Shifting social paradigms

Our society is in the midst of a paradigmatic shift. The imperatives of 'progress' have brought with them western influences and values that often conflict with our traditional practices and principles. We find ourselves in a position where we are neither willing to fully embrace nor fully reject modern western values.

Similarly, we cannot bring ourselves to wholly give in to our traditional conservative customs and beliefs nor do we wish to shake loose from them. Our westernized values do not allow us to condone the confinement of women by chadar and char-deevari nor do our traditional values allow us to establish a permissive, westernized society. Consequently, we currently inhabit a social wilderness in the vast grey area somewhere between the two extremes.

The fact that a large segment of our society in the rural areas is lagging far behind the urban centres in terms of development and enlightenment serves only to exacerbate the tension and conflict between these two sets of values giving rise to heated debate on issues like karo-kari, honour killings, etc.

I had the opportunity to attend a seminar on honour killings in Karachi recently. It was exactly as I had expected: Everyone came with pre-conceived notions and views based upon the distorted, thoroughly biased reports of the press and media.

Without any real first hand knowledge of the issue, some of the participants proposed that the jirga system should be abolished while others felt that new laws against honour killings need to be enacted.

As I listened to one absurd suggestion after another, I could not help but wonder how many of these people had actually set foot past the toll gates on the National Highway into interior Sindh, let alone have an in-depth knowledge of the subject on which they wished to present themselves as self-styled experts.

Obviously, there can be no difference of opinion with these drawing room philosophers as far as the sanctity of human life and the discontinuation of archaic and medieval customs is concerned. But the question 'what needs to be don?' produces a dichotomy of views. We are talking about something as sensitive as social and cultural reform. We cannot callously machete our way through historical, traditional values with reckless abandon.

Morality, social beliefs and cultural values cannot be legislated or imposed by law. The history of legal systems around the world and the writings of eminent jurists illustrate that at any given stage in the evolution of society laws reflect the values that are held supreme in that society. It is social values that dictate laws. Laws crystalize and emerge out of cultural norms and customs.

But laws cannot dictate social change. Whenever a law comes into conflict with or contradicts a widely observed social custom, invariably it is that conflicting law which becomes a casualty and is discarded by either lack of observance or, in extreme cases, is overthrown by means of revolution. This is what most people fail to understand and feel that every issue can be resolved by passing new laws.

In 1976, the National Assembly passed a bill by which the sardari system was abolished. But it could not be implemented because it came far before its time and conflicted with prevailing cultural norms. The fact is that we do not need any new laws. Murder is already a crime in Pakistan.

It is absurd to clamour for a law specifically banning the killing of women. In that vein, we would need to pass specific and separate laws prohibiting the killing of doctors, industrialists, lawyers, businessmen and every profession and segment of society. This would make a mockery of our legal system. The laws that exist on the books are quite adequate. We just need to implement them.

Modernization and the evolution of a social conscience and morals is a natural process that all advanced western societies had to go through as well. There was a time in the United States of America when innocent men and women were accused of practising witchcraft and were either drowned or burned at the stake in the now infamous Salem Witch Trials, which even had the sanction of state authority.

Our authorities may turn a blind eye to instances of karo-kari and honour killings but at least they do not officially sanction them. But, like the US, we, too, have to pass through this stage of social evolution. It is unavoidable.

Perhaps the transformation of our society will not take as long as it did in the West since the path has already been blazed before us, but there are no shortcuts and we can only expect to expedite the process so much without distorting the natural forces of social change. Change will come but impetuous rashness can be counter-productive and can produce a whole new set of problems.

It is customary to hold the sardars, so called 'feudals' and the jirga system responsible for everything, from bird flu to sunspots. The sole sources of information for most urbanites are the press and media, which present sardars and jirgas in a completely convoluted and highly prejudiced image. For instance, an impression has been created that jirgas and sardars encourage honour killings. Nothing could be further from actual fact.

When a karo-kari matter is brought to the attention of a sardar, there can be no question of anyone killing anyone after that point. Any sardar worth half his salt would ensure the security and safety of the accused at a neutral location before proceeding with a jirga in which, if the charges are sufficiently corroborated with evidence, monetary fines are imposed and the girl in question is handed back to her parents who are made to take a vow to protect her from all harm.

