On the march

While Israel was busy bombing the defenceless population of Gaza up till last week, people across the world were on the march protesting against the brutality of the Zionist entity and in defence of the Palestinians.

Karachi, a city that has witnessed plenty of violence, albeit on a smaller scale, was not far behind as parties and organisations of all socio-political hues and bents held rallies to condemn the slaughter. From a few dozen protesters raising slogans in front of the Press Club to thousands marching down M.A. Jinnah Road, as the conflict intensified, it seemed there was a march every day in the city.

The brutality of Israel’s assault had brought the leftist and the Islamist, toddlers and senior citizens, women in fashionable attire and ladies wrapped in flowing chadors and abayas – marching in their own rallies of course – to the streets of Karachi to stand up and be counted.

There were speeches, there was rhetoric and there were calls for divine intervention. While one set of protesters carried pictures of Ayatollah Khomeini, Hasan Nasrallah and Khaled Mashaal, other marchers held aloft pictures of Che Guevara and Hugo Chavez.

Apart from chants calling for the destruction of Israel, something, a friend told me, even many well-educated liberals had endorsed after witnessing the blood-curdling brutality of the Zionist entity, effigies of Israeli Prime Minister Olmert and now (thankfully) former US president Bush, as well as American and Israeli flags, were burnt with gusto.

Though one is not sure about this particular mode of protest as when somebody else decides to torch a Pakistani, Saudi or Iranian flag (the latter two bearing religious inscriptions), it would cause many in the Muslim world to see red or cringe with disgust, and rightfully so. At one rally, organised by a political party, marchers were urged to pelt posters of Olmert and Bush with projectiles of their choice, for a nominal fee. From the news pictures, this little attraction looked like it was drawing plenty of crowds.

The people of Karachi from widely differing backgrounds were – albeit in their own camps – united for a cause. This was refreshing. The protests were largely non-violent, apart from one in which charged-up members of a students group tried to make their way to the US consulate. The cops responded with tear-gas and batons and a melee ensued. What did these protests show? True, they pointed at the fact that the Muslim world largely feels impotent, thanks to mostly unrepresentative, self-centred world ‘leaders’, and these protests are a way to vent anger.

But one felt that if Karachians could take to the streets for the people of Gaza – no doubt a noble cause – why can they not use similar non-violent tactics to force the rulers of this land to ensure that justice, the rule of law and basic human rights are all within the reach of every Pakistani?—QAM

No nuts available

In the winter one has a craving for dried fruit which taste great on chilly nights, but somehow this season the commodities seem to be in short supply in some parts of the city.

Similarly tea and qehwa also are very much in demand during the winter as people tend to believe a warm cuppa will heat them up and extra cups are consumed on cold wintry nights.

On a similar chilly night, I went to a cousin’s place in former district central of the city. On my way back, as I came down from his apartment accompanied by him, we went to a roadside tea shop. To my utter surprise, he told me that the small tea shop had been forced to close down. Recently, there was some violence in the city and the worst affected were the Pashtun community who mostly run small businesses particularly tea stalls and sell dried fruit on pushcarts. Owing to the trouble in the city most of these tea stalls and vendors either had to move out to safer areas or close down their business temporarily.

Karachi is a cosmopolitan city and belongs to everyone, for its richness lies in its cultural diversity and every community contributes its bit to make it a vibrant and exciting place.

Karachians do not need any form of violence in the city and wish to live in a spirit of brotherhood, peace and harmony. So let’s enjoy the limited cold season we get and open up the tea stalls and get those peanuts roasted before the summer is upon us and the unbearable load-shedding resumes with a vengeance.—Jacques Pinto

A forgotten wonder

There were days when the Boat Basin Park was green and water basin clean. I remember going to the park as a child in the evenings with my family and enjoying the few swings and small paddle boats that were there.

Away from the hubbub of the busy Karachi life, Boat Basin gave the tired Karachians a nice, calm and serene spot to unwind. It was clean, it was green and it had a nice water view which was all that was missing from other recreational spots. In those days no one minded the absence of advanced facilities like electrical swings or fast food joints in the park. It was the calmness that mattered most.

