February 16, 2003

With the city getting more and more congested, some drive out to the Arabian Sea Country Club during weekends. Of course, you have to be affluent or be their friends to be there on Sundays and a part of one event or another — after driving 60 kilometres out of the city!

Recently, it was the Overseas Investors Chamber holding its prize-distribution ceremony of the Merchants Golf Cup, with a sizable crowd and their spouses. And last week, it was the IBM that invited guests to spend the day celebrating Basant, flying kites or frolicking in other innocent ways.

The Merchants Cup, one of the coveted cups won by golfers in the country, has been organized by the OIC since 1927 — except the World War II years — at the Karachi Golf Club at Karsaz. Last year, Shahida Jamil, as the law minister, was the chief guest. This time also she was there, but as a plain guest, applauding loudly when the former Naval Chief of Staff, Admiral Saeed Khan, handed over the cup to Zafar A. Khan and Parvez Ghias of Engro Chemicals; with Dr Amir Jafri and Jehanzeb Khan of the ICI as runners-up.

The President’s Cup went to Samsam Qadir and Shoaib Khokhar of Defence Golf Club, with Qamar Javed and Waseem Rand of the same club as runners-up.

Admiral Saeed Khan, who flew down from Islamabad for the ceremony, did not make a long speech, but contended himself with congratulating the happy winners.

Zahid Zaheer, secretary general of the OIC, who often takes to flights of poetic fancy, was the master of ceremonies that day. He knew golfers did not fancy Urdu poetry much, and so stuck to talking of the tournament briefly and the excellence of the Arabian Sea Country Club Golf course. He said 80 golfers participated in the tournament.

Guests ranged from Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid, former Chief Justice of Sindh High Court and Justice Sarvana of the Sindh High Court, to Ameena Saiyid of the Oxford University Press.

Shahjehan Karim, president of the College of Business Management, was there as also Mujeeb Khan, chief of American Insurance Group. Nasim Ahmad, chairman of the Security Printing Corporation of Pakistan and former chairman of OIC was also present.

Artists meet

Naz Ikramullah, painter and elder daughter of the late Shaista Ikramullah, comes visiting from time to time from Canada, where she has settled down with her husband, Ashraf. He was among the pioneers to go there from Pakistan and became a civil servant, a post from which he has now retired. Naz came here in connection with the marriage of Shahida Jamil’s son, as they are close relatives.

Zohra Husain of the Chawkandi Art Gallery gave a dinner to meet Naz. She may be having an exhibition here next year. A number of artists and others were present at Zohra’s well-kept house. Sculptor Shahid Sajjad was there with his wife. Both their sons are architects, having studied at the National College of Arts, Lahore.

Architect Habib Fida Ali was there. He says he has designed a residential building that he may build for himself. The house does not look out on the road to see only trucks and buses. Nor does it look at the neighbour’s drain pipes. Instead, it looks inwards in the form of a closed courtyard where life will be lived. Evidently, that is exactly the kind of old-style buildings he likes after designing a good many office buildings using solid concrete.

Dr Akbar Husain was there. The Oxford-educated Akbar had recently taken to writing articles on contemporary politics in newspapers, but has now stopped. Why? It makes no difference at all. And it is a waste of time, he says.

Dr Feroze Akhund was there. Unlike his famous brothers, he did not join the civil service and rise to the top. He is interested in the arts.

Dr Hamida Khuhro was there, too. She has now become a member of the Sindh Assembly through the women’s quota. Of course, she is a member of the PML(Q) and is trying to make herself heard among the vociferous young ladies there. She is a historian. But the politicians, including the women members, are interested only in recent history.

Zohra Husain manages Chawkandi competently. Not only is the gallery at a central place, but her sales figures are very good, with an average of two exhibitions a month. She is amused to see the number of new galleries opening up in the city, including the permanent, temporary and the transitory.

