Election: trends in politics: DATELINE QUETTA

THINGS are gradually shaping up in the Balochistan province with parties finalizing their strategy to face the future political scenario. There are two sets of parties: one supporting and the other opposing the proposed elections the way the government is planning to organize.

The Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League (QA) are the ones which have shown interest in contesting the polls. The PPP leaders hope to come out as the single largest winners at the national level to lay their claims to forming the future government at the Centre and, possibly, in the provinces.

It is followed by the PML (QA) which expects to form government in Balochistan at least, if not at the Centre, provided the elections are held according to their schedule. A sizable number of seat winners from this province have already joined the party or assured of support by the political personalities having their traditional constituencies.

The PML (QA) had received a setback when Sardar Yar Mohammad Rind did not join it and preferred to join the Millat Party of Sardar Farooq Leghari. Thrice in the past Sardar Rind had won his NA seats; and had remained a senator and chairman of the district council in his early days of politics.

The PPP leaders are now engaged in electing party office- bearers to avoid being debarred from contesting the polls. Also, some other parties, mainly the BNP factions and the JWP, have held party elections at the provincial level. The Pakthoonkhwa Milli Awami Party and others are also planning to hold party elections at different levels before the deadline set by the election commission.

But there is another development on the provincial political scene: some of the parties are coming under pressure from the party activists to quit, for good, parliamentary politics and to wage a struggle instead, outside the assemblies. One of the reasons cited for this by political experts is the tough electoral laws framed by the government making it impossible for traditional leaders to contest the elections in October.

Most of the politicians leading the parties with mass political base are disqualified, one way or the other. One of the towering personalities of Balochistan, Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri, has been opposing the parliamentary politics for the past three decades. “It is total waste of time, resources and energy,” Nawab Marri has been telling his visitors for a long, long time, though his comrades would persuade him to participate, rather indirectly, in the process.

Presumably, Nawab Akbar Bugti and his Jamhoori Watan Party and Sardar Akhtar Mengal’s Balochistan National Party are coming round to Nawab Marri’s viewpoints, accepting his perceptions about the parliamentary politics. For the BNP and the JWP, most of the leaders and close relatives of their families stood disqualified with the condition for minimum qualification of graduate to become a member of the assembly. In short, the two parties and their leaders are convinced that they stood debarred from the assemblies.

No heavyweight will manage to reach the assemblies. Thus there is no use to waste time, energy and resources on parliamentary elections. The BNP did seek a mandate from its general council to okay the boycott of the future elections and to take to the streets to get its demand accepted.

The BNP (Mengal) demonstrated its political strength when it called for a one-day strike against the murder of its leader Aslam Gichki. The whole of central Balochistan was paralysed. It was very effective and left an impact on the public opinion. It received significant support from the provincial capital itself as the main shopping centres of the city remained closed in response to the strike call.

Perhaps for this reason, an official spokesman for the provincial government had reacted sharply claiming that the strike was ignored by the people. Although the leaders arrested in Quetta were released in the afternoon, many arrests were made in remote areas of central Balochistan, the BNP sources said.

In other words, the political troika of Mengal-Marri-Bugti is re-emerging in Balochistan, ignoring all their past differences. It became possible when the BNP (Mengal) extended unqualified support to Nawab Bugti in distress during a prolonged siege by the security forces at Dera Bugti. The party sent a delegation of political leaders to Nawab Bugti and extended unqualified support to him in case of police action against the Bugti tribesmen in future.

At a recent seminar, nine major parties of Balochistan rejected the proposed constitutional amendments. It was a signal that those parties would oppose the government moves collectively though at the same preparing for the elections. But indications are clear that the opposition parties will make serious inroads into the sphere of influence of the provincial government by resorting to the mass agitation.

If the parties are able to enforce non-parliamentary politics on the streets, the present government will be its first victim. The prestige of the provincial government is going down as leaders of public opinion keeping attacking its policies. Its failure in all fields are being highlighted by the opposition leaders. On the other hand, the provincial chief executive is handicapped with his team of ministers unable to counter the opposition moves against the government.

“It is a one-man show. They (cabinet ministers) are simply non-entities in the political context,” a political activist claimed. The governor, naturally, will not address political meetings to polish up his own image or enhance the prestige of his administration. He will have to leave the ground and give a walkover to his opponents sooner or later, a politician remarked.

