| April 28, 2008 | Monday | Rabi-us-Sani 21, 1429 |
Mystical musings
Housing the builders
Sir,
It is strange that instead of giving relief to the consumers the PTCL has all of a sudden reduced the duration of a unit call from 5 minutes to 2 minutes, thereby increasing the monthly bills by 2.5 times from 1.4.08. The consumers will never accept it.
In many countries, local calls are free. In others it is very nominal. A while before privatization, throughout Pakistan local calls were free between 0000 hrs to 0600 hrs.
The service of the PTCL has deteriorated too much since privatization. I don’t know why the PTA is silent. The PTA should take immediate action and order the PTCL to maintain the same tariff as it was in March 2008. Moreover, the PTCL should give facilities to the poor customers. Otherwise they will be compelled to get their phones disconnected.
HARIS AHMED
Gulistan-i-Jauhar
Left in the lurch
Sir,
This is in continuation of the advertisement that appeared in your esteemed newspaper regarding the decision of an American pharmaceutical company, Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD), to wind up its operations in Pakistan. MSD had been operating in Pakistan since 1962 and is a profitable entity. The company was recently sold to a little known organization by the name of Organon Bio(OBS).
Contrary to the assertions being made by Merck, the employees have been made the losing party in this transaction. These employees had joined the company on the name and reputation which Merck enjoys globally. However, while finalizing the deal in a rush, Merck neither gained consent of the employees to transfer their services, nor offered a third option to those who were not willing to agree with this decision.
This high-handed approach has disappointed many employees who have now been forced to work for someone whose work ethics and reputation are significantly different than what they had signed for.
To add insult to injury, this high-handed approach with Pakistani employees is different from the approach taken by Merck in other developed countries like the UK, France and Italy, where the employees have been offered a redundancy package in recognition of their services.
Furthermore, we fear this closure by an American company and the treatment being given to MSD Pakistan employees will have a domino effect where other MNCs will also fly away without living up to their responsibilities to local employees.
In today’s era of human rights, we are raising our right of choice. Rather than be forced into a transfer, we are asking for an option to choose whether we would want to work for the new employer. If not, then the company should compensate those employees in recognition of their services, as has been done in other countries.
AGGRIEVED EMPLOYEES
Merck Sharp & Dohme of Pakistan
An open letter to Dr Shoaib Suddle
Sir,
I wish you the very best in your resolve to restore law and order in Karachi and to eliminate terrorism and street crimes. I suggest that one way is to control firearms and weaponry. All citizens must be required to surrender all sorts of weapons and deposit them with the nearest police stations. All station house officers must be tasked to achieve the zero-weapons policy in their areas and any dereliction must be promptly punished.
Dire situations warrant drastic solutions. The Sindh Assembly should be asked to legislate and prescribe the death penalty for possession of arms of any sort.
AGHA KHALIL AHMAD
Karachi
Name change
Sir,
I want to draw the attention of the Sindh government’s culture department, city nazim, city district government, civil society, historians and the media to the decision of the CDGK to rename Siraj-ud-Daulah Road as Abul Tawab Road.
The CDGK has notified this through its letter vide No DOII (P&D) M&S/CDGK/38/08 dated 4.3.08.
This road is surrounded by 24 housing societies and the name of the road was notified by the government 56 year ago. The societies located in the surrounding area of Siraj-ud-Daulah Road include Bahadur Yar Jang Cooperative Society, C.P. Berar Society, Dawoodi Bohra Cooperative Society and others, while the road falls under the administration of Gulshanand Jamshed towns.
All main roads falling in the KCHSU area were named after heroes and freedom fighters belonging to the subcontinent, and were approved by the government.
The governing body of the Karachi Cooperative Housing Societies Union, in its meeting held on April 14, 2008, has taken very serious notice of renaming this road and condemned this arbitrary act of the city district government Karachi and resolved that every action, legal or otherwise, be taken to protect the sentiments of the residents of the area out of respect for the names of great freedom fighters.
If such a trend continues, the local authorities will rename M.A. Jinnah Road, ShaheedRoad etc overnight after their friends and relatives.
SHARIF BHAIJI
Karachi CoHousing Society Union
city@dawn.com
A Sufi music festival, organised by a renowned Lahore-based event management company known for its arts-centric programmes, is coming to town on Wednesday. For lovers of music and particularly those attuned to the sublime frequencies of Sufism, this is welcome news.
However, the fact that this festival has been sponsored by a cellphone company has raised some eyebrows, as Sufis – generally considered to be men of simple ways who have renounced material pleasures to serve their Creator through serving His creations – and multinational corporations don’t quite mix.
