| January 05, 2009 | Monday | Muharram 07, 1430 |
First day on campus
High turnover of IGPs
The service standard of the National Savings Centre, located in one of the shops around the Hockey Stadium, Phase V, DHA, has gone down rapidly during the last few months.
Since most of the investors in the National Savings Schemes are senior citizens — in this centre particularly — they are put to great hardship and mental anguish due to the sluggish working of the staff in general and incumbent in-charge of the centre in particular.
About six months ago, it used to take an hour or so to get a transaction completed and payment received; now it takes four to six hours for the same process.
Senior citizens, including aged ladies, some of whom are sick and suffering from diseases such as arthritis have to wait several hours, entering the centre at 9am and leaving it by 3pm or 4pm usually, when their transaction is completed.
The small shop remains packed with customers and since some of them do not find any place to stand or sit, they have to wait outside the premises. The conditions become worse when load-shedding takes place.
The distribution of work amongst staff seems to be irrational as some of the staff members are very busy while others are seen sitting idle and sharing jokes with the in-charge.
After losing patience, one has to go to the in-charge to get his payment passed from the heap of ledgers and registers which accumulate on his table due to his attitude.
He then very generously and with a wry grin passes the instruction for payment, saying that he is doing it as a favour. The working of the centre is a complete fiasco.
Is there anybody in the regional directorate of the National Savings Centre who can depute some inspectors to pay a surprise visit to witness the flippant atmosphere prevailing in the centre and take measures to mitigate the agony of investors, particularly the senior citizens?
A SENIOR CITIZEN
Karachi
Lack of amenities
I am a resident of Lal Quarters. This part of Model Colony lacks several civic amenities.
The park, known as Umer Park, has been in dilapidated condition for the last six years. The road in front of the residential area between Umer Park and Umer Masjid has not been carpeted since the laying of a sewerage line three years ago. The streetlights —eight in number — require the replacement of fused bulbs.
Sweepers very rarely visit the area. The residents have to engage private sweepers to clean their own area on a self-help basis.
These matters were reported to all those who are at the helm of affairs. Several complaints were also lodged with the city district government Karachi as follows: complaint no 7540 of 14/2/2008, 7099 of 5/5/08, 5807 of 19/7/08 and 7099 of 28/7/08. However, so far no action has been taken.
City Nazim Mustafa Kamal is requested to visit our area to see things for himself and help us to mitigate our suffering, for which the residents will be grateful.
MOHAMMAD ABDUL RAHMAN
Model Colony
Illegal electricity connections
Due to the recent hike in the electricity tariff, a gradual increase in the number of illegal connections has been noticed. Besides the electricity theft on a large scale, line losses are also a major problem.
Both these problems need serious consideration, especially keeping in mind the present high cost of electricity.
It is totally unfair that due to illegal connections the lawabiding citizens have to suffer because of the actions of people who break the law.
It is, therefore, requested that the KESC and the high-ups concerned in the present government may kindly take collective notice and integrated action to discourage this malpractice.
I am sure that any positive steps taken by the government would be highly appreciated by the general public and particularly the masses, who are under extreme stress due to the prevailing inflation.
The recently opened chief minister’s “complaint cell” is also requested for help in this regard.
DR S. IFTIKHAR AHMED
PECHS
Pensioners’ problems
We, the senior citizen pensioners invite the attention of the EOBI authorities through your esteemed newspaper towards our problem.
We have to face hardships in obtaining the old age benefits from the National Bank of Pakistan’s Sakhi Hasan branch.
We are disabled and old citizens and cannot go up and down the flight of stairs, which is about 35 steps.
It is requested that our problem is looked into with sympathy.
IBAD-UR-REHMAN
North Karachi
city@dawn.com
Designed by Michel Ecochard, a French architect, the University of Karachi with its climatically suitable and learner-friendly buildings, wide roads and beautifully grown trees, lawns and flowers welcome new entrants every year in January.
The first day on the campus is unforgettable even if no tricks are played on newcomers. Perhaps it’s because besides many other factors first time they are not asked to come in uniform, which makes them feel they are grown-ups, though a few independent souls take this freedom as an opportunity to wear anything and do whatever. Well, rest assured that yours truly was not among the latter lot.
I remember there was no official information desk at the entrance while nobody seemed to know whereabouts of his or her department as they all asked each other about it. There was no staff available for guidance and students were wandering hither and thither looking for the departments and schedule of classes. The beautiful structures of concrete were unable to guide and explain to them which way to take to reach their respective departments. This was the first time they realised that the masterpiece of architecture was necessary but even more important was how the campus was run with the help of teaching and non-teaching staff.