Nur Khan on NSC: VIEW FROM MARGALLA

AIR MARSHAL Nur Khan has seen it all and from all sides and; knows it all from inside out. He has worked on both sides of the fence and that too in top policy-making positions. And he has made a success of everything that he has done. As the top gun in the Air Force he had led his young band of flying heroes to glorious heights in the 1965 war against a better equipped enemy. As the Chairman of the PIA he had made the national carrier one of the finest in the world in those days. His education reforms and then labour reforms, which the martial law government of General Yahya Khan introduced in the late 1960s, are yet to be bettered. And when he was heading the sports organizations, our national cricket, hockey and squash teams were considered the best in the world. One, therefore, needs to listen with rapt attention when a person with so many unparalleled successes under his belt speaks out his mind on issues of national importance.

I was struck by the vehemence with which Nur Khan debunks the Musharraf-Tanvir pet project — the National Security Council (NSC). In his opinion the NSC in the shape and form proposed by the NRB would spell disaster not only for the country but also for Pakistan’s Armed Forces. He laments the pre-eminent role that the Army chiefs have annexed in Pakistan’s politics over the last 50 years. This, he thinks, has already caused serious damage to both, a professional institution and the institution of democracy in the country. And now by inducting the chiefs of the Navy and the Air Force in the proposed NSC, in the opinion of the former Air Force Chief, the junta is only ensuring total destruction of the Armed Forces. He says the chiefs of the Air Force and the Navy have never ever been involved in political power games. They have been managing two highly professional and perhaps the most cost-effective defence institutions in the country with only what he described as ‘crumbs’ thrown their way by the highly politicized and flabby Army. Now if you bring these two officers into the game of power politics, you would only be doing it at the cost of professionalism in these institutions, asserts Nur Khan. According to him in the first instance part of the time, that these two officers now spend in keeping their institutions fighting fit with whatever little that is provided to them, would be wasted in the NSC where they would be doing nothing but play politics, a subject they are utterly incapable of understanding. Secondly, Nur Khan said when the Army does not even consider it obligatory to consult the chiefs of these two institutions when declaring wars, why then does it need them sitting in the NSC, a totally non-security related organization with its entire terms of reference devoted to politics? He recalled that in 1965 the then Air Force chief was not consulted before the Army launched the war. And many believe that the Air Force and Navy chiefs were kept out of the consultation process which led to the Kargil adventure in 1999. Similarly, he said the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC), a totally ceremonial officer and normally appointed on the basis of patronage has no place in the NSC. How would these three officers, who are appointed by the President, disagree with their employer? And how would it look when at the behest of this employer of theirs these three paid government servants would be seen to be hectoring an elected prime minister in what is called ‘the national interest’, a notion which can be twisted to mean anything by anybody with the institution of the Army backing him.

In the opinion of Nur Khan the present military regime has committed almost all the sins of omissions and commissions in the last three years which it accuses Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif of having committed in their tenures. The country continues to go adrift, in his opinion. The law and order situation has become much worse. The economy continues to be rent with many ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ and still remains highly recessionary. Good governance is nowhere to be seen. He thinks if the government had wanted it could have easily cleansed the country of the illegal weapons within six months of coming to power. That should have been the first priority of the military regime, he said. Instead it wasted its time on futile tax surveys and on creating its own constituency by holding local government elections which has further dislocated life at the grass-roots. The Meerwala and Mianwali incidents speak volumes about the ineffectiveness of these grassroot governments. Nur Khan said quick deweaponization would have taken care of dacoits in Sindh, the Jehadis who roam the country unchecked and unchallenged and the sectarian killers who murder people with total impunity.

Why is nobody talking these days about democracy as envisaged by the Quaid-i-Azam? Nur Khan asked in total frustration. The Quaid had spelled out the concept of democracy very clearly and in unambiguous terms. But what is your political philosophy, your political vision? He asked. The question was obviously directed at General Musharraf. You have got to have a political philosophy and vision if you are in the game of running a nation and then you have to have a political arm to take your message to the masses for enlisting their support for your endeavours to turn your philosophy and vision into a reality. Nur Khan was perhaps asking Gen Musharraf rather indirectly to take off his uniform and launch a political party of his own if he had faith in what he is doing.