Killings sometimes take place when a karo-kari matter is not brought to the sardar's attention and even then the sardar plays a pivotal role in the resolution of the matter. It is absurd to suggest that sardars themselves promote and encourage honour killings. Such sardars would not only lose face among their peers but also lose respect among their followers.

Of course there are always rotten apples in every barrel. There may be some sardars who pronounce distasteful rulings in jirgas, but they are the exception rather than the rule. Are there no hopeless quacks in the medical profession who cause the deaths of far more patients than any jirga ever could? Are there no shyster lawyers in the legal profession? Are there no unscrupulous industrialist who exploit child labour?

Have we already forgotten the judgment of the Anti-Terrorist Court in Lahore a few years ago which ruled that a man who had been found guilty of abducting young boys and brutally murdering them and then dissolving their bodies in a large vat of acid should suffer the same fate as his victims?

Did we allow that one ruling to cast a shadow over the whole legal system resulting in calls for the abolition of the judiciary? If these instances can be generally regarded as exceptions to the rule then why must all attention be focused on the narrow negative aspect of jirgas while the good they do is conveniently and summarily overlooked?

The fact of the matter is that the whole civic, administrative, judicial and law enforcement system in Pakistan has collapsed and there exists a vacuum of authority. People are left at the mercy of civil servants, police and judiciary that are either incompetent, disinterested or corrupt to the core and are incapable and unwilling to solve their problems. The people have no choice but to turn to the sardars, who provide instant relief.

A few years ago, a serious feud between the Kalhora and Nareja tribes on the border of Khairpur and Larkana districts had made the area a no-go area for law enforcement agencies and had resulted in the loss of thirty-seven lives.

The authorities were totally helpless to do anything about it and finally the SP Khairpur approached my father, Sardar Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, to resolve the conflict in a jirga. The jirga took place and the conflict which the authorities could not resolve in three or four years was resolved in three or four hours and peace restored in the area.

Whereas serious conflicts arising from matters relating to property, business dealings, blood feuds etc. are neglected by the authorities and drag on in courts for years, they are resolved within a matter of a few hours in jirgas to the satisfaction of the concerned parties. Why is this aspect neglected? If jirgas are banned, then what will become of the people who will once again be tossed at the mercy of a system that is not working?

If disputes and feuds are not resolved quickly and effectively, that will only result in an increased number of killings and more law and order problems as people will be forced to take the law into their own hands.

At the conclusion of the above mentioned seminar, a resolution was tabled against honour killings. Though I certainly abhor the taking of human life for any reason, I could not support this resolution because it went on to demand the abolition of the jirga system.

The jirga system goes against all that my western education has taught me. But on some occasions a serious case surfaces which needs to be resolved quickly as lives are at stake. In such instances it becomes very difficult to turn people away.

The only way to get rid of the jirga system is to revamp and revitalize the administrative, judicial and law enforcement system. Once that happens, the jirgas and sardars will automatically become obsolete and redundant. But it cannot be legislated out of existence as long as it is the sole safety net for the hapless and desperate common man.

It is the misfortune of the representatives of the traditional way of life, whether they be sardars, waderas or the so-called 'feudals', that they are fragmented and disunited and have failed thus far to collect on a common forum to face the ridiculous, indeed slanderous, allegations that are levelled against them and to promote their own values and customs.

They are being attacked mercilessly from all directions, yet they have failed to put up a defence due to their unfortunate disunity. If this state of affairs does not change this disunity and fragmentation will be their undoing. This is no skin off my nose since I hold no brief for either side. I have only said what needed to be said.

Let us ban Basant and be done with it

Mian Amer Mahmood must be the greatest district Nazim in the world. Talking to a delegation of kite and string manufacturers in Lahore the other day, he said that "a permanent ban on kite-flying was inevitable" because of "continuing casualties" as a result of "the use of glass powder-coated, nylon and metal string".

He said the government would not allow a handful of irresponsible elements to put the lives of innocent people at stake.

I am also delighted to know that we have an anti-kite flying association whose chairman is the good Khwaja Izhar Amritsari. However, he is not a patriotic as Mian Amer Mahmood. He simply wants kite-flying restricted to open spaces "outside the city limits and along the canal banks". He probably wants kite-flying to continue.

