Politicking gets going

POLITICAL developments have started taking shape in Balochistan, ending the ambiguity over the future powers of the governor, the chief minister or the Provincial Assembly. These developments followed the referendum to elect Gen Pervez Musharraf president for a full term.

On the political front, leaders are making preparations to contest the election. At least four sitting provincial ministers have indicated they would contest the polls from their traditional constituencies. Some ministers have confirmed newspaper reports that they will contest for the Provincial Assembly seats.

Both the corps commander and the governor have separately met a group of pro-establishment politicians, all from the PML (QA). Although there has been no formal announcement from the offices of the corps commander and the governor about the substance and issues discussed at the meeting, there is a general impression that the delegation of the leaders comprised the ‘seat winners’ or future legislators of Balochistan.

At least one delegate did belong to the PML (N) but he has not so far formally joined hands with the PML (QA). Officially, it was stated that they had exchanged views on various issues but those were never elaborated.

Interestingly, the same process was observed before selecting the district Nazims in the local elections. Personalities were interviewed and selected for the jobs, ensuring the smooth sailing of the agenda for the devolution of powers from the provincial government to local councils or dismantling the institution of deputy commissioner.

The PML had never been a political party of the broad masses in Balochistan. Generally, it had been treated as an alliance of pro-establishment feudals, sardars and moneyed people having their own or secured traditional constituencies with the help of the establishment. After winning the elections, they join hands and normally form a government. During the last elections, only two persons were elected on the PML tickets.

Other lateral entrants into the party folds were independents. Once the elections were over and the PML formed the government at the Centre, all the independents joined the ruling PML. It eventually emerged the single largest parliamentary party in the Balochistan Assembly, though it won only two seats on the party tickets.

The opposition is completely divided. Most opposition stalwarts will be debarred from contesting the elections because most of them are not graduates. Many of them will also lose the party leadership for being not qualified to be elected as member of parliament. Similarly, most of the parties have not held party elections for many years.

Since there are over 20 political parties and groups which normally contested the elections in the past, it seems that most of the parties will be disqualified after the elections as they may not secure minimum five per cent votes in the general election.

Smaller groups and parties will face this challenge in the post- election period, forcing the members to join the bigger party with larger memberships all over the country. The nationalist political parties will face the dilemma of not promoting inter-provincial harmony or creating hatred against the other provinces or the dominating nationality.

The anti-establishment nationalist agenda will receive a serious setback for the smaller parties operating in Balochistan. Other groups with a pro-establishment leanings will survive the present crisis and they may be asked to join the bigger party ultimately. Lately they have been sharing political power in the past five governments in Balochistan. They always remained well-entrenched in the government or the administration till recent past.

The only option left for the anti-establishment nationalist elements in Balochistan is to boycott the future elections or give a walkover to the PML (QA). All these conditions or restrictions may not be acceptable to the smaller nationalist parties and groups.

However, there will be an interesting scenario during and after the elections on the provincial political scene. Naturally, the present government will be putting greater emphasis on democracy, thus the elected or chosen representatives will be given prominence and preference in all matters. The strong men in uniform or the civilian chief executive ruling the province will be occupying the back seat in running the day-to-day administration, as per announcements made to this date.

Naturally, there will be a reshuffle in the present political setup with a more soft, humble, polite constitutional head replacing the present one in Balochistan. A score of aspirants were found taking more frequent rounds of the federal capital for the new and humble role of the constitutional head. Once the chief minister is picked up — selected through the normal and usual channel — there are fewer chances that the man will dare to defy the establishment or involve in administrative misconduct with the powers to dismiss or sack the chief ministers in the hand of the governor.

Since the whole exercise is to convince the people that democracy is being restored or revived at the grassroots’ level, the chief minister and his cabinet colleagues will be allowed relative autonomy. All forces, within the administration and outside, must look to the chief minister and not to the governor for help and guidance. There will be no room for a high-profile governor playing any role in the future administration under a political system. Preparations are being made to this effect but after the elections and not before.

Meeting the citrus challenge

CITRUS seems to be ignored by the progressive farmers for a variety of reasons, including lack of organized marketing and proper return. The researchers still have high hopes of flourishment of citrus.