Unlike the author of the constitutional amendment packages General Tanvir Naqvi and the present rulers, including President Musharraf, who before they came on the scene following the October 1999 takeover, were totally unknown and could show nothing by way of qualification or achievements for what they now are trying to do, Nur Khan has his unmatched past successes to lend authority and weight to his opinion and thoughts. So, let us not dismiss them out of hand. In fact he is perhaps one of the few in this country today who can lend a bipartisan direction and corporate discipline to the ongoing debate on the future of Pakistan. But then one can hardly expect this regime to listen to saner advise and wiser counsel. It has welcomed public debate on its actions and policies only for the sake of form and not to learn and improve. It is using the freedom it has given to the press and the electronic media to cover up its subjugation of superior judiciary and its clandestine attempts to engineer the October elections. It was not dissuaded by the trend of the debate on local government when it had raged with no holds barred for one month at the junta’s own initiative. At the end of the debate it went ahead and did exactly what it had said it would do while announcing its local government plans. It was the same in the case of the debate on the referendum. Every one and his auntie was telling him not to take the plunge. But he did exactly what he had made up his mind to do before he launched the debate on the referendum. And now with the debate on the two constitutional packages nearing its logical end with almost the entire nation voicing its opposition to most of them, there appears to be no hope of any change in the approach and attitude of the rulers. They seem bent upon using these packages to engineer the next elections. The whole world has caught on to their trick. The foreign monitors without even setting foot in the country have started writing their reports on pre-poll engineering that began with the promulgation of Political Parties’ Ordinance. Many of these monitors are not likely to come to Pakistan personally fearing possible terrorist attacks for which the junta has created the right environment. Most likely, the local NGOs would be recruited by these foreign monitors to do their job on the election day. So, let us sit back and enjoy the theatre of the absurd, if at all it is going to be staged on October 10, 2002!! —Onlooker

Spare the rod, save the teacher: KARACHI FILE

A SHRIEKING heading in the newspaper said, “Teachers may be barred from joining tuition centres.” It appears that teachers are to be prevented from teaching. But, why? Do we have an abundance of teachers? Are there too many of schools, so they should be dissuaded from undertaking the task of teaching? Or, are there not enough of children for the existing schools and available teachers?

The reported move to prevent government school teachers from offering tuition, that is in time after, or before their regular teaching job, is so utterly absurd as to defy belief. Apparently, some dim baboo is trying to have it out on teachers for some personal or perverse grudge.

What is being made out is that government school teachers do not take their work seriously. Quite true. They neglect their official duties in order to directly or indirectly oblige parents to have extra tuition their wards. Absolutely correct. Teachers in government schools use all manner of tricks to earn on the side. Also true.

So what is the remedy? To ban teachers from taking up teaching in spare time? No, that is not the way to combat what is admittedly a well established social malpractice. In the first place, the education authorities be hauled up for their failure to discipline the teachers on government payroll.

If the teachers are not teaching properly in the regular classes, what on earth is the Headmaster/Principal there for? If the Headmaster is not supervising the work of the teachers under him, quite obviously he is unable or unwilling to do his job; He/she should be cashiered, in the first place.

Next step, above. If headmasters are not taking due care of teaching in their schools, the Inspector of Schools should be pulling them up or getting rid of them. It is only logical that if the Inspector of Schools is not carrying out his supervisory duties, his superiors should do the needful — pull him/her up or show them the door.

Now, where is the Director of Education? What is he doing to make sure that the schools are properly functioning? And where on earth is the Minister for Education? Quite obviously what we have on our hands is a total collapse of the education system, or whatever of it remains in the domain of the government of this province.

Let us face facts. Education in the country as a whole, in this province in particular, is about the most neglected aspect of national life. We hear the Federal Minister of education waxing eloquent about high technology and what have you. He is busy building passionately — from top downwards!

At the school level, pass percentage in annual promotion examinations remains appallingly low. Thousands of students are declared ‘failed.’ This means thousands of years of lives or our children are lost beyond any retrieval. This happens year after year. No action is taken against any official in the Education Department. Why do the students fail? Primarily because of very poor teaching.

There was a time when the school teachers’ life prospects depended upon the success of their students. That is the surest way to make the school teachers do an honest day’s teaching. If their students made good, the teachers rose, or else they stagnated. Many would lose their jobs.