After all, he is an Amritsari. On second thoughts, though, the Khwaja Sahib's proposal amounts to demanding a virtual ban on a pastime which has been regarded as an innocent expression of joy on the advent of spring for generations untold. I remember more songs on Basant and bahar (Spring) than I can count.

The Khwaja Sahib has spoken of "city limits". Where are these limits? On Ferozepur Road, for example, you will have to reach the outskirts of Kasur to find the city limits of Lahore but that would mark the city limits of that latter town. And the same will be the case in all directions, be it the Sheikhupura Road or the GT Road.

Another organization, the Shabab-i-Milli, announced that it would hold a demonstration outside the press club to demand a permanent ban on kite-flying in the Punjab capital. The demonstration was billed for Sunday. I don't know whether it was actually held or not.

Shabab-i-Milli is welcome to do what it likes. But, come to think of it, is kite-flying the only sinful thing that the Lahoris do? For instance, many many more people die in road accidents because of reckless driving or because of unroadworthy vehicles than in kite-flying.

Another thing. Have Mian Amer Mahmood, Khawja Izhar Amritsari or the Shabab-i-Milli ever thought of the immense harm the mushrooming private schools and colleges are doing to the city, the Punjab and Pakistan? These bogus institutions are destroying the very future of countless young people who have no access to quality education.

What about quacks? Doctors with bogus degrees and often with no degrees at all are killing or disabling people across the country and no questions asked. What about food adulteration? What about smuggling? and what about a thousand more social maladies which are eating into the very vitals of this nation?

But these are serious matters. We don't like to work hard or to think hard, do we? So let us be frivolous. Let us ban kite-flying and be done with it. Let there be no joy in this land of ours. Let us all be soullessly devout.

* * * * * *

A couple of weeks ago I had asked my readers if they remembered any one-day international in which two Pakistani cricketers had scored centuries and yet we had lost.

My young friend Sheikh Abid Rasheed has come up with an answer. He says that Ejaz Ahmed and Saeed Anwar hit 116 and 140 but we lost to India in Dhaka in January 1998.

The second game was played in Lahore in March 1998. In that game Ejaz Ahmed made 136 and Yousaf Youhana scored an even hundred but Australia went on to win. Thank you, Abid Rasheed. Anyway, I think too many one-day matches are being played these days and soon the law of deminishing returns will begin to apply to what many people now call one-dayers and day-nighters. Quite ugly, don't you think?

* * * * * *

There was this headline in an Urdu language newspaper the other day: Wazeer-i-Ala ne Lahore ko khubsurat banane ka hukm de dia (The chief minister orders the beautification of Lahore). Goodness me! The great and good Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi might have thought of Gujrat first. Or Gujranwala for that matter.

How can we beatify a huge man of ugliness that is Lahore today? Short of razing most of the city to the ground?

We have been living the way we do for centuries. Emperor Babar was probably the first to write about our evil social ways in his famous Tozak. We have shops where we have no business putting them up. Our houses, or most of them our un-ventilated and overcrowded.

Go to Gowalmandi and see how the people live there. And Model Town? Well, we are trying our best to convert it into another Akbari Mandi. Gulberg is being rapidly commercialized. So will be Defence in a few years from now. Even our graveyards are ill-organized and overcrowded. A visit to Miani Sahib will be instructive. Or Mominpura.

I am sure that in another thousand year another chief minister will be promising the people of Lahore to beautify their city. Mission impossible.

* * * * * *

I return now to the chronology, The Statesman (1875-1975). On March 22, 1930, the paper wrote: One fact about the history of the British occupation of India which seems to have escaped the notice of historians is the very strong influence which the government of India has exercised in keeping the peace between the quite powerful countries that impinge upon the borders of Hindustan.

The days of the wars between countries like Persia and Afghanistan, Nepal and Tibet, Bhutan and the Mongoloid tracts are over. Immediately there is any kind of friction or a country is suspected of cherishing territorial ambitions, British ministers, envoys, residents or political officers begin to get busy and by the use of those means which are known to diplomatists bring the two parties together and war is averted.

Today the boundaries of the countries across the Indian frontiers are fixed as certainly as the boundaries of India itself. The Persians have given up all hope of entering Herat. The Tibetans are as much assured of Gyantse as the Nepalis are of Kathmandu. The Pax Britannica extends, therefore, far outside the confines of India.