But this is not a new trend. Sufism has been ‘fashionable’ for the past couple of years, attracting the attention of the establishment, as the cunning mantra of ‘enlightened moderation’ has been oft repeated from the corridors of power in this country, as opposed to past support for religiously inspired militancy.
One remembers a few years ago a beautiful track, tastefully done, was sponsored by a tea company.
The music video, directed by master auteur Shoaib Mansoor, was simply breathtaking, and there were no ugly logos anywhere in sight.
This last point serves the argument that one must look and listen to the message and not the messenger. So perhaps it’s okay if corporations are bringing us culture, as opposed to the cultural void that is growing ever larger. Though this writer is not completely sold on this idea, let’s suspend our pessimism for the time being.
However, though last year’s festival in Karachi was spread over five days, this year it has been reduced to just one night. And the number of international artistes that performed here in the festival’s last outing has also been drastically reduced to just two acts.
Also, artistes with questionable Sufi credentials have been included on the Karachi set-list. Though I believe Munni Begum is a marvellous singer, at least an ignoramus like me would not class her as a Sufi. But perhaps the true essence of Sufism lies within.
Multan, often dubbed the city of saints, had performances on four nights, Lahore has had three while Islamabad had one performance. Even though Karachi has ties that bind it to Sufism, with countless men of God buried in the sands of Sindh, one feels perhaps the citizens of this city deserved more.
However, in this day and age, I believe the maxim ‘take what you can get’ is most apt.—QAM
Hiring plants
Karachians may soon have reason to breathe a sigh of relief for the Prince of Darkness (KESC) seems to be atoning for its sins and will mend its ways by any means necessary. The utility company has decided to hire, for it is in no fiscal position to purchase, two power plants of 200 megawatts each in the next six months (by which time summer will be over) to generate power for the hapless citizens of Karachi.
During the interim period, one of the power companies will continue to provide 500 megawatts to the city.
Beset with financial problems, a Saudi firm has generously offered to bail out the KESC by providing funds for the company to hire the power plants. The KESC has not decided where to hire the plants from, but it seems one of the IPPs (independent power producers) is more than willing to provide the plants to the beleaguered company.
Karachi is bearing the brunt of the power crisis without any let-up at all and it is indeed high time that things improve, lest the people go berserk and take matters into their own hands.
The new government seems to be sincere in alleviating the problems of the people and as far as Karachians are concerned, they need power and water above all. Hope springs eternal,but as far as the KESC is concerned,the well may dry out before relief flows in.—Syed Ali Anwer
Efficient systems
No matter how much we dread such times, sooner or later there is always going to be a need to get a CNIC and a passport made. Narrations about the process have hardly ever been positive and every now and then we are subjected to hearing someone or the other’s horror story about their trip to Nadra.
Thankfully, my CNIC was made with no hassles and I do not remember facing a massive line. However, my trip to the passport office was a different story altogether.
Impressed by a few stories of an efficient system, I went in with a positive feeling, but it didn’t take long to get dismayed. ‘Agents’ ran after the car, promising a speedy process and believing them, I took one up on the offer. All the agent could do was get a token number, the rest was up to our patience and us.
The crowded room barely had any empty seats, or ventilation for that matter. The biometrics data counter and the photograph counter were perhaps a half hour wait each. The test came at the information verification desk where they asked for CNIC copies of my parents, although I am well over 18 and was just renewing my old passport.
Unequipped with those, I was told to wait only to be called by a different officer this time who didn’t think parent’s CNIC copies were relevant to my ‘case.’
The assistant director’s room seemed a bit more promising, but it was another hour before my token number came up on the screen. It flashed for a second then changed into another number, so I was made to wait again for an additional half hour. But this time I did find an empty seat so luck seemed to be on my side.
The token numbers on the screen flashed in no order and 77 was followed by 120, which was followed by 84. Throughout the questioning, other people waiting for their turn interrupted the officer, but he didn’t bother to ask anyone to leave.
Anyway, after a bit of a haggle over “missing” documents, I was finally given a receipt and two weeks later I received my passport.
As I told others how I had to wait for hours in the office, people commented I got off the hook easier than they did. With the office closing down at 3pm, so many people have to return the next day to line up again because their turn didn’t come earlier.
Dual passport holders have had to wait two months before they could get one and people paying Rs4,000 for an urgent passport have had to wait for three weeks instead of five days.
With such random cases and unreliability, I don’t see why we call this an efficient system.—Shyema Sajjad
Pandora’s boxes
In many office buildings, mostly government, there are a few sights which give quite a strong sense of déjà vu: peeling walls, garbage-filled corners splattered with betel-nut spittle, old, rusty fire extinguishers and unused, soiled complaint/suggestion boxes.