This was observed during a one-day seminar on “Establishment of a modern citrus nursery of certified plants through sanitation techniques” organized jointly by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, to formulate a policy and mechanism to boost citrus (kinnoo) exports and to meet domestic demand.

The seminar was presided over by agriculture university vice-chancellor Dr Riaz Husain while Rawalpindi’s University of Arid Agriculture vice-chancellor Dr Khalid Mahmood Khan was the chief guest. It was addressed by various experts and growers.

Growers said due to ill-conceived policies, they were unable to attain the required yield potential of most crops and were sustaining huge financial losses. They said Pakistan could only be steered out of the financial crisis by giving due importance to the agriculture sector and by evolving modern techniques for which the government should formulate grower-friendly policies and announce a package of incentives for the farming sector.

Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan, professor of the Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, in his keynote address said fruits in Pakistan were grown over an area of 0.640 million hectares which was about three per cent of the total cultivated area of 21.970 million hectares. Cheap access to fruits provided vitamin and mineral diet to the rich and the poor alike. Citrus had a share of about 40 per cent in the total production of fruits in the country, he said.

“The demand for fresh fruits in the neighbouring countries offered lucrative returns which had helped the sustained growth of fruit crops. An important factor in the expansion of citrus fruits had been the introduction of kinnoo as a choice variety. The growth rate could not have materialized without active participation of private fruit nurseries. The unregulated growth of nursery business in itself had encouraged malpractices. There is an urgent need to bring the nursery business under the control of a certification programme and quality control mechanism must be imposed”, he said.

He said despite phenomenal growth in the area and production, the yield per hectare had remained stagnant. With the World Trade Organization pertaining to agriculture coming into operation by 2005, we would face another challenge. WTO demanded that the trade should be made liberal by relaxing tariffs, by removing subsidies in agriculture and by allowing free access to market. Also, for any commodity to be traded internationally there must be standard operating procedure and conformity with the international standard, he said.

Dr Iqrar said the problem started at the nursery stage where the citrus trees were propagated (multiplied) and sold to the farmers. It took several years of labour and investment before those trees achieved profitable fruit-bearing age. Any defects harboured (genetic or disease) by the nursery trees were usually invisible until the bearing age. The solution had been found by implementation of “Nursery certification programmes”, i.e. any tree sold by a nursery should be certified by a government regulatory agency to be true-to-type (genetically) as well as free of infection, he said.

Dr Khalid Mahmood said there were numerous shades and tastes of kinnoo. “Possible cause of change in kinnoo could be a heavy load of mutations or deterioration caused by viruses. However, the latest research reveals that kinnoo has limited clientele due to its high number of seeds.”

He said horticulture experts had missed an important aspect of orchard management and the part played by tree nutrition which might have caused the differences. But, as we had now seen, our trees were sick and a cure had to be found before investing much into other aspects. Priority should be set in that regard, he said.

He said it was a matter of concern that citrus acreage and production had shown a constant decline. Ironically, yields of citrus in our country were also amongst the lowest in citrus- growing countries of the world. We were faced with marketing problems and WTO was staring at us. There were genuine challenges to face for which we had to be prepared, he cautioned.

He said a transparent process of pre-evaluation be evolved using expertise from different research and development organizations, farmers, retired personnel, government representatives and economic experts.

Prof Dr Riaz Husain said planting fruit trees was a long-term investment. A bad tree could have inherent genetic defects or be a carrier of diseases. Nursery plants carried the diseases either because of the use of infected budwood or due to nursery conditions (mostly soil borne). As a result, most of the orchards were short lived and produced only a fraction of potential yields. The low yield was due to poor quality of fruit from sick and variable plants.

He said the best fruit-growing countries had self-sustaining nursery certification programmes implemented by government agencies and backed by R&D institutions. A certification programme ensured supply of healthy and true-to-type nursery plants to the growers. As a result, the orchards had long productive lives, high yields and quality of fruits. Modes of nursery certification programme were available in major citrus-producing countries. The essential features of certification programme were; a laboratory base for tissue culture and diagnosis of diseases, greenhouses and shade houses for propagation and quarantine work, field plantations of foundation trees of rootstock and scion vareities, logistic support and marketing and certification wing.