On March 30, 1930, the paper commented: Pandit Motilal Nehru has addressed a letter to the President of the Indian National Congress, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, offering the gift of his house at Allahabad, the old "Ananda Bhawan", "to the nation" to be used as the future headquarters of the Congress.

If the offer is accepted, the gift will be made on April 6, the first day of the National Week and the day fixed by Mr Gandhi for "the first act of concerted civil disobedience in the campaign of independence". The house, the Pandit desires, should then be renamed "Swaraj Bhawan".

On its own development, the paper wrote on January 20, 1931: Today The Statesman opens a new chapter in its history. Though of recent years there has been some journalistic enterprise in Delhi, New Delhi, now the political capital of India, has hitherto been without a daily newspaper of any kind. That is a state of affairs we wished to remedy; so in 1930 we acquired a site and building operations began. "Statesman House", like New Delhi itself is not yet finished. But like New Delhi it is sufficiently advanced for habitation.

The machinery has been installed, and today the first Delhi edition of The Statesman makes its appearance. The difficulties have been numerous, and we do not claim that they have as yet been all completely overcome. From Calcutta we shall continue to publish our dak editions for the benefit of our readers elsewhere than in North and North-West India, and for those last we shall publish more than one edition from Delhi.

The inhabitants of Delhi will now be able to read daily at their Chota hazri a Statesman which has been printed that morning, and contains the news up to the hours of going to press. England will still be sleeping and America will not yet have gone to bed the night before, but the day's record will be in Delhi as in Calcutta.

It is just over one hundred and twelve years since The Statesman's direct ancestor, the Friend of India, made its appearance in Serampore. The Statesman itself was born fifty-six years ago in Calcutta, and has ever since been published from the same office.

It has gone from strength to strength and, though in this country the vast distances between centres are an obstacle to the publication of an all-India paper, it has more and more acquired that character and reputation.

Calcutta, where Robert Knight founded us, will always remain our headquarters, as, in our opinion, it will always remain the commercial capital of India; but the opening of our Delhi office marks the definite acceptance of responsibility for an all-India paper.

The proposal has been urged upon us, but as the Persian Proverb Says Dilli dur ast, "it is a long way to Delhi". If fifty-six years elapsed between the Serampore Venture and the Calcutta enterprise, it is not matter for marvel that it has taken us another fifty-six years to extend to Delhi.

On February 7, 1931, the paper wrote: By the death of Pandit Motilal Nehru Indian political life becomes distinctly poorer. Of late years he had insisted on being labelled an extremist and during Mr Gandhi's agitation ten years ago and again more recently he even forced the Government to put him in prison. Never was there a more unwelcome task.

It is of frequent occurrence in India for a fiery young rebel against Government to end either by serving his country in a responsible position or by abandoning politics altogether and wrapping himself in a mantle of contemplation to devote the remainder of his days to the search for God.

Such men as the late Sir Surendra Nath Banerjea, Mr Bepin Chandra Pal and Mr Arobindo Ghose illustrate tendencies which had clearly begun to show themselves in Mr C.R Das during the last year of his life. Pandit Motilal Nehru was an inconvenient exception.

He on the contrary began public life as a Moderate and he was in every way fitted to interpret the best modern mind of India to Englishmen in India and also to interpret to his countrymen the best aspect of British political idealism in India. He was in truth a very modern man with a keen enquiring intellect.

An ageing 'caretaker' of war and peace

There could be war or peace between India and Pakistan in the future, depending on which, if any, of the two signals you picked up last week was really authentic.

On Thursday, Gen S. Padmanabhan, the former army chief who led the country to the potentially catastrophic nuclear standoff for much of 2002, was conjuring images of a bloody war in which India would checkmate a military alliance of Pakistan and the United States in the year 2017. The very next day Prime Minister Vajpayee was holding forth on the prospects of peace talks with Islamabad as an election plank.

Now it may not be quite so ironical that Mr Vajpayee was caretaker premier when India last fought Pakistan. That was the Kargil conflict in mid-1999, triggered partly by Pakistan's seizure of some strategic Kashmir heights, and partly by Mr Vajpayee's defeat in a no-trust vote in parliament in which his allies let him down.

