water complaints are growing in proportion to the heat. Islamabadis have recently stolen the limelight as the lake supplying water to the capital is drying up, forcing the city to make do with a shrunk supply. Not accustomed to harshness of any kind, they cannot take anything unpleasant.
Karachians are the toughest of the lot. They can readily endure hardships people of other cities may cringe at even a thought of them. For instance, there are areas which do not get potable water throughout the year. Those who live in such areas consume the undrinkable underground water or buy water tankers at exorbitant prices. There are localities which do not have space enough for a tanker to squeeze through. They depend on donkey carts supplying water pilfered from mainlines or just collected from ponds.
Last Tuesday, Karachi Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal declared that with the commissioning of the K-III water project, having a daily capacity of 100 million gallons, there would be no water shortage for at least two years. The present supply to the city is 540mgd and the addition will make it 640mgd, whereas the city’s need is 660mgd. Another project of 100mgd, K-IV, is likely to be launched next year.
But many consumers know that they will suffer as they have for years, the additional water supply notwithstanding. Because the problem is not only that of a short supply. It is that of distribution also. The decades-old, rusted distribution network is unable to carry extra load. When further pressure is put on it, the lines are likely to burst with greater frequency. So, the network should have been strengthened before any fresh supply is released into the system.
And there are these godforsaken civilian areas administered by the six cantonments in the city. A glaring example of this is Bhitai Colony falling in the jurisdiction of the Cantonment Board of Korangi Creek. Certain parts of it get more water than they need at the cost of others areas. Residents in this locality pay higher than the usual taxes. But they are stripped of their right to seek amenities, including the vital water supply. A tanker-load of water costs the seeker a day’s off from work to get a slip for it, Rs155 for a single tanker as well as a wait for several days for his turn.
The city government admits that more than 30 per cent of the water supply is lost to leakages and thefts. There are many hydrants which pilfer water from mainlines, depriving consumers of their share, and sell it at a very high price to factories and business houses.
The city government’s tanker supply system under the supervision of the Rangers is more of a hassle than a facility. Rangers charge high rates and the reluctant drivers demand extra if a house is not comfortably close to the hydrant. The tankers do not cater to the need of people living in far-off areas. This distribution system also needs to be streamlined.
In the face of odds
Seventeen-year-old Farhan Khan is waiting at a Korangi stop for a bus that permits him a foothold on the tightly packed footboard. He has to rush to his examination centre in Defence Housing Authority. Once there, he will try to solve his intermediate paper as quickly as possible because he has to reach his office in the Lighthouse area where a lot of routine work must be piling up for him. He is manning a shipping firm’s customer service desk.
To reach his office, normally, too, he has to change two buses, which are overcrowded and rashly driven during the morning and afternoon peak hours. But these problems do not dampen his spirits. He is quite thrilled that he has a reasonable job and is able to earn a modest living for his family of five. An elder brother, also a matriculate, is jobless and two younger brothers are at school.
Farhan had lofty dreams till last year before his father died of a heart attack. The boy was a keen fresh student of the Landhi-Korangi Degree College where his father could afford his education. But when the bereavement befell him, he knew it was he who had to carry the burden of family finances on his tender shoulders. A car driver with a private firm, his father, Bismillah Khan, did not leave much for them to inherit but a small house in a Korangi locality. Among the first things he had to help with was his elder sister’s marriage, which was solemnised a few months ago.
Despite his dreams being shattered by his father’s sudden death, he did not plunge into a state of despair. Instead, he accepted the adverse circumstance as a challenge.
When he went for a job interview, he was reminded that he was too young to be hired for a responsible position. He, however, argued convincingly and obtained the job. His employers were not disappointed with his performance. He was quick to pick up the work and has been doing it efficiently for a year or so. Farhan cannot attend college, but in the evening he takes tuition from a neighbouring youth. He may not become an engineer, as he wanted, but he is confident his sustained hard work and enthusiasm will deliver rewards.
Writing nonsense
Traffic police’s campaign against smoke-belching vehicles seems to have fizzled out after the transporters’ lightning strike crippled the city for a day last week. But the banners hung at various intersections are still there to amuse language-conscious motorists.
A colleague says: “It is quite hilarious to read what’s been written on these banners put up all over the city during the anti-pollution drive. The drive itself is a good idea, no question about that but some care should also be given to use clear language, good grammar and punctuation. There is one huge banner, which says ‘When you commute, Don,t pollute. Yes, there actually is a comma in place of the apostrophe. There is also ‘Pollution kills, and make you ill’, which literally means that pollution will make you ill after it kills you.
“These banners would eventually be removed but what of those permanent signs that you see in the city that make a mockery of the written word. It is not even about English anymore. For instance there is a board on the Karachi Port Trust underpass which is in Urdu and says that ‘trawlers are not allowed to use the underpass. Well, trawlers would not use it even if they wanted to for the lone fact that they can only move on water. Could the KPT have meant ‘trailers’ by any chance?”
— Karachian
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