There has been a striking increase in the number of merry charity balls in the city. Is it the result of a thirst for fun in these tense times or a greater charitable inclination among the rich? Possibly both. But the fact is that multinational corporations are more often in the lead in such charitable giving, and they include institutions such as Shell Pakistan and foreign banks, followed by Pakistani companies.
Many of the organizers of such functions have gone back to the olden times and prefer black-tie functions. The elders who had discarded their dinner jackets had to retrieve them with considerable difficulty and get hold of ties to match. Even Karavan-i-Hayat, that treats mental patients very economically, opted for a black-tie night after informal nights in the past years. They do look good when they turn up at such dinners properly dolled up, after giving themselves a good scrub.
But at one function, the departure from tradition or convention was total. That night was organized by AURA (Al-Umeed Rehabilitation Association), headed by Mrs Aban Jamall, who had earlier headed Special Athletes Pakistan. And its fund-raising committee was headed by Pomme Amina Gohar, a one-time Parisienne model, who turned the night at the Defence Authority Golf Club into a veritable safari nightclub. The dance floor was more like a cage and the disc jockey sat up in a tree house or machaan. The dress for guests was driven by “animal instinct”, the sofa sets had jungle print, the menu was jungle food and the waiters wore shikari hats. But I did not see any corporate baron in leopard skin or in a belt of leaves, nor did any guest take the licence to be “driven” by animal instinct for dressing too seriously and turning up in the raw.
The guests ranged from Naveed Khan of ABN Amro Bank and Iqbal Lakhani and his wife, Ronaq, who is very generous at such charities, to M.I. Akbar and A. Shahbaz, chairman of Sui Southern. And the total fund raised that night was Rs2 million, that was pretty impressive.
Sir Lanka Day
Sri Lanka is truly popular in the city. When its Consul-General, P.D. Fernando, celebrated the national day last week, two provincial ministers and two ex-federal ministers were there to greet its high commissioner and his elegant wife who had come down from Islamabad.
Dr Saeeda Malik, the Sindh minister for women’s development was there along with Shoaib Bukhari of MQM. Former environment minister, Shahida Jamil, was there, as well as Javed Jabbar who was awaiting the Supreme Court verdict on his appeal for contesting the Senate elections, that he has now won. Back in the city, Shahida is attending diplomatic parties regularly.
The Russian Consul-General was there, back from Islamabad where he had gone to help organize President Musharraf’s visit to Moscow. Earlier, he was on a six-week holiday in Russia. He seemed happy over the success of the visit.
The UAE Consul-General, Abdullah Amir Al-Falasi, was there on return from a four-week holiday, of which he had spent two weeks in Morocco and two weeks at home.
The US Consul-General, John Bauman, was there answering questions on Pak-US relations. The British Deputy High Commissioner, David Pearey, was there as a representative of the Commonwealth. He was recently on a holiday in Sri Lanka and enjoyed it immensely.
Aziz Memon of King’s Group was there on return from a trip to the US. He was not searched or fingerprinted in New York, he says.
Honorary Consul-General of Niger, Arshad Abrar, was there, too. He had recently given a dinner for the French Consul-General, Georges Dupuis, and invited many consul-generals and some politicians.
Shirin Niazi, trade representative of Mynamar was there. She had recently celebrated the national day of former Burma with a splendid dinner.
The Honorary Consul-General of Sri Lanka, Sheikh Mohammad Obaid, was also there. He used to celebrate the national day earlier with a great deal of fanfare, including coconut water and masala dosa.
Guljee was among the artists there, and was inviting some of his friends to see his latest work. His work is getting more and more colourful, particularly his blazing pink.
The national anthems of Pakistan and Sri Lanka were played in full, but there were no speeches.
Ambassador turns author
Writing books come as easily to him now as raising forests used to be when he was a forester of the Sindh Government. But before becoming the author of three books, he had been ambassador to several countries in Africa, and gained a good deal of experience. So M.S. Korejo is now busy writing his fourth book, that the Oxford University Press will gladly publish as it did the others, beginning with Frontier Gandhi and followed by a book on G.M. Syed, and later A Testament of Sindh.