And now he is again a caretaker premier, this time when we are finally getting down to the first serious official-level talks to probe peace since his ascent. It was war and jingoism that brought him the electoral dividends in parliamentary polls last time. His success in the state elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhatisgarh may have prompted Mr Vajpayee to try peace with Pakistan as a potential winner for the arriving general elections.

But what do we make of Gen Padmanabhan's fanciful claims, as war-games often are? Can we safely afford to ignore his war scenario, sketched out in his book "The Writing on the Wall - India Checkmates America 2017"? Is it a figment of a retired soldier's fertile mind that sees India, China, Russia and Vietnam as the unlikely allies that take on the nuclear axis of Pakistan and the United States in a bizarre nightmarish futuristic war? We could be excused for dismissing the book, but for the fact that among those who recommended it at a news conference was Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes.

Moreover, as if to delete the most glaring flaw in Gen Padmanabhan's argument, Mr Fernandes took pains to explain that he was misrepresented by the media when he was quoted as describing China in 1998 as India's enemy number one.

The book is in three parts. The first part sets the stage for India's progress on the fast track under a national government working on the basis of a National Defence Plan, 2003-2018 and a National Agenda, ratified by the people of the country in a referendum. India achieves a higher degree of modernization during the period 2003-2017 than it had ever done before. In fact, by 2017, when India has to stand up to the USA, she is almost evenly matched!

Internal dissensions in the country are approached systematically and root causes are identified. Over a six-year period, the national government manages to settle all internal problems and create at last a unified India whose constituent states act in unison. In the field of external affairs too, the national government achieves a miraculous transformation of the scene.

"The slow progress in the settlement of our dispute with China was replaced by a rapid resolution of the existing problems, aided not a little by the perceived US hegemonism and the cooling off of Sino-Pak relations," the general argues. Therefore, by 2010, India has excellent relations with her neighbours except, mind you, Pakistan. By 2014, the nation is on the threshold of becoming one of the founders of the Asian Security Environment.

All this time, unfortunately, Pakistan has been sliding into decline. By 2017, she has reached the end of her tether and decided on a trial of strength with India with the active help and participation of her ally, the United States. Her plans badly miscarry and in less than a week and when she contemplates exercising the nuclear option, the move brings the United States into the war on Pakistan's side.

The war with the US is fought for just under 60 hours. Missiles are fired by the US Carrier Battle Groups and destroyed by India's fully effective National Missile Shield. India hurts the US badly by carrying out selective electro-magnetic pulse attacks against Washington D.C and the manufacturing facility for cruise missiles in Arizona.

It also carries out cyber attacks against New York and commercial and administrative centres in the United States to plunge her administration, commerce and banking sectors into chaos. The US retaliates by destroying all India's civil and military satellites. This India circumvents in an 'orderly' and well-practised manner with the help of her allies, China and Russia.

India destroys eight aircraft used in the only air attack attempted by the United States in the conflict. Ten US Navy pilots and technicians are taken from the Arabian Sea. At this stage, the UN Security Council passes a resolution calling upon the United States and India to ceasefire and hold negotiations to resolve their dispute. Both the countries accept this resolution readily.

Gen Padmanabhan's fictional war-games may hopefully and mercifully remain just that. But the bad blood and ultra jingoism the book manages to generate is the kind of poison that Mr Vajpayee's administration has spread in generous dollops across the country over the last few years. How long will it take for the bright and shining India that he now proclaims to take a U-turn from its recent peaceful path and make some nightmarish prophecy come true?

* * * * *

It seems the Americans are wooing a whole lot of imams from Indian mosques and other assorted Muslim spiritual leaders from across the country with all expenses-paid visits to the United States.

An inquiry by the newly launched Tehelka weekly newspaper reveals that the religious preachers are being given a peep into the way religious institutions in the United States are working. The idea is to help influence the curriculum in the medressah schools, garnishing orthodox teachings with a scientific outlook along with technical training programmes to enable young students to find a means of livelihood after school.

Historian sceptical of peace moves

Talk of peace is in the air. Firing across the Line of Control has stopped. And people from both sides of the India-Pakistan divide are mixing more freely than ever before.