Then it slowly began to die. The boats were gone, the water turned murky, the trees began to die and drug addicts made their homes inside the once beautiful spot. The only other visitors apart from the drug addicts were perhaps the college students who ventured there during the day. The Boat Basin’s ‘claim to fame’ then became the many, many food outlets which mushroomed over the years and lined outside the park. The basin and the park lay forgotten. Until perhaps, now!

A few days back I came to know that there are plans to develop the park by launching a drive to eradicate pollution from within and around the boat basin and installing light systems in the park areas. What should follow is a plan to revamp the entire expanse of the Boat Basin. For example, some light water sports could be introduced once the basin is back in shape. Proper seating and lighting are essential in creating the perfect get-away ambiance instead of merely installing huge stadium like floodlights which destroy the beauty of a park.

Karachi did get quite a few parks in recent years like the Askari Park near the old Sabzi Mandi, the Beach Park along the sea strip and the Bagh Ibn-i-Qasim. Beautiful no doubt they are, but all of the above-mentioned lack the basic ingredient: greenery in the form of trees. Our city planners seem to think that lots of lights will make a park beautiful.

The city desperately needs a nice recreational spot with the proper ingredients and Boat Basin promises to become one if its renovation is properly planned, executed and, of course, unhindered by the bureaucracy.—Tooba Asim

Compiled by Syed Hassan Ali

karachian@dawn.com

KESC over-billing

Sir,
My family resides in North Karachi and for the last many months they are being harassed by the KESC staff. As a common practice, they receive monthly bills showing excess consumption (over-billing).

When asked to verify, the KESC authorities simply don’t entertain us. At the most they reply: “since your house is double-storied and your consumption is less than other two-storey houses, it is adjusted.” However, the upper portion of the house has been vacant for the last many months, which can be verified from the neighbours.

The KESC billing system and the

bill itself is very complicated. This has been admitted even by Shaukat Tareen, financial adviser to the prime minister. It is like a ‘bhul bhulayyan’, which only a KESC wizard can understand, while taxes not related to the KESC are charged.

The department is running in losses of billions of rupees due to the non-recovery of dues from customers, including government departments, organisations and other big consumers besides a tremendous amount of theft through ‘kundas’ and other reasons – like market mafias, political pressures, etc, all with the connivance of the KESC staff.

The picture printed in Dawn (Nov 5, ’08) showing the Garden police building with hundreds of kundas attached is only the tip of the iceberg. You may change the management every six months, but the situation is unlikely to change with these rampant malpractices. Please don’t harass the poor domestic consumers.

A CITIZEN

Karachi

Clock-tower

Sir,

A clock-tower has been built at the entry point of North Nazimabad Town, which enhances the beauty of the locality while it provides a facility to the people to keep track of time.

But at the same time this facility has become a nuisance for the people residing close to the clock-tower because of its alarm bell, which has a loud sound. It rings after every 15 minutes, even at night.

So, I request the authorities concerned to stop the alarm bell from ringing, which is of no advantage, as a sound-less, functioning clock is much more useful for the objectives of the clock-tower.

A RESIDENT

North Nazimabad

Block A

Parks in danger

Sir,

There is major manipulation of public property well under progress in North Nazimabad. Huge park areas have been encroached upon in the name of restaurants and housing schemes.

There is one green belt that formerly hosted a mini-golf course near the Board Office and four public parks/playgrounds on Shahrah-i-Noor Jehan that have been converted into fast food restaurants and housing schemes.

This massive manipulation cannot be done without high-level backing. The fact that is killing me the most is the total silence on this issue by the media and the ease with which this is being done. I have written letters in some newspapers but none were published.

Although – considering the prevailing degradation of our society – I am hopeless of getting this practice checked, I would still like to request the competent quarters to investigate the matter in an appropriate manner.

MUHAMMAD ZAFAR IQBAL

North Karachi

KPT fountain

Sir,

I was at Sea View with my family and saw the fountain last Sunday. It felt wonderful and my son enjoyed it a lot. It is wonderful to watch it from a distance. I would like to thank the KPT administration.