However, student wings of some political parties lent a helping hand and filled the gap. They provided to the newcomers not only the timetable of classes but also course outline when it was really required. They did not let new entrants feel the missing proactive role of students’ adviser on that particular day.
Interestingly, some students like yours truly were surprised over the presence of such groups, particularly when the successful candidates at the time of admissions were asked to submit an affidavit pledging that they were not and would not join any political group and would not indulge in any political activity on the campus. But very soon it occurred to me that the affidavit was nothing more than the health department’s message published on cigarette packets which warned smokers that smoking was injurious to health. But despite the help provided by political wings of students in place of any official assistance, whenever it was required, some students kept their promise and managed to concentrate on studies.
Years later a newspaper headline KU academic session begins brought back to me reminiscences of the university days and I wonder if things have ever improved over time or newcomers still face the same problem on their first day.—HA
We aren’t deaf !
Last week while walking across the road a motorcyclist stopped in front of me to wait for someone or some other vehicle and in order to draw that person’s attention he pressed his horn which not only startled the living daylights out of me but almost punctured my eardrums with its harsh stridency.
There has been a lot of talk of pollution and ozone layer but I seriously wonder if the city government has given any consideration to the noise pollution permeating the metropolis.
First of all there seems to be no restrictions whatsoever as to the type of horns that can be installed in cars or motorcycles so the people in the business are bringing in and selling like horns of every variety to make that extra profit.
The horn blowers think it is very hype to install such type of horns and create a nuisance in the city.
Some of them especially young drivers on joyrides press their horns with such abandon even on open roads just for thrill of it.
Then of course whenever there is a severe traffic jam in any part of the city the drivers think it is their birthright to blast away their horns as if the by some stroke of providence the cars in front will part and make way for that car.
Truck drivers and bus drivers are the worst offender intimidating the smaller cars in every manner possible.
It would be remiss of me if I do not mention the “Yellow Devils”, the coaches and wagons plying the streets of Karachi.
They offer “two sounds for the price of one ride” that is the moment you step inside a coach the first thing one is struck with is the sound of the latest Indian movies blaring away at decibels of such a level which probably the driver does not understand.
The music or song is acceptable as it is quite often melodious but the problem is it is interspersed intermittently with the blaring of the coach vans trying to dodge vehicles to make up for lost time.
The problem is aggravated further when two coaches of the same route meet up and all hell breaks loose, as the chase begins with both drivers placing one hand on horns and other on the steering wheel.
I have had the good fortune of living in some of the best cities of the world but never in my life have I seen such blatant and brazen misuse of horns the way Karachians do. I don’t want others saying that civic sense is a rare and precious commodity in Karachi.
—Rizwan Ali
New Year revelry
On New Year’s Eve at exactly 11.45pm I was waiting for a bus near Gora Qabristan to go home when I was suddenly startled by a loud blast from the darkness behind the bus stop. Fearing that the grim reaper had come to claim my soul before I could witness the dawn of the New Year, I moved ahead to be greeted by yet another blast only to realise that the neighbourhood kids were firing off firecrackers to mark the festivities. Soon midway in my journey I descended at Cantt Station and as the clock struck the bewitching hour to herald the dawn of 2009, I felt that I landed myself in a war zone as everywhere the sound of heavy firing could be heard.
The joy of ushering in the New Year in Karachi is invariably marred by the sound of gunfire reverberating across the length and breadth of the entire city with the ensuing bedlam instilling fear in the hearts of people rather than creating an aura of hope and a vision of better times ahead for the New Year.
It is true that people want to let their hair down and freak out on New Year’s Eve but having a good time by endangering the lives of others seems not only callous but barbaric also.
Every year Karachians openly flout the law and this year was no different as the pillion riding ban was flagrantly violated and police barriers breached to reach the Sea View area which is the epicentre of Karachi’s celebrations every year.
Revellers are entitled to have a nice time and people all over the world enjoy themselves on New Year’s Eve and there are incidents of lawlessness but very limited.
Fireworks and musical concerts are arranged in an organised manner with safety measures set up by the city administration but in Karachi it seems to be a night of utter chaos.