He said rules enacted by the government under the Seed Act needed to be implemented by developing an infrastructure and research base. Once in force, this programme would involve documentation and registration of all nursery operations that would be obliged to pay fees and buy materials and services, making the programme self-sustaining.

The joke has gone too far

And it is not even funny anymore. One by one the military government of President Gen Pervez Musharraf has exhausted almost all the tricks in its bag to deny the people of this country their legitimate right to elect their rulers. It all began with the levelling of the charge of attempted murder against the former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif. If the civilized world had not intervened, perhaps Pakistan would have acquired the dubious distinction of hanging its second elected prime minister. His life, however, was spared only when Saudi Arabia, our perpetual friend in need, agreed to give him a one-way ticket for a ten- year sanctuary. And it did not take long for Ms Benazir Bhutto, the chairperson of the PPP, the largest political party in the country, to realize that almost the same fate awaited her if she returned home.

So, with these two political giants out of the way, all that was needed to be done was to establish the junta’s links with the people at large. This was attempted to be accomplished by holding local government elections. While playing out this trick no effort was spared to malign the civilian politicians. They were dubbed as corrupt to the core and totally illiterate in democratic norms. And meanwhile, ISI officers were let loose in the political arena to put together a King’s Party. However, the local government elections failed to yield the ‘desired’ results. In fact, the PPP and the PML(N) without trying hard had almost swept these non-party elections. Still, there was no panic in the corridors of power because the Army’s political arm, the religious parties, could be pressed into service on the streets at the right time to terrorize the common man into abandoning his support to the two major political parties. And if things really went out of control then an IJI-type of alliance could be cobbled up to keep the PML(N) and the PPP at bay in the next elections. But within one month of installation of the local governments, the world had undergone a cataclysmic change. As a result, within weeks of 9/11 tragedy, the military government and the religious right were found growling at each other. This was perhaps the time for the military junta to read the writing on the wall and take a U-turn on its domestic agenda as well by mending its fences with Nawaz and Benazir. However, either because it had too much faith in its new-found friends in Washington (like in the case of its Kashmir policy on which too it finally took a U-turn following the visit of US Deputy Secretary of State Mr. Richard Armitage) and thought the US State Department and the Pentagon would not like to see a change at the helm of affairs in Pakistan under the given circumstances, come what may, or because it was too much involved in the international war against terrorism and warding off the Indian intransigence to spare time to understand the changes taking place in the internal political equations in Pakistan in response to 9/11, the military junta continued to adhere blindly to its domestic agenda fixed prior to September 2001. „#„# And so when the on-rushing election date forced it to take time out from its war against international terrorism and the war of nerves imposed on it by New Delhi, the junta started from where it had left off before 9/11. The entire package of constitutional amendments announced on June 26 is aimed at making a mockery of parliamentary democracy in order to keep Benazir and Nawaz from coming back to power through fair and free elections. Both being convicted by courts of law whose judges have taken oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) are hardly likely to be allowed to contest the October elections. And even if they contest and win their elections, they can hardly hope to be invited by the President in his discretion (under the amended powers of the President) to form the government. The Political Parties Ordinance announced a day later makes it impossible for them even to continue to head their parties. And the Ordinance which bars them from becoming prime ministers for the third time seemingly puts the last nail in the coffin of their prime ministerial aspirations.

But then this appears to be a redundant ordinance because Benazir and Nawaz Sharif would hardly be interested in vying for the post of the prime minister under the new constitutional dispensation. And Musharraf by keeping to himself the all powerful post of the President for the next five years has already made it impossible for them to contest for this office. So, there seems to be nothing for the two in the next elections. But then what would happen if they refuse to boycott the October general elections even after all this? This would mean, that these two parties would sweep back into the parliament and make it impossible for Musharraf to function despite all his powers. This is the scenario which would become all too real for the junta in the next couple of weeks forcing it to go for non-party elections. And if even this does not stop the PPP and PML from contesting the elections then to postpone them.