HUMAYUN ZAIB

Gulshan-i-Iqbal

city@dawn.com

Education jitters

THE repercussion of the blow dealt recently in Swat, NWFP, to education in general and girls’ education in particular is now being felt 150kms away in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

Thousands of displaced families from restive Swat, and elsewhere in the NWFP and Fata, who have migrated to the twin cities are reportedly having difficulties in getting their children admitted in government schools here because these are already packed to capacity.

Admission in private schools is not an option for most of these families because of the expense.

Education in this northern part of the country had earlier been dealt a major setback when some 7,000 schools in this region, north of Islamabad, were destroyed in the 2005 earthquake.

Recent events in Swat – the blasting to smithereens of whatever schools that were left standing after the earthquake and the ban on girl education beyond grade 5 – can only serve to complete what nature had earlier wrecked on education in this region.

We, as a country, are already very low in ranking on the Global Education for All Development Index (EDI) as well as on the Global Gender Gap Index (GGI). In fact, we have the lowest positions in Asian rankings.

Recent happenings in our education sector in Swat have the potential of dragging us even further down in future rankings.

In the latest EDI (calculated from 2006 data) – which measures total primary enrolment rate, adult literacy rate and survival rate to grade 5 – we share the (dis)honour of being ranked in the lowest category (i.e., Low EDI, the other two categories being High EDI and Medium EDI) with 28 other countries, including four other South Asian nations.

But what is worse is that we have the lowest EDI ranking outside of African countries: the 11 countries which have lower EDI rankings than Pakistan are all in Africa, apart from Yemen.

In the latest GGI (2008), we are the fourth worse country in the world in terms of overall gender gap (127th out of 130 countries after Yemen, Chad and Saudi Arabia). We are also the fourth worse in the world in terms of gender gap in primary education enrolment.

Although in terms of gender gap in political empowerment we rank 50th, scoring relatively well in terms of women in parliament and number of years with female head of state, in terms of gender gap in economic participation and opportunity we rank the third worse in the world (128th out of 130 countries). In terms of gender gap in healthy life expectancy, we rank second worse in the world (129th).

It is not as if there have been no intervention measures to improve the situation. For instance, the Unicef-sponsored Pakistan Village Development Programme has since 2000 been focused on increasing access to quality education in Swat and other adjoining districts in the NWFP as well as in other provinces.

The PVDP measures include the establishment of hundreds of community-based schools, the enrolment of thousands of children aged 5-9, especially girls, and the sensitization of local community members on the importance of education in general and girls education in particular.

Whatever little headway that had been made in recent years in terms of breaking the cultural seclusion practices which have been a key factor responsible for the big gender gap in education and health, has been nullified by the recent anti-education practices in Swat. Not only is the education of tens of thousands of girls (and boys) in jeopardy, but also the jobs and income of thousands of women who teach in the schools for girls.

While recently launched measures like the Benazir Income Support Programme, the ministry of health’s Community Midwives Programme, etc., are supposed to build on previous development measures like the PVDP, and help improve the general lot of girls and women and narrow the gender gap, it is events like those which are happening in Swat which make development of education and health in Pakistan a one-step-forward-two-steps-backwards affair.

A major challenge which the twin cities now face in the education sector is catering to the sudden increase in the number of children requiring admission in schools due to migration from Swat and other adjoining areas. Starting second shift at existing schools in the twin cities seems the most obvious immediate solution, something which the NWFP Education Department has reportedly already decided to do.

The other challenge which the twin cities face in the education sector is forestalling and preventing what is happening to education in Swat from ever sweeping over into and affecting the twin cities.

No doubt the federal education authorities had committed themselves last year to achieving 100 per cent primary school enrolment amongst children in the capital territory. But Islamabad, and Rawalpindi – both of which have better enrolment and literacy rates in the country generally – have already had their fair share of education jitters in recent years from the occasional bomb threats directed at some school or the other, especially since the Lal Masjid affair in 2007.