It is said that Atal Behari Vajpayee - the seemingly unlikely leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a party with extremist trappings - is getting ready to go down in history as the man who made peace possible in this part of the world. His unlikely partner in peace is Gen Pervez Musharraf, the man behind the Kargil war which brought their two countries to the brink of a nuclear conflict.

So, is peace going to break out between the two arch-rivals any time soon? Not necessarily, says Prof K.N. Panikkar, the historian who led an Indian delegation on a visit to Pakistan earlier this week. He told Dawn the other day that there might be more to it than meets the eye.

"I have always been sceptical of the governments, whether Indian or Pakistani," the academic remarked in a soft, unruffled voice. "There is something unreal about the ongoing peace moves."

Two countries that remained at loggerheads for more than 55 years, and whose armies stood face to face with nuclear and other weapons on the ready, have suddenly been proclaimed friends. And the two are expected to resolve, within a short period of time, the difficult question of Kashmir. "As I said, something seems to be amiss here."

In the opinion of the 56-year-old vice-chancellor of the Sree Sankaracharya University of Kerala who has to his credit several books on the intellectual and cultural history of India, two reasons could be behind the "hurriedly arranged" rapprochement between the arch-rivals.

"First of all, external pressures may very much be at work here." Secondly, the peace moves could simply be aimed at bolstering the BJP's chances in the forthcoming general elections. "This could be an election stunt. Now that a peace process has started, the minorities in India, especially the Muslims, may be persuaded to vote for the BJP. So, this could be an effort on its part to expand its electoral base."

If the BJP manages to win about 300 seats in the Lok Sabha it will be in a position to form a government without the help of other parties. "If they are able to form a government on their own they will start implementing the policies that have yet to come to light."

About the likely outcome of the elections, the historian observed that some political parties supporting it had recently parted ways with it. "On the other hand, the Congress is now likely to enter into political alliances." So the next thirty days are going to be crucial.

Asked why the secular forces in India were currently on the retreat, the professor said many of the non-religious parties had actually helped the BJP come to power. "These parties became coalition partners of the BJP. So, even though these parties claimed to be secular, when the time came they actually helped the communalists." The support extended by these parties was the only reason why the BJP formed a government at the centre.

"Another major factor in this regard is the continuous work that the communalists have been putting in for more than 70 years. As a consequence, they have a large network of people in religious and social institutions. In contrast, the secularists have not been as consistent. They may hold a seminar one day and another one a few weeks later but continuity is missing."

The communalists have managed to undermine the secularists through machinations in civil society. "They have their representatives in almost every major newspaper establishment. As a result today there are very few newspapers, if any, that are fully secular."

The author of a book on the Gujarat riots, entitled "Before the Night Falls: Forebodings of Fascism in India", Prof Panikkar declared that what transpired in that part of India was the result of a careful plan which was drawn up well in advance by the Rashtriya Sevak Sangh and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. "The state machinery was involved in the atrocities too. That's why neither the police nor the bureaucracy came to the aid of the victims."

Charpoy eateries

Charpoy eateries, where mostly truck drivers partake of their meals, dot the highways of India and Pakistan. Although the food available at these eateries is extremely delicious, it is not always very health-giving. Called Dhaba in Punjab, charpoy eateries in Pakistan also offer board and lodging facilities to weary truck drivers on their way to far-off towns and cities.

Located mostly on the outskirts of Karachi, these charpoy eateries also set up family rooms to cater for travellers particular about their privacy. The one at Moro on the National Highway is a case in point. Those driving in and out of the city often make a point of breaking their journey at lunchtime at Moro.

Another place which attracts motorists and their families driving on Sharae Pakistan is the Makkah Restaurant. Located a little down from the toll plaza on the Super-Highway, it ruled the roost for quite some time. Its success encouraged an enterprising businessman to set up another charpoy eatery shortly before the toll plaza. Closer to downtown Karachi, the new eatery, Al-Habib, also clicked; so did two others which came up shortly afterwards.

The first charpoy eatery to open in the city was the one near the congested terminal of oil tankers in Shirin Jinnah Colony. When the owners of the restaurant realized that quite a few of their regular customers came from Clifton and Defence, they opened another outlet on the Clifton beach and named it Salateen. Many other Salateen restaurants, with prefixes like "new" and "super", soon followed. These establishments come to life in the evening and continue operating well into the night.