But why is Musharraf afraid of these two leaders who are not even in the country and when he has already ensured as well that he would wield all the ‘democratic’ powers after elections while at the same time wearing the cap of the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS)? But would he be able to keep his COAS cap after the elections? If he believes that he can, then he would have failed to transfer power in October 2002 from the military to the civilian as enjoined by the Supreme Court ruling in Zafar Ali Shah’s case. But then if he loses his COAS cap while adhering to the Supreme Court ruling, then he becomes too weak to face the PPP and PML(N) in the Parliament as there is no guarantee how the new COAS, who would be replacing him as the Army Chief would view the ‘continuity’ factor. There perhaps lies the rub!!

— Onlooker

Democracy redefined

THE American definition of democracy used to be that it was something “of the people, for the people, by the people”. Today, this definition has been amended. For the Americans today, democracy is of the (US) President, for the (US) President and by the (US) President. So, you see, there can be no democracy in Palestine while Yasser Arafat is around. So he has got to go. All this drives me crazy. This is what makes me want to become a suicide bomber. But I want to choose my own victim. You know who I mean. I am known for my piety but as I grow older, I realize that piety is the last refuge for spineless idiots like me. Oh, if wishes were murder!

But speaking seriously, why doesn’t George W Bush do whatever the hell he wants to do with the rest of the world? Let him take over the former British Empire and all other countries which never lived under the Raj. Let him get a second term and then have the American Constitution amended to enable him to become life president. Let America rule the waves today and for ever. Let Bush re-invent the gas chambers and let him reintroduce the concentration camps.

I hear that the US has failed to persuade the UN Security Council to give its troops (peacekeeping troops, that is) exemption from the newly formed International Criminal Court. This newspaper reported on July 5:

“The United States vetoed a resolution on Sunday extending the Bosnian peace mission because it didn’t grant immunity to American peacekeepers... US Ambassador John Negroponte had vowed not to extend the mission without winning an exemption for US peacekeepers.”

Why should such an immunity be considered necessary for the American peacekeepers? As they say in Persian, anyone on the up need never be afraid of being held accountable. Ah, but for this, we must go back in time a bit.

On February 15, 1991, US President Bush Sr said in a speech: “There’s another way for the bloodshed to stop, and that is for the Iraqi military and the Iraqi people to take matters into their own hands, and force Saddam Husein, the dictator, to step aside.”

Today, Bush Jr — like father like son — says something like this: “There is another way for the Palestinians to live in eternal subjugation in their own homes — or such of them as have not been bulldozed by the Jews — and that is for the Palestinian people to take matters into their own hands and force Yasser Arafat, the usurper, to step aside. All Palestinians must remember that Arafat’s removal is the price they have to pay for a peaceful life in slavery.”

Former US attorney-general Ramsey Clark’s book, The Fire This Time: US war crimes in the Gulf, has this to say:

The US media, as solicitous of the Pentagon as Polonius was of Hamlet, printed whatever it was told:

Hamlet: Do you see yonder cloud that’s almost in shape of a camel?

Polonius: By the mass, and it’s like a camel, indeed.

Hamlet: Me thinks it is like a weasel.

Polonious: It is backed like a weasel.

Hamlet: Or like a whale?

Polonius: Very like a whale.

Today, Fox TV claims: We report, you decide. The channel should instead say: “We play Hamlet, you be Polonius”. Oh, if wishes were murder! One wonders why the principles of the Nuremberg Tribunal, 1950, are not applicable to Ariel Sharon or to George Bush Jr or to some of our ‘friends’ in India.

Principle VI (c) enlists crimes against humanity which are murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation and other inhuman acts done against any civilian population or persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds, when such acts are done or such persecutions are carried on in execution of or in connection with any crime against peace or any war crime.

The preamble to the Charter of the United Nations says:

“We the people of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to affirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women, and of nations large and small, and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom....”

These lines should have read:

“We the people of the Disunited Nations determined to consign succeeding generations to war and death and devastation which twice in our life has brought immeasurable joy to inhuman kind and to affirm faith in utter disregard of fundamental human rights, in the dishonour and worthlessness of the human person in unequal rights of men and women and nations large over small and to establish conditions under which injustice and disrespect for the obligations arising from treaties and other illegal sources of international lawlessness can be maintained, and to promote social regression and declining standards of life in larger serfdom....”