We do not have enough schools and certainly not enough of teachers. As it is, the government is in a mad rush to privatise everything under the sun, education sooner than anything else. Why throttle the schools that are cropping up? No doubt many of these mushrooming schools are not up to the mark.

But the real question is a moral one. If the government cannot run its own schools properly, has it any legal or moral right to dictate discipline to others? If the government cannot provide seats in its school, it has no right to prevent a child going to whatever school its parents can manage and whatever teachers hold classes there.

What ought to shame the Education Department is its own deplorable performance. It cannot organise even annual examinations efficiently. Now, annual examinations are events that come only once a year. The department has a whole year to prepare for this test of its ability. It fails every time. And no corrective action to tame it.

Look at the textbook scandal. It is a disgusting mess. A hundred questions are being asked by the harried students and their no less harried parents. Why are the books not there? One attempt has been made to put the blame on distant Islamabad. Why did the Education Department in Karachi or Hyderabad not start making the same noise four months earlier?

They say out of evil cometh good. What good can we expect from this unrelieved situation? This virtual collapse of the Education Department should persuade the provincial government to inject a bit of common sense and a touch of moral strength to look at its own warts, pimples and all. There is more of corruption in education than people would believe. It may be all for money. Would the textbook fiasco bear scrutiny?

For heaven’s sake the education authorities should be to told to leave the poor teachers and the private schools, regardless of their indifferent quality. It is not too soon for the government of Sindh to take care of its ghost schools and ghost teachers. Let them look at that horror and do something about that standing shame.

Everybody is making an extra buck in the government services.

Why not the poor school teacher be free to make an extra bit? After all, the pay scales for schools teachers tell a pathetic tale. If anyone in our society needs some extra consideration, it is the school teacher. If you want your man to do a first class job, give him a first class ticket.

Gutter kids

CERTAIN incidents in life make you stop and think. They make you wonder about the goodness of humanity and the kind of nation you belong to. A colleague says that recently she experienced something that made her think about all these things.

This is her account: “Driving home with my cousin and aunt we came across a huge crowd at Clifton beach, in front of Sizzler restaurant. There seemed to be an accident.

“A brand new VTI stood nearby and the driver, a smartly dressed middle aged man, was severely chiding a six year old girl who looked like a beggar. She, however, was howling away for her topi — which had apparently fallen into an open gutter — and for her bhai who had fallen in while trying to retrieve the topi. On closer inspection, we heard the man telling the inconsolable child that her brother was gone and that since there was no hope, she should stop crying. But what he said made the little girl shriek even louder.

“With mounting curiosity, we walked up to her and asked some questions. The girl told us that she and her brother had fallen into the gutter (we assumed that the driver of the VTI had pulled her out). There was also a buggy driver at the scene — he was almost fully inside the gutter — and he seemed to be trying his best to fish out the boy who was still inside. However, the VTI man, thinking he had done his best, drove off in his car, and even while he was there he seemed to be taking great care of his clothes. All this while the passengers of the buggy, who happened to be foreigners, patiently sat near the gutter waiting and hoping.

“We were full of indignation at the man though. Did he mean to just leave the boy to die? The crowd, sensing our desire to help, warned us that this could turn into a police case. If we were unable to pull the child out, the parents or onlookers could blame us, and if we managed to pull him out and the doctors at the hospital were unable to save him then, too, the blame would come on us. However, we chose not to heed this warning.

“My aunt drove the car right in front of the gutter with the headlights on, since it was getting dark then. This helped the buggy driver to see better, he leaned lower (not caring about his clothes) and managed to grab the little boy’s arm just before the gushing water could sweep him away. We noticed then that the boy was very small, around three years old. He was coughing and spitting blood profusely and seemed to be in immediate need of medical help. But who would take him to the hospital, nobody wanted to come close to him. We asked a family if they could take him to the hospital, on our expenses though. They too backed out.

“Finally, two boys agreed to go with us, just in case witnesses were needed. After both brother and sister were thoroughly cleaned, we drove them home, which was a makeshift shanty settlement near Hawaiian Homes. My aunt tried to reprimand the children’s mother but she said that the father, who worked at Funland, had sent the kids home on their own, and that they had jumped into the gutter to retrieve the cap.