His new book, entitled, Soldiers of Misfortune, will not be on soldiers in uniform, but on militant Mullahs and include the MQM as well. Although he began with Frontier Gandhi, his interest has subsequently been confined to Sindh, possibly its human jungle and the convulsions in it. He wonders why so little has been written about the role of Mullahs in Pakistan politics over the years.
Recently, he and his wife gave a dinner and invited a number of other authors and former ambassadors. Although that was a night of many dinners, like Shamsh Lakha’s for Jamshed Marker and of Taseer Hadi and Khalid for the visiting auditors of KPMG from London, the Korejos had an impressive array of guests. Ex-ambassador Iqbal Akhund was there, as also younger brother Rafiq Akhund, who is now a director of the State Bank of Pakistan.
Former Governor Daudpota was there with his wife, as also Makhdoom Khaliquzzaman and Mujib Pirzada. The author-to-be there was Raza Pervez, formerly of Hino Pakistan Ltd, who is busy writing his autobiography. It is in two parts, the first part is complete and he is now finishing the second part. In a region where cross-border terrorism is now being deplored, he had gone for cross-border love and married Sadia Dehlavi, publisher of the popular Urdu magazine Shama of Delhi. He was for long crossing the borders, as she had refused to come and settle down here for good. Ultimately, when he ran into insurmountable difficulties in respect of the visa, he gave up, returned to Pakistan and is now telling the story through his book. His friends are looking forward to it as he wants to tell it all.
While Testament of Sindh was being launched, Ali Ahmad Brohi wondered why Korejo was writing about distant or elusive persons whom he did not know well, and not focus on central characters more relevant to the times. Korejo is now doing exactly that and focusing on the Mullahs and the rise of MQM in Sindh.
Nagi enters 87
Artist Ahmad Saeed Nagi has entered 87, and if he is not looking younger, he is as durable as he had looked in recent times. And he loves his birthday being celebrated by his friends, headed by Mian G. Sibtain, a construction expert. His old friend, Commodore Yunus, provided the large cake dutifully.
City Nazim, Naimatullah Khan, dropped in at the party by the jheel in PECHS, attended by several diplomats, including the French Consul-General, Georges Dupuis, and his wife. Abu Shameem Arif, who retired recently, was there. An art collector and friend of many artists, he intends to settle down in the city rather than Islamabad, as this city has plenty of golf courses.
A number of TV artists and young painters were there, including Shahla Rahman, who recently had an exhibition in Switzerland. Nagi, who won the Pride of Performance Award from the President of Pakistan, lost some of his paintings two years ago and has still not been able to recover them.
An attentive crowd
An impressive crowd of VIPs, including corporate barons and senior officials, were listening to a lecture at the auditorium of the Defence Library. They were very attentive as they were getting a bad report on their health at the lecture sponsored by the Defence Residence Society and the Pakistan Hypertension League.
Prof M. Ishaq, professor of Cardiology at the NICVD, was telling them 18 per cent of the adult population of Pakistan has high blood pressure, over the age of 40 every person is hypertensive, and hypertension is more common in urban areas’ women than those in rural areas.
Diabetes is also common in urban areas, and high blood pressure can lead to stroke, heart attack, diabetes and renal failure. It is a folly to treat blood pressure problems for a while and then give up it. Instead, the treatment should be sustained.
Brig Asif Ghazali, administrator of the DHA and also the chief guest, said he was not a proper chief guest as he was guilty of five of the lapses listed by Dr Ishaq. He counselled the use of 75 milligrams of aspirin by those with blood pressure problems and to pray fives times a day as a form of exercise. He said that he, too, is a patient of Dr Ishaq.
There has been a striking increase in the number of merry charity balls in the city. Is it the result of a thirst for fun in these tense times or a greater charitable inclination among the rich? Possibly both. But the fact is that multinational corporations are more often in the lead in such charitable giving, and they include institutions such as Shell Pakistan and foreign banks, followed by Pakistani companies.