Auditors as hosts

Auditors, who look into how others spend company money and find fault with deviations, may not spend their own money on entertaining others; but Taseer Hadi Khalid and Co, led by Masoud Naqvi and Husain Basrai, put up a good show when the KPMG chief visits from London every year.

The local auditors, a large group, are a member of the KPMG Group and when Garry Williams, chairman of KPMG Middle East and South Asia (MESA); Philip Hardaker, regional executive partner of KPMG, came visiting, Naqvi and others came up with a large dinner and invited several hundred guests, mostly from the financial world. Naqvi, also president of the Management Association of Pakistan and who has lost a great deal of weight, welcomed the guests. Gary Williams, who came from London and was on his first visit to Pakistan, made a presentation on globalization and regional initiatives of the KPMG, and also discussed issues relating to value-added services for clients. He was speaking at a time when the role of auditors is under severe criticism around the world for failing to check the rotten state of many major companies that finally collapsed, such as the US-based Enron, the largest power company.

Taseer Hadi, Khalid and Co has 12 partners and three offices, including one in Lahore and Islamabad each. Two of the partners are in Lahore and Islamabad each, while eight of them are in Karachi. It has also five directors who will later become its partners.

Have the auditors in Pakistan become more diligent and far more conscientious following the role of auditors which has been found sadly wanting in the West? Yes, says Naqvi and his partners. The Chartered Accountants Association has also become far more alert than before, so that the auditors perform far better.

Bank chiefs at the dinner included Zakir Mahmud of Habib Bank, Azhar Hameed of Standard Chartered Bank and Zarena Aziz of Women’s Bank.

Sameeul Hasan, chairman of State Life, was there as also Masood Noorani, chief of Jubilee Insurance and Kalimur Rahman, President of Askari Bank.

Kamran Mirza, chief of Abbot Laboratories who is also president of the Overseas Investors Chamber, Sohail Wajahat Siddiqi of Siemens and Sadruddin Hashwani of the Hashoo Group were there. S.H.A. Bokhari, chief of P and O Lines was there with chief executive of Maersk Sealand Pakistan, Ellenne Rocher.

Have your pick

New year for many major companies means desk diaries, calenders and other assorted gifts, depending on their tradition or how generous the chief executive is. ICI, under Azhar Malik, follows its tradition faithfully and comes up with a delightful package of gifts to add to its diaries and desk calenders. Pakistan Petroleum Ltd, on the other hand, has its usual modest approach.

But one company that has excelled all others in the areas of gifts and books for sale is the new Pak-Arab Refinery, headed by Shahid A. Hak, who has piloted the new company very competently. He has brought out a series of enlightening publications that serve not only as new year gifts, but also as gifts for any other occasion whether spiritual or religious, literary or cultural, or simply musical. No company had ever brought out such a treasure within a short time after commencing its operations in Pakistan.

For the new year, the company has brought out a very splendid desk diary with a page for each day and a desk calendar. For the religious, there is the Message of Islam in the form of “Verses from the Holy Quran” and the Sayings of the Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him) that are well-chosen.

For those with classic literary taste, there is “Kulliyat-i-Iqbal” and “Diwan-i-Ghalib.” There are the verses of Ghalib in cartoons and a booklet showing the writings on trucks which shows people’s creativity at work.

For the musically inclined, there is S.M. Shahid’s handy work on “Classical Music in the Subcontinent,” a book of tributes to Noor Jehan and a CD with some of her best songs. What more can you want from a new refinery?

But there is more: two volumes of career-guidance for the young in Urdu — “the first books of their kind in Pakistan.” The books begin with the saying: “If you choose a job which you love, you will never have to work a day in your life.”

But a lot of young men desperately looking for jobs may ask “where are the jobs, any kind of jobs?” These are tough days for job-hunters, with or without qualifications, and the job they love is in the far, distant horizon. But the books are highly instructive and Dr Shahid Hak deserves credit for the initiative he has taken in getting a difficult field explored thoroughly.

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