“We came away not really believing all that had happened. Had we not stopped would people have continued driving past the crowd and the crying girl, as they did that evening? Would the little boy have died? I found more pain than joy from this. And what will happen the next time another child falls into a gutter?”

Unfortunately, her omen came true and Saturday’s newspaper carried a story of three-year-old Sameer drowning in an open manhole.

Will the municipal agencies ever cover these death traps?

It was quite a shock last week to read this news item. It said that a woman had died on the plane while returning to Pakistan from the UK. The name Armin Cavasji sounded suspiciously familiar, perhaps too familiar because it was the same name as arguably Karachi’s best cake-maker.

The next day an obituary notice from Mrs Cavasji’s family and the Bleak House address confirmed that indeed the city had lost perhaps an institution.

I rang up the number, which I had been doing for years to order the most sumptuous of cakes and desserts, to condole and find out a bit more about Armeen. Her daughter Shireen came on line. Obviously, shaken and moved by her mother’s passing away, she said that her mother, who was just about to turn 60, had in fact died in her sleep while on the plane, and not the way it had been reported in newspapers, most of which had reported that she had died due to a stomach ulcer.

Responding to a question, Shireen said that her mother and her used to make the cakes together and despite her death things would go on as usual. “My mother had been doing this for twenty years and later I began assisting her. And now, this is what I do, and I think especially after her death, I think I will keep doing this, perhaps to keep my sanity.” The daughter also pointed out that while ‘Armin’ was the way her mother spelt her name, on the cake boxes it was spelt ‘Armeen’.

For thousands of Karachiites wishing to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, Eid or other joyous and happy occasions, Armeen’s cakes provided some excellent gastronomical fare. A lot of us probably associate fond memories with perhaps some of the best dessert the city has to offer.

Hopefully, her daughter Shireen, will be able to carry on her mother’s legacy. Karachian shares her, her brother’s and her father’s grief, and may her soul rest in peace.

A large advertisement on July 25 informed us that the city government of Karachi had decided to hold a ‘fehmul quran’ lasting ten days at Nishtar Park. The notice said that the event would run after Isha every day from July 27 to August 5 and that the public was encouraged to attend.

Some might question whether conducting such a, no doubt commendable and worthy, event really is the job of the city government. With the monsoon — or whatever Karachi gets of it — just around the corner shouldn’t the city government be planning to make sure that the roads don’t, like always, turn into lakes and small swimming pools.

And what about the generally terrible condition of the city’s roads, the ever-expanding stray dog population, and the never-ending problem of solid waste disposal? And if religion must be mixed with politics, then don’t the city’s Parsis, Christians and Hindus also deserve patronage at (city) government expense?

A friend who has just come from sizzling Lahore reports that while it is might be relatively dull there these days with no balls, theme parties or dinners, there is still a lot happening when it comes to cooling off the restless little ones. And by that she definitely does not mean the roadside vendors selling satoo and shinkajbeen.

And while Nathiagali may be the haunt for the rich and famous, the newest name, she says, is Jhikagali where only the very the rich and the very famous have built lovely cottages to get away from the maddening Lahori crowds who rush to Nathiagali.

Coming back to activities for children in Lahore, there is a lot more the city has to apparently offer as opposed to Karachi. Take this place called ‘In and Out’ for example. Run by an Irish woman, it offers hours of fun for kids. She offers trampolines, a covered activity area where children can climb, get on a swing or a slide, use hand-glider rides, be taught the basics of karate, or swim in a mini pool.

The place is becoming quite popular with many hip young mothers choosing to hold their child’s birthday party there. Among other outdoor activities, there is also a mini golf course at a park in Gulberg. Then, to keep slightly older kids and the teenagers busy, the Alhamra Arts Council has been busy organizing a ten-day theatre workshop, which was followed by a play put up by the students. And if nothing else, there is the Y Block commercial area in Defence where you can go shop-hopping. — By Karachian

Alarming increase in suicide incidents: DATELINE FAISALABAD

OVER 200 people, including girls and boys, aged persons and heads of families, committed suicide between July 2001 and June 2002 in Faisalabad district. However, only 42 suicide incidents were reported to the police which were recorded in the ‘roznamcha’.