There is, however, one charpoy restaurant which is known more for its doodh patti chai than for its bill of fare. Located in People's Colony, it is called Cafe Pyala because it serves steaming hot tea, not in cups or mugs, but in china bowls. In addition, the eatery also offers delectable paratha which can be eaten with rich cream (malai).

A model of excellence

If one goes to look for the positive side of life in Karachi, it is not impossible to find it. One of our colleagues who attended the annual prize-giving ceremony of the Commecs Institute of Business Education was pleasantly surprised to learn that the city is not devoid of committed citizens who are doing good work in the education sector - and without the profit motive.

Located in the heart of Gulistan-i-Jauhar, which has also become more accessible after the approach road was done up, the CIBE was set up ten years ago by the trust established by the alumni of the Government Commerce College. That itself was a noble gesture. If more people who have made it big in life were to repay the debt they owe their alma mater by contributing to education, the city could educate all its youth, the apathy of the government notwithstanding.

Raising funds for the college building, an elegant piece of architecture and design, has not been all that difficult either. Business concerns have donated generously and the college has classrooms named after the donors. The signs outside the rooms don't identify them as first year/second year, etc. There is an MCB Room. Another is the Brook Bond Room while another is the UDL Room and so on.

What was most striking about the place was the immense commitment displayed by the teachers. When Vice-Principal Sadia Farhat gave a message of love and humanism in her speech, it was at once obvious that this was a place with a difference. With a permanent faculty of 40 or so teachers, the college gives to the students what many of the elitist high-fee schools fail to provide: a strong bond between the teachers and their students. CIBE values its teachers.

Executive Director Arif Chinoy takes pride in his faculty. Small wonder many of them have been there since CIBE's inception. The founding principal, Prof A.W. Chaudhri, has only recently retired.

What was striking at the ceremony, where hundreds of prizes and certificates were distributed that day, was the 'best teacher's award' which is given to a teacher adjudged the best by the students, his peers, the coordinator and the director. A heart-warming gesture indeed.

The only aspect in which CIBE failed to come up to a standard of excellence was its failure to observe punctuality in starting its programme. One wonders whether the host can be blamed if the chief guest is late in arriving. But it needs the guts of a person like Ms Asma Ahmad, director of the PACC's cultural committee, to set standards of punctuality. A day earlier she had proceeded to start her Kathak programme on the dot at eight when the chief guest failed to arrive on time!

Reorganization at last

The image of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) took a severe knock when its top leadership, preferring exile to incarceration, left the country four years ago. Let down by their leaders, party workers, especially those in Sindh, became extremely demoralized. The acting PML-N president, Javed Hashmi, did try to revitalize the party, but he overplayed his hand in the process and ended up in jail.

Just when it appeared that the party would lie dormant for some time, PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif announced in London that he would return to Pakistan in March come what may. Although dismissed as empty rhetoric by cynical political analysts, the announcement has become a wake-up call for the slumbering Sindh chapter of the PML-N.

Mr Sharif also made the announcement of the appointment of Mian Ejaz Shafi as chief of the Sindh reorganizing committee, with a brief to mobilize disenchanted workers into action. Talking to a colleague recently, Sindh PML-N secretary-general Mamnoon Hussain said party workers wanted their leader back in their midst.

Concurring with Mr Hussain, Sardar Rahim, a member of the central committee, disclosed that Mr Sharif would probably land in Lahore on March 23. He said the reorganizing committee had been tasked to liaise with local party cadres to deal with a possible government clampdown that could accompany Mr Sharif's long-awaited homecoming.

Mr Shafi is known to be an active organizer. He has almost one and a half months to prove that he is equal to the task of reactivating the party which is widely believed to be in considerable disarray.

Road divider

All the threats of not allowing the authorities to construct a deewar in the middle of Gizri Road have proved to be idle. The wall, or rather the road divider, has finally come up.

Anonymous people opposed to the divider had written angry slogans on walls, denouncing the authorities who wanted to construct one. However, the odd thing about the newly-constructed road divider is that it is in no way different from the one which was removed some time back.

This raises the question of why the previous divider was demolished at all. It also inconvenienced the motorists who endured long snarl-ups while the new road divider was under construction. What was the need for all this unnecessary trouble?

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