Karavan Karachi unfolds its new agenda
IT was a time to reaffirm faith in Karachi and its eventual bright future, despite the dark clouds hovering over it. It was, in fact, a repeat of what was done at the Governor’s House last year by the organizers of the Karavan Karachi festival, meant to carry the activities of the Karavan to new heights and involve more people in it.
Sindh Governor, Mohammedmian Soomro, who was to be the host as well as the chief guest, was not there. He was in Islamabad, possibly in connection with the election meetings. The provincial finance minister, Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, who was to deputize for Governor Soomro, could not return from Islamabad in time either. But that did not dim the enthusiasm of Heritage Walley — friends of the heritage foundation, though the number of guests on the Governor’s House lawn were also much less than arranged for.
But the presence of Dr Attiya Inayatullah, the federal minister for women development, also the lead speaker, made up for the absence of the VVIPs. She had to be there as Karavan Karachi festival 2002’s main theme is women’s empowerment — a subject on which she spoke very eloquently. She also unfolded the legislation proposed by the government to protect the interest of women and various measures designed to help them. She came up with the assurance after Zia Awan, the vocal human rights activist, gave details of the number of women kidnapped, killed, raped and ill-treated. He also came up with the frightful figures of the number of children done to death or subjected to inhuman treatment. He said that there was no one ready to listen to them in a helpful manner in the police set-up, including the women’s police stations with their restricted scope. Listening to Zia Awan’s indictment of the police was Capital City police chief, Asad Jahangir.
There was a kind of seminar called “discussion” on women’s rights and wrongs done to them with Semi Kamal, a social worker acting as the moderator. President of the First Women’s Bank, Zarene Aziz, spoke of what the bank was doing for women and of the lot more that is proposed, inclusive of micro-credit for women.
A video screen showed the work done by Karavan Karachi led by Yasmeen Lari. It all began last year with 10,000 old and young gathering in front of Empress Market to underscore its historic character. The Karavan has been very successful in involving schoolchildren, including those from affluent private schools, in the festival and carrying the festival to the Sindh Club building which is over a hundred years old. The range of its activities, in which over 100,000 people were involved, included twenty-three heritage streetfests, one hundred and twenty community football matches, a carnival parade around Quaid-i-Azam’s mausoleum and an international heritage seminar.
The cultural side included a theatre festival, an international film festival, food festival, music festival and a fashion week that concluded with a fashion awards and tributes ceremony.
Missing from the dais this time was Richard Hardwick, former director of the British Council who took an active part in the festival last year, but whose council now remains shut along with the Alliance Francaise, the most active cultural centre in the city.
Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation, too, did not come up to unfold what it proposes to do next year.
Nevertheless, no mention was made of the suicide attack on the French engineers which claimed eleven lives or the attack on the US Consulate which resulted in the death of twelve Pakistanis. The programme for this year, as unfolded by Shaiyanne Malik, includes Karavan Karachi PSO road-sense programme, Karavan heritage bus tours, eight public events on empowering women, Karavan carnival parade, theatre festival, youth music festival, fashion week, film festival and an arts festival which will end with a beach festival as the grand finale.
Loud applause ensued when Zia Awan called for the trial of major offences against women in anti-terrorism courts and called for women’s courts, too, to try such cases. Attiya Inayatullah paid lavish tributes to Yasmin Lari for the excellent work she had done and her enthusiasm for protecting and promoting Karachi.
VIP Weddings
IT was the season for weddings galore, particularly VIP weddings. When the daughter of Azhar Hamid, chief of Standard Chartered Grindlays Bank and his wife, Nino, got married, top bankers had to be there and so also the ministers in charge of the economic sector. And that is all the more so when he is brother of federal minister, Attiya Inayatullah who came down from Islamabad well before the marriage.
Finance minister, Shaukat Aziz, was there surrounded by a large number of bankers and particularly young men in the financial community. He answered all their questions patiently. Interior minister, Moinuddin Haider, was there as well-protected as ever. Commerce minister, Razzak Dawood, was there meeting businessmen and heads of the corporate world. Young Abbas Sarfaraz Khan, minister for Kashmir affairs, was also there.
The provincial finance minister, Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, was trying to manage several weddings that night, including a Soomro wedding.
The bankers ranged from Habib Bank’s Zakir Mehmood to Farooq Bengali of Faysal Bank and State Bank Deputy Governor, Tawfiq Hussain. Former head of ABN Amro, Alamgir, now at its Amsterdam headquarters, was there following a visit to the city. M.I. Akbar, Byram Avari and Najma Hussain were there following their visits to foreign countries and so was Union Bank president, Munir Kamal. Azhar Hamid’s daughter, Mehr, married Omar, son of Nargis and Col Muhammed Hafeez.
An inter-provincial marriage
IT was an inter-provincial marriage. The bride was from Sindh and a Soomro and the groom was from Punjab.
Ahmed, son of Zahid Zaheer, secretary-general of the Overseas Investors Chamber, was marrying Nazia Soomro, daughter of bone specialist, Dr Younis Soomro, and niece of the Sindh Governor, Mohammedmian Soomro. Ahmed works for Shell (LPG), while Nazia’s an architect. Both studied together in Karachi.
Governor Soomro could not attend earlier ceremonies because of his preoccupation with the election meetings, but he was at the wedding. Elder Illahi Buksh Soomro was visible at the major functions. Iftikhar Soomro was also there. The wedding was marked by the strong presence of officialdom, including Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, also a Soomro. Guests were asking, mostly behind his back, whether he was the next governor. He himself gave no direct reply. Federal ministers included Moinuddin Haider and Khair Mohammed Junejo, the minister of agriculture. The new provincial local bodies minister, Arbab Ghulam Rahim, was there, too. Many non-Sindhis, who had seen him for the first time, were anxious to have a look at the controversial minister.
Captain Halim Siddique, Mir Hazar Khan Bijrani and Arif Alvi of Tehrik-i-Insaf were among the politicians.
Also present were Hamid Haroon and Ashiq Bhutto. A number of doctors were there including Dr Rafiq Mustafa Shah who had returned from holiday. Moin Fudda, former chief of Commercial Union, was there after performing Umra.
The Valima was dominated by corporate-sector chiefs. Among them was Musharraf Hai of Lever Brothers, Samiul Hasan, chairman of State Life; and Mujib Khan, chief of New Hampshire Insurance.
Kamran Mirza, chief of Abbott Laboratories and who has been elected president of Overseas Investors Chamber in succession to Moin Fudda, was there with his wife. He was earlier elected president of The American Business Chamber several times.
Abul Kalam, vice-chancellor of the NED University was there as also Vince Harris of HUBCO, Tariq Kirmani, PSO chief and Hasan Ali Khan, chief of Continental Biscuits with his wife, Sherood.
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