According to Islamic teachings and laws, suicide is a major sin and is not allowed in any circumstances.

Most people who committed suicide were said to be highly dejected and fed up with their lives owing to financial difficulties, joblessness or poverty. In most cases, either the breadwinner had become jobless or income was insufficient to fulfil the domestic responsibilities.

The data collected by this correspondent revealed that out of the registered cases, six women, eight girls, 20 youths and eight aged persons, including two couples, took their lives.

The police said if a person committed suicide, it was not considered an offence. They just carried out the legal formalities and handed over the body to the relatives without a post-mortem examination.

It is believed that most people keep such matters secret from the police, relatives and neighbours. Neither the police give any importance to suicide nor the community reacts to it. However, the police claim that if a person survives a suicide attempt, a case is registered against him or her for attempting to kill himself/herself.

Psychiatrists are of the view that the trend of suicide should be taken as a serious indicator of the frustration and dejection in society, which shows that the people have lost confidence in the system. They say the number of suicide incidents is alarming and should be controlled. The real problems of the people which cause depression and frustration must be addressed and practical steps taken to provide them relief.

There were about a hundred incidents in the district during the last year in which youngsters, labourers and teenagers ended their lives by hanging, burning or shooting themselves. Majority of the people because of legal complications and the menacing attitude of government agencies termed such incidents ‘accidental’. The police itself advised the relatives not to report the matter and keep it a ‘secret’.

In some cases, policemen were found involved in receiving huge bribes from parents of the girls who committed suicide for keeping the matter off the record.

According to statics provided by the Allied Hospital and DHQ Hospital officials, 13 people including girls and aged persons committed suicide by hanging in 2001. Only two cases of suicide by poison were received by the Emergency Ward of the Allied Hospital.

Faisalabad district has a population of more than 5.7 million but there are only seven practising psychiatrists. Most patients have been reportedly approaching them through relatives for advice and treatment of various types of addiction. Almost all these psychiatrists were asked by this correspondent as to how many youngsters approached them for problems of dejection and frustration owing to unemployment, financial difficulties and other social problems like tension-ridden domestic life and physiological and economic suppression.

The standard reply was that hardly one per cent of such patients, all belonging to well-off families, had approached them through their relatives. From the lower middle class families, hardly a few patients sought their advice being unable to afford the high cost of treatment. The have-nots thus were left with no option but to end their lives one way or the other being unable to cope with their economic problems.

One such dejected boy, Naseer Ahmad, said had his family owned resources, he would not have thought of ending his life, seeing no light of hope in a corruption-ridden and influence dominated society.

Surprisingly, sociologists, NGOs and philanthropists have not come up with the idea of holding a debate or workshop to analyze the causes of suicide and final remedies. The Punjab Medical College and the Pakistan Medical Association never even discussed the subject.

One should seriously consider every note of suicide, every act of self-immolation, every indication of self-infliction, however deliberate it may sound, because no human being would end his/her life without giving a warning or signal to others.

When a quarter rupee went a long, long way

IT is not like today. No bus, no wagon will ever offer you a ticket for the fare received. Inter-city wagons and buses do give you tickets but then, most of them are in the nature of kutchi receipts.

But it was not at all like this 50 years ago. I was leafing through two books from father’s library and since God was to give me something upon which to pontificate today, I found two bus tickets. The first had been issued by the Model Town Bus Service (unfortunately since defunct). My father had paid four annas (25 paisa today) to travel from Model Town to the Bus Stand which was the last stage on Rattan Chand Road near the Mayo Hospital. The ticket had been bought in March, 1951. (The book in which I found it was signed and dated by father on March 20 the same year). This ticket, as you can see, was horizontal.

The other ticket that I found had been issued by the defunct Lahore Omnibus Service. It was in the same book, The Pianist Shoots First and had been bought by pater a day or two later. It was priced at as 4-6 which is to say four-and-a-half annas and it took you from the Walton Airport to the Lahore Railway Station — a distance of some good 10 kilometres. While the Model Town Bus ticket had six stages, the one by the Omnibus Service was for 14 stops.