This year the Islamic New Year beginning on the Ist of Muharram coincided with a difference of two days with the Gregorian year and for Muslims everywhere Muharram is the month which is accorded due reverence as it marks the greatest tragedy in the history of Islam, that is the martyrdom of the Holy Prophet’s (PBUH) grandson, Imam Hussain (AS), so it would have been much better if Karachians had exercised some self-restraint and kept the festivities slightly subdued.
As for the firings I don’t know whether it is a macho thing or what but it seems certain that the gun culture in the city is flourishing and the gun dealers in the black market running a thriving
trade.—Syed Ali Anwer
Compiled by Syed Hassan Ali
karachian@dawn.com
A WEEK after the arms theft at Aabpara Police Station surfaced, the federal capital’s fourth IGP in a span of two years was replaced by a fifth, Qalbe Abbas, appointed just two days before 2008 was out although he took office on the first day of 2009.
2007-2008 was a period of truncated, short tenures for Islamabads IGPs. The IGPs during these two years were Iftikhar Ahmad (who was appointed in 2005), Syed Moravat Ali Shah, Shahid Nadeem Baloch and Syed Asghar Raza Gardezi (in chronological order).
Four IGPs in two years works out to an average tenure of six months per IGP whereas each IGP’s appointment is normally supposed to be for a two-year period.
It is perhaps no coincidence that this period of short IGP tenures during the past two years has been plagued by a series of embarrassing security slip-ups, the most recent being the stealth of the cache of arms and ammunition right under the noses of the police.
The stolen arms had been seized as evidence against the militants during the army’s Lal Masjid operation in July 2007 and stored at the basement of Aabpara Police Station since then.
That the police did not know exactly when or how the arms theft took place - in fact an interior ministry spokesman claimed that the weapons were stolen over a passage of time - is a reflection of the lack of seriousness with which the police treat the task of ensuring public security.
It is disturbing that in this day and age, police stations in Islamabad are still without the CCTV system, which would have recorded the arms theft. Rumours about the latest IGP replacement had already been floating two months earlier in October last, when an explosives-laden car managed to enter right inside the compound of the Police Lines in the federal capital blowing up, ironically, the central office of the Anti-Terrorist Squad.
An earlier security slip-up occurred in September 2008, when a truckload of powerful explosives managed to enter the high-security federal capital and blow up in front of the Marriott Hotel, raising questions about how such a truckload of arms could have slipped through any entry point in Islamabad undetected.
Yet another security fiasco took place in December 2007, when alleged terrorist wanted by the UK, Rashid Rauf, escaped from police custody while he was being transported from the Islamabad district courts to Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi. He is still at large.
In July 2007, the discovery of a large cache of arms comprising rocket propelled grenades and dozens of machine guns and assault rifles in Lal Masjid during the army’s siege of the complex – which is not far off from Aabpara Police Station – raised questions about how such a large quantity of arms had been transported through the high-security capital into the mosque.
Also in 2007, a total of six police constables were kidnapped and detained by Lal Masjid militants in March and May, and then released in exchange for the release of seminary students who had been arrested earlier by the Islamabad Police.
While the lack of professionalism is an issue in most of these incidents, of greater concern has been the questions raised about the determination and commitment of the police force to clamp down on militancy and ensure public security.
Not only did the Islamabad Police lose valuable evidence against the militants (the arms cache), it also lost a prominent prisoner who is an alleged terrorist. Worse still, it was apparently oblivious of the movements of large amounts of arms within the capital city.
Another major embarrassment for the Islamabad Police in 2007 was the brazen beating up of protesting journalists and lawyers by no less than the then IGP himself in front of live television cameras.
The concerned IGP, then newly appointed, was later suspended, together with the SSP of Islamabad, by order of the Supreme Court which took suo motu notice of the police’s behaviour. This was the shortest serving IGP in 2007-2008, his tenure lasting barely four months.
Regardless of whether the IGP’s removal in this particular case was justified, short and truncated tenures in general - whether of IGPs or of elected governments - are not the recipe for dynamic leadership, and they are particularly disastrous for policy planning, continuity and stability.
For Islamabad to see a transformation in public security in 2009, not only is improved funding in the police infrastructure and better collaboration on information between existing organisations dealing with public security needed, but also necessary is for top security personnel to serve out their terms of office.
Only with stability and continuity in security policies can Islamabad hope to firmly tackle the security challenges of today through proper security planning and efficient adoption of a comprehensive integrated security system. This includes CCTV and a whole range of other enhanced security measures that many cities in the developed and developing countries have adopted or are adopting to ensure public security.