This is what in effect the US is doing and will continue to do. United Nations? Bah! Does the UN respect the rights of “nations large and small”? Like the devil it does. On March 12, 1992, Mr Ramsey Clark wrote a letter to the members of the UN Security Council “concerning threats of renewed military intervention and continued sanctions against Iraq.”

In the course of the letter, Mr Clark wrote: “President Bush for purposes of his domestic presidential campaign may require the elimination of Saddam Hussein, but your (UN) sanctions are killing infants, children, the sick and the elderly and you know it.

“The war crimes of which US officials have been convicted (by the International War Crimes Tribunal) have resulted in the deaths of at least 250,000 human beings to date and the crippling of Iraq’s civilian society. The US claims 148 combat deaths, many from its own weapons. There was no war, only a simple, merciless slaughter of tens of thousands by 110,000 aerial sorties dropping 88,000 tons of explosives, 93 per cent free falling on a defenceless country...”

Only the other day, an American newspaper reported a military document envisaging air, land and sea-based forces to attack Iraq from three directions. Well, what the father couldn’t do, the son will. Oh, if wishes were murder!

LET me share two poems here with you which I read in Dexter Master’s book, The Accident. One goes like this:

“If Death should say: ‘I offer you

A robe of earth, a crown of dew,

Communion with the roots of things

And Knowledge of the blossmings

Of rose or weed or meadow rue,

I think that I should go content

To his enormous tenement.

But Death says this: ‘It’s time to go,

I offer you the dark, the flow

Of silence, and imprisonment

In endless time. Forget the rose,

And every other thing that grows,

And every sound and every sight;

Comeout with me into the night.’

And I must follow, as he knows.”

There’s another one:

“Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favour fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To Know that for destruction ice

Is also great,

And would suffice.”

The poem is titled “Fire and Ice.” It was written by Robert Frost.

UK withdrawal worries Afghans

THE recent unpredicted decision by the British government to withdraw most of its troops from Afghanistan has surprised many in and outside the United Kingdom. The target is bringing the present 1,300-strong British force to 400 only. The government in London says: “This reduction in numbers does not mean a reduction in our commitment either to Afghanistan or the campaign against international terrorism.”

However, many Afghans, including senior figures in the Kabul government, are extremely unhappy over this decision, as they fear for the future security in their country. The killing of one of the three vice-presidents, Abdul Qadir, is an eye-opener for the British government to reconsider their decision as Afghanistan is desperately in need of an effective and well-trained peacekeeping force. Mr Qadir is the second senior government figure killed over the last six months.

On Feb 14, Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Abdul Rehman was killed at Kabul airport under mysterious circumstances. Hamid Karzai blamed Mr Rehman’s killing on a conspiracy involving members of his own police.

After installation of the new government many warlords are out of business. They are waiting for an opportunity to get back into the business. Another destabilizing factor is the under-representation of Pakhtoons in the new government and which indeed could be a recipe for a future disaster in Afghanistan and one of the main destabilizing factors for the present government in Kabul.

In the absence of a strong and impartial peacekeeping force it would be very hard to stop the start of another civil war in the country. The present government in Kabul is dominated by a small faction that draws most of its support from a pocket in the north of the country. Several other ethnic groups, including the majority Pakhtoons, are complaining that they are under-represented in the government.

A political settlement that gives too large a role to the minority ethnic group — the Tajiks — and too small a one to Pakhtoons — the majority ethnic group of the country — has already sowed the seeds of future conflict. The three officials who apparently killed Mr Rahman are all members of Jamiat-i-Islami, the Tajik party (and faction of the Northern Alliance) that effectively runs the country’s new administration. Mr Rehman had defected from the party in the 1990s and joined the royalist camp of Afghanistan’s exiled king, Mohammad Zahir Shah.

Although the Taliban are wiped out from the political scene of Afghanistan, they are still present there after melting down in the Afghan society. It would be naive not to consider them a threat for the future. Some Afghan intellectuals and technocrats in London told this correspondent that most of their countrymen were shocked by the UK decision to withdraw most of its peace-keepers at a time when demands for increasing the number of police in many other parts of the country were being made.