And now about that half-anna bit. The Model Town Bus Service was also obliged to increase its fare by half an anna from Model Town to the Mayo Hospital because of increase presumably in petrol prices. But you could still save the half anna if you so desired. It was easy. The fare from Model Town to the Ganga Ram Hospital was three annas and from the Ganga Ram Hospital to the Mayo Hospital, it cost you another anna. One-sixteenth of a rupee. Just imagine! And I used to buy first a ticket for the Ganga Ram Hospital and then from Ganga Ram to the Mayo I would pay another anna — four annas in all and one half anna to the good.

The Model Town Bus Service was simply magnificent in my school days. It used to run special buses for schools and colleges in Lahore. And you could even reserve your seat. Again, you could buy a pass for five rupees a month and you were free to travel even on Sundays.

THE book in which I found the two tickets was written by Gerard Fairlie. Can you tell a critic from an ordinary reporter? Here is the Fairlie method:

“The way to tell a critic from an ordinary reporter is to offer him a drink. If he’s an ordinary reporter, he’ll say yes even to bear.” The thing is I never was a critic nor yet an ordinary reporter. Hence nobody ever made any such offer to me. (A friend says it never pays to be a critic).

Taxi drivers have been the same since the Fairlie Book was first published in 1938.

There was this girl who wanted to go from one place to another in London. A little exchange between her and the cabbie is reproduced here:

Cabbie: “Sorry Miss, can’t take you....”

Girl: “It’s against the law....”

Cabbie: “I haven’t enough petrol!”

Then the girl offers to buy a ‘return ticket’, so to say. The cabbie now says he has enough petrol. Reaching her destination, the girl asks the cabbie to wait until she returns.

Cabbie: “What’s to prevent you not coming back this way?”

Girl: “Nothing that I know of, but here’s my card. They’ll pay you if I decide to walk back....”

Cabbie: “The Sentinel, eh?”

Girl: “Is that different?”

Cabbie: “Why didn’t you say so before, Miss?”

So you see, taxi drivers were like that in 1938. They are much the same today, 64 years later, if not worse.

My advice: Always keep your visiting card with you. It might come in handy one day. Who knows?

MR Intizar Husain came visiting on Saturday. It was the 12th of Savan which normally marks the advent of the monsoons. He complained that we were having a dry Savan, except for a few drops of rain which had made matters worse.

He remains cheerful, though, even in adversity. I was myself hot and bothered. Monsoon time is the most difficult time of year for me. No matter whether it rains or not, everything becomes so darned sticky. And I told Intizar Sahib just that. He smiled and said:

“Do you remember that old song by Khurshid — Badariya baras gayee uss paar?

I remembered and was immediately rehabilated.

“Well all right. Let us be happy in our misery Intizar Sahib”, and you know what, I was happy. And now I feel that the weather is always as good or bad as you think it is. So, let’s sweat it out and be natural-like.

August is upon us and the Sindhis call it the 13th month of the year — Terhon mahino ah. That’s because they have nothing, come August, and they are forced to sell whatever crops they have at throwaway prices.

I HAVE a selection of writings in The Statesman (1875-1975). It was gifted to me by a friend in Karachi and I have quoted from it on a few occasions in the past. Here’s another quote, written on July 14, 1892:

“To represent the Bastille as a place of cruelty and an abominable prison at the time of its destruction (July 14, 1789) would be to falsify history. It was undoubtedly so under some previous reigns, but as Lamartine justly observes, it had long been clear of all guilt by the gentle spirit of Louis XVI and by the humane disposition of his ministers. The dungeons, cells and instruments of prison torture certainly existed under his regime but they had not been used for generations and were but worn-out symbols of antique secret incarcerations, common in the history of most European countries in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.”

THE Institute of Safety and Human Factors is opening in Karachi early in August. It seeks to offer “structured courses” to women in a variety of fields. In fact a look at its prospectus would suggest that many of its courses resemble those of a finishing school for women.

Everything from make-up techniques to personal hygiene and time and stress management is on offer. Students will also have the opportunity to be formally taught etiquette and table manners, how to give interviews, how to plan a menu and set a table or even how to dress and develop a fashion sense.

The motto of the institute is: “Changing Attitudes Positively and Forever.” The management claims that given contemporary society and the demands it makes on women, the courses being offered provide an opportunity to applicants to polish their personalities, which in turn should make them better equipped for the competitive job market.

If you want to know more about the institute, you can ring their Karachi telephone numbers 5821355 or 5821366.