Of all the useless items found there, complaint boxes will perhaps top the list and it is certainly not because there are no complaints. On the contrary, given the inept services (and sometimes not even that) offered in most workplaces, if these boxes were used to their potential, we would need a number of them lined along the walls.
Fortunately, the government is saved from further investing in these pigeon holes since the existing ones do not show any signs of wearing out very frequently.
No surprise here as they hardly come into use — or at least their legitimate use: after all, when was the last time we dropped a complaint or bit of advice into the box? Even if some desperate soul does drop a complaint, or ventures to suggest an improvement, it would stay crumpled at the bottom, yellowing away into nothingness.
For this reason alone, perhaps, most of us tend to regard this extension jutting out from the wall as nothing more than a pockmark which only calls for attention when someone bumps his/her head against it.
This sheer incompetence by office workers has resulted in equal lack of interest in the customers, who now have no faith that their voice would be ever heard or taken seriously.—Sa’adia Reza
Compiled by Syed Hassan Ali
Email: karachian@dawn.com
ISLAMABAD has seen a recent influx of labourers created by the construction boom in the city, labourers who toil to build homes and offices for people and roads for their cars to run on but don’t have proper housing to live in themselves let alone a home of their own.
Promises have been made to construct 37,000 units of low cost housing for federal government servants, as well as to develop new residential sectors in Islamabad for the general public, including low-income sectors in I-15 and I-16.
But no promise has been made to provide decent housing to the thousands of labourers, who form the backbone of Islamabad’s development but are too poor to afford even the cheapest rented rooms in the city.
Many of these labourers are inadequately housed in tents by their contractors in different construction sites in the city. These tented camps (are these tents from the 2005 earthquake?) lack access to basic facilities like proper beds and mattresses, clean water, toilets, showers, sanitation, gas and electricity. Other problems of living in these tents include leaks, poor insulation against heat and cold and improper flooring.
These labourers have also been responsible for establishing new katcha abadis in the city — at least one new slum has reportedly sprouted in G sector and another re-established in I sector after it was removed — as well as increasing the population of existing katcha abadis.
While conceiving and drawing up master plans for new roads, homes, office complexes, commercial plazas, schools, universities, cinemas, parks and other recreation facilities, etc., the city has apparently neglected to take up the responsibility of properly housing the labourers who are building all these structures.
These labourers, many of whom are from outside Islamabad, may not expect to be provided with spacious, airconditioned accommodation complete with sports, television and computer/internet facilities and tight security, like some construction companies in Dubai and elsewhere provide their foreign workers.
However, the local but out-of-town labourers in Islamabad have the right to expect decent quarters with basic amenities like clean running water and electricity.
In fact, the right to adequate housing has long been recognized for everyone, including refugees, migrants and workers, under various UN conventions and covenants on human rights.
An article in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims that everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care and necessary social services.
Another article in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights signed by a hundred over countries, also recognises the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family including adequate food, clothing and housing.
The right to housing was placed more prominently than ever before on the UN human rights agenda by the 1988 Global Strategy for Shelter and the 1993 resolution of the Commission on Human Settlements on the human right to adequate housing.
It is the basic responsibility of construction companies and/or contractors to provide housing for their workers, based on guidelines for such accommodation formulated by the city authorities.
Whether contractors choose to house workers on-site or off- site, they have the responsibility to house them in proper premises like dormitories or hostels provided with proper beds and adequate sanitary and other facilities like communal kitchens and canteens.
The guidelines for workers’ accommodation could be something like the following. There should be a minimum of 3.75 square metres of space for every labourer and one bathroom for every eight labourers. No more than eight workers should be accommodated in a room and every worker should have his own clothes cabinet. There should be sufficient ventilation, thermal insulation, fire safety measures and drainage.
Workers should also get free services to medical care and infectious diseases prevention and treatment. The city authorities should review the living conditions in the labour camps periodically to ensure they comply with these guidelines as well as with other health and safety standards.
The city authorities in consultation with the contractors should decide whether these labour camps should be temporary ones that must be dismantled once the construction work in the area is completed, or they should be permanent quarters built in specified locations for the labourers who should be provided with transport to and from the construction sites.
Our builders who provide the crucial labour needed to build the capital’s roads and skylines, and thus power Islamabad’s urbanisation and economic growth, deserve more decent housing. Being the model city that it is supposed to be, Islamabad ought to set a benchmark for better and higher standards in labourers’ housing and living conditions.