Afghan President Karzai seems to be highly isolated and vulnerable, as he doesn’t have his own armed men like the Jamiat-i-Islami or other warlords. He had repeatedly asked the British government to increase the number of its peacekeepers. The recent killings in the Urazagan province by the American forces have made Mr Karzai’s position even more difficult. Such mistakes by the US forces in Afghanistan could very badly undermine the new Afghan government and it is making quite difficult for the authorities in Kabul to convince the Afghan population that Americans are their saviours and not their enemies.

There is no doubt that Britons are more popular than Americans in Afghanistan and the presence of the British peacekeepers could have a lasting effect on the peacekeeping efforts in Afghanistan.

SOUTH ASIA: The British foreign office’s advice to the UK citizens to avoid visiting India and Pakistan because of the tension between the two countries has had very negative effects on the tourism industry of India. Although the tension has eased a lot, the foreign office sticks to its advice. Places like Goa and Kerala in India are very popular holiday destinations for thousands of British tourists. Sales for the Indian tourist destinations are 85 per cent less than normal for the coming winter season, which runs from October to May.

Although Pakistan doesn’t have such beaches as Goa and Kerala have to attract British and other foreign tourists, its tourist industry must definitely have been affected. This is just a tiny fraction of the loss if the two countries go to war. The history of enmity among several European nations is much longer than the one between India and Pakistan. After the WW II the European nations decided never to go to war against each other and they transformed Europe into a huge security zone where there are no threats of war anymore. The start of a war between Britain and Germany or Britain and France is unthinkable now.

The peaceful Europe is a model for the rest of the world, particularly for Pakistan and India, to learn a lesson from it. It is an outstanding example of how traditional enemies could live together in peace and even could have the same currency and almost uniform foreign policy. If this could happen in Europe, why not in the subcontinent.

Let us look beyond Lahori: KARACHI FILE

“TO be associated with two revolutions is living to some purpose,” wrote political philosopher Tom Paine (1737-1809) in a personal letter to Thomas Jefferson (3rd US President, 1743- 1826). Mohammad Ajmal, alias Akram Lahori, celebrates his 38th birthday this weekend (July 14). By now he is believed to have been associated with around 38 killings in Karachi. To what purpose has Akram Lahori been living? He claims his purpose is service of Islam.

Lahori was caught here early in the morning on July 29 when, the police say, he was poised to launch another onslaught on worshippers in a mosque. It is good to feel that many lives were saved — lives that may have been lost had Lahori and his foursome again succeeded and escaped. Now add to this score of 38 lives in Karachi, the 30 that Lahori is alleged to have extinguished in Punjab.

This makes 68 scalps in a killing career spanning just half a decade, beginning in 1996. Arresting this maestro in the art of killing must have been quite a task, and may be rated as quite a performance. It is not very often citizens feel inclined to say ‘well done’ to the police. But this one does deserve an accolade. Let us be appreciative — for once.

Now one can perhaps entertain the hope that, with the arrest of some ring-leaders of the LJ killing corps, a beginning may have been made towards containing and eliminating the lunatic tendencies in our social chemistry. With some revealing leads available, it should be possible to look forward to some more reassuring news.

The governments — of th Punjab and Sindh — have offered head money which adds up to a tidy 5 million rupees. If all that we hear about Akram Lahori and his associates be true, the size of the prize looks a little paltry. Governments are seldom open- handed. But appreciation in cases like these has another and a more meaningful dimension. It had better take the form of reward in service terms. That would be more enduring.

It is certainly time now to get to know a little more about Akram Lahori. Born from Arain settler stock in Digri town in Mirpurkhas district, he spent his childhood and early youth in native environment. Later, took a degree in Commerce from Lahore. That’s where he joined (or fell into?) the hands of the Islami students. It is likely that Riaz Basra, Malik Ishaq and Akram graduated together into the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, probably via Sipah-i-Sahaba.

Though loyal to his senior Basra, Akram was rated considerably sharper. His alleged score would confirm that. Lahori’s arrest in Karachi, and most of his exploits being in Karachi, one should consider him the Karachi specialist of the LJ. By the same token, the police here should be relatively more knowledgeable — with Lahori at hand.

For the people, as also for the police, in this city there is one very worrisome question to face and try to answer. Why Karachi should have been the happier hunting ground for a man with Lahori’s insatiable blood lust? A nexus, however frail, has been established between LJ and the Taliban. Opinion may differ as to who was the benefactor and who the beneficiary. But the link is there.

The LJ operated a training camp and had a base in the Afghan town of Sarobi. That must have cost a pretty penny which the Taliban certainly did not have in plenty or much to spare. One intelligent surmise is that a lot of Karachi money must have been in play, because the Taliban needed it and the LJ moles could manage it.

And who the Taliban really are, pray? They are students. Their common Alma Mater is the chain of the Madaris. Karachi is the longest link in this chain. Thanks entirely to the indulgence of governments, in Sindh as well as at the Centre, who let these Madaris proliferate. Not that they were not warned. Even now the steps taken to discipline them are tentative, casual and vacillating.

Every time the interior minister was prevailed upon to speak about these Madaris, he was quick to note the ‘social service’ the Madaris were doing. What would impress him was that the service was gratis. The minister of religious affairs liked to be patronizing. Now, see how the Madaris have ‘served’ and look at the society served by them. Count the good sons of Karachi we mourn today?

The craving that drives Akram Lahori and his ilk to kill is injected among the adolescent Taliban in these Madaris. Many of them grow into exactly what the Madaris educate and indoctrinate them to be in life — the warriors ‘fi sabilillah.’ These killers are not from Mars. They are products of this society. They are the graduates of the Madaris we finance, support and protect.

Now the situation is easy to identify, but not so easy to come to terms with. This crop of killers has been spawned by the feeble-minded people resting at the core of our society. The killers are made in Karachi. Put your hand on your heart and face this: society has produced Basra, Ishaq and Lahori.

What about the village elders of Meerwala, who sanctified a gang-rape and were cheerful witness to it? What about the Mullah who had a fellow being stoned to death and gleefully watched the horror?

Is society itself not creating the diabolical criminals? Let society come forward and lend a helping hand to the police. In the eyes of many citizens, the Panchs of Muzaffargarh and Akram Lahori are showing us the mirror. Take a look. Don’t we, all of us, have such a remarkable family resemblance.

A diplomatic enclave?

Frequent road closures owing to the law and order situation in Karachi are becoming a norm that is hard to get used to. Take, for instance, the closure of the main artery into Clifton, the Abdullah Haroon Road, which has been cordoned off by the authorities ever since last month’s car bomb attack outside the US consulate.

The Fatima Jinnah Road behind the Frere Hall was also blockaded because a US diplomat lives on that road. The Shahrah-i-Iran in Old Clifton, another main road, remained out of bounds to public following the dreadful bomb blast for several days, because the British deputy high commission is located on that road. Just goes to show how real the security risk has become these days.

There is no telling where or when a terrorist may strike next. The said road closures are a stark reminder of a lurking and unpredictable danger, and add to the sense of fear in the public mind. Isn’t this partly what the terrorists want?

The two dastardly recent acts of violence that first left several Frenchmen and then many Pakistanis dead and injured, could not have been prevented. It is not possible to physically run a security check on each and every passing vehicle on the city roads.

The foreign missions based in the city have a real need for security that cannot be contested on any reasonable grounds. Yet, the closure of the roads for long periods seems an excessive measure. It adds to the congestion on the city roads and causes huge traffic jams, specially during rush hours.

Luckily the law enforcement personnel enforcing the road closures are, for once, polite. They listen to reason and do let you pass in case of an emergency or if the people you have to visit live in the cordoned off zone.

Unfortunate as it is, it seems the current security-risk situation is here to stay, at least for now. Does that then mean the road closures have become a permanent feature? Very likely. But there has got to be a way to go about the situation. The main roads that have been cordoned off are a bad, if a necessary, choice. But does that have to be the only choice?

Karachi has a large number of foreign missions and no diplomatic enclave. They are spread all over the Clifton cantonment and the DHA. Maybe it’s time the government considered building a designated enclave for the city’s foreign missions, where it would be relatively easier to provide a good measure of security to the diplomats without having to divert traffic and causing rush hour traffic jams.

The DHA has enough land that can be obtained for the purpose. As the unfortunate law and order situation and the security risk prevail, this seems to be the only long term solution that can ensure uninterrupted functioning of civic life in these trying times.

It seems some internet service providers are determined not to provide any kind of service to their customers. A recent experience involving one Karachi-based ISP turned out to be a complete nightmare for a friend, who was on the net one night when he ran out of hours. He had certain urgent e-mails to send so he decided to rush out to a petrol pump nearby to buy an internet card to tide over the emergency. And that is when his nightmare began.

The convenience store at the pump normally stocks cards from a number of companies, most of which perform a perfectly decent service. But that night his luck was out. He was told that there was only one type of card for sale and it would cost him Rs290 for ten hours. Left with no choice, the friend decided to fork out the money and rushed back home to get back to work. That, sadly, was easier said than done.

Most internet cards come with easy instructions that allow you to log on without much fuss. This card, however, required that you call a number to get on the net. Annoyed at this additional hassle, the friend began calling. The number rang some eight or ten times before it was rudely disconnected. He tried again and again but the same thing happened each time. After an hour of calling, he still could not get through.

Frustrated and annoyed he went back to the convenience store, where the salesman told him there was little he could do as the card had been scratched. He asked if there was any other number he could call to get connected; the answer was ‘no’. He had to go out searching for another card to log on with.

When he finally logged on late at night, he went on to the website of the company to see if he could find some help there or register his complaint. No such luck. The server of the company was down and the website was inaccessible. It has been more than ten days since he bought the card, and each day he goes home from work he calls the number. There is still no reply.

Not surprisingly, the friend in question feels cheated and has sworn never to touch any product from the company and has warned all his friends too. He now realizes that he was the hapless victim of an ISP that simply disappeared into cyberspace.

Dorothy was right when she said “there’s no place like home.” Landing at Karachi airport after a month’s sojourn in the land of the free — that’s America just in case the 9/11 got you all mixed up — to be greeted by airport staff scratching their privates and spitting all over the place, is surprisingly a good feeling. Some things just never change.

Despite the exhaustion of some 20-hour journey, and standing in long queues where immigration staff scan your passport with prying eyes, the only irritants are the expats who can’t seem to shut up about the inefficiency in Pakistan. And they have only just landed: “why is it taking so long?” yelled one. “It’s so dirty here,” screamed another. “I’m not putting the suitcase up on the ramp myself.”

Why perfectly rational people, who have no qualms behaving in an organized manner abroad, suddenly lose all norms of social behaviour, is baffling. Standing amid all the chaos around the luggage carousel — the army could benefit with the induction of some passengers who display great skills when it comes to getting to their bags first — one can still feel good about being home.

Granted, it is hot here and it does take a while to adjust back to the muggy climate; and it is awful to return home to find that in your absence the ants have taken over your house; that all the electrical appliances are dead with rust, the flush is out of order, and there’s no water whatsoever but heck, Karachi is home. And ultimately, home is where the heart is.

A painfully long closure spanning several weeks continues to divert vehicular traffic on to worse roads that are full of potholes. Anyone having to commute between Gulshan and Sharae Faisal — read a couple of hundred thousand people daily — knows what kind of an ordeal that is. The Rashid Minhas Road, which miraculously becomes Jafar Gardezi Road for the portion between the drive-in cinema and Drigh Road station, has been under repair for just too long now.

The work is proceeding at a snail’s pace with apparently no supervisory authority showing much concern for its timely completion. Just goes to show how certain parts of town are routinely neglected while some other more affluent areas even get their road curbs and the ‘stop’ signs repainted at regular intervals.

And while one is on the subject of Rashid Minhas Road, isn’t it a sin that the city’s traffic engineers should have never thought of properly connecting this main artery with the main Gulistan-i-Jauhar road? There is not even a roundabout at the junction of the two main roads, let alone a traffic light, causing a beeline in and out of Gulistan-i-Jauhar during peak hours. Knock, knock, is anyone listening?

— By Karachian