What is wrong with cops?

KARACHI is a strange city, struggling to remain stable with its citizens striving to sustain their sanity. At times it appear that despite all developments and progress, that are talked about, there is a mental illness and a hostile division that seem to characterize much of what happens and unfolds in a terrifying manner.

I was going to Peshawar last month on a short visit and could not reach the Jinnah terminal via Sharea Faisal which was closed due to sectarian troubles. The closure of a main artery of Sindh’s capital is beyond comprehension.

And now take the incident in which it is reported that cops in uniform gang-raped two sisters in Ramsawami, that led to violence in the area. Not just a deep shame, but fear, anger and protest is what one feels. Then, as one thinks, there is also a feeling of helplessness and vulnerability. Anything to do with the police, and a citizen may get the shivers. And what to think of reforms and image of the police; who is creating the obstacles, one wonders.

I read about the incident Wednesday morning after returning from Islamabad late Tuesday night. So this is how the city underwent a day before. And a report in Dawn said: “Tension gripped the Ramswami area on Tuesday and all kinds of commercial activity remained suspended in protest against the gang-rape of two sisters by a group of serving policemen.” Read each word and it could terrify each family. We thought such incidents could only occur in the less-developed parts of the country, or in the rural areas, where the vices of feudalism and landlordism prevail. But that this kind of an incident has taken place in the main urban centre of Pakistan is something that calls for a deep soul-searching. It also exposes all the values that truly operate, even in the guise of individuals who are supposed to stand up for law, and symbolise the virtues of a decent society.

One presumes that Sindh police chief Syed Kamal Shah’s orders to arrest the five accused (including two servings cops) have materialized by now; one also presumes that most citizens have read the disgusting details of what happened to a family. Can that happen to other families. Will this society of the Islamic Republic learn to respect its women? It is time to mourn again.

There have been widespread condemnations of the Ramswami incident. The Karachi City Council has unanimously condemned the gang-rape. City Nazim Naimatullah Khan has offered his regrets, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement has sought exemplary punishment for the accused, a public protest demonstration has demanded action against “the rapists in uniforms”, the Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid has said “the gory crime has become more heinous as it had been committed by the law enforcers themselves”.

The IGP has suspend the SHO of the Nabi Baksh police station and the MQM has ‘dubbed’ the Garden police headquarters as a ‘den of crimes’ and underlined something that is very worrying to say the least.

The more one goes through the coverage of the incident in the press, the more uneasy one feels about the state of our law and order situation, with particular reference to the police. What has happened to all the reforms that had been trumpeted about during all these years? It has been a lifetime of promises and proposals, and it has been that long a period of futility, it seems now.

One does not know how it is going to change, despite all the pious intentions and solemn promises that are made by officialdom. How can a citizen feel secure if an incident like Ramswami takes place? How safe is one’s home, if this kind of an experience has come to light.

There is a need to take another aspect of the reported story. That the police were deliberately trying to cover up the incident and create delaying tactics in the registration of an FIR. Now what is new? Someone kept promising that the police would register the FIR at the doorstep of the citizen. Why do we say things that we do not mean is a very simple question. Why do officials make promises and stretch to new degrees of emptiness their rhetoric, and give to absurdity new mileage.

What has so far not come to light is the causes of the crime. There is much that needs to be exposed and explained not only to the Ramswami citizens but to the people in other parts of the city. It is the perception of the public that one can get away with crime, especially in such circumstances.

So what the City Nazim has promised after visiting the family is what one looks forward to and this is what he has said “Justice will certainly be dispensed and it will be the kind of justice that the whole city will witness” (Dawn).

The city has witnessed gangsterism and it is only fair that it now witnesses justice being dispensed. If the police bosses can use this occasion to do a cleanup act it would not only be appropriate on a short term basis, but on a long term basis too, insists a senior citizen, visibly enraged.

PIW empowering women

WOMEN in Pakistan rarely get a fair deal in the job market, and majority of them are in low-paid employment thus limiting their earning opportunities as well as minimizing their participation in mainstream economic activity.

One of the reasons for this dismal state of affairs is that a large segment of our women lack skills required to get a well-paid job in the market particularly of technical nature.

It is an accepted fact that vocational and technical education is a passport to better development and employment opportunities, but technical education facilities are not equitably available to the women.

Polytechnic Institute for Women (PIW), H-8/1 is one of the institutions striving to empower women with the skill, which would help them play an effective role in the mainstream economy of the country and their family.

Institute’s principal Engr Farida Javed says we at PIW help enhance the economic growth of the women by imparting various technical and management courses.

A modest beginning was made in a rented building in Sitara Market with 30 students in 1984, the PIW, now, has a campus spread over four acres with over 500 students studying in six different job oriented disciplines. Almost 1,500 students have graduated from the institute.

The institute offers diploma of associate engineer in electronics, architecture, computers, commerce, dress-making and designing and in office management.

The duration of these courses range from 1 to 3 years and the basic requirement for admission is matriculation.

This year PIW will achieve another landmark when it launches the bachelors of science (info-tech). The ministry of science and technology has approved the programme. The programme would offer an opportunity to study IT at affordable rates.

The institute has a well-trained faculty, some of whom have received training at foreign universities. It has one of the finest infrastructure available in any educational institution, with well furnished, spacious classrooms, well-equipped laboratories, well stocked library, hostel, in-door and out-door sports facilities and transport.

At the same time the institute is besieged with a number of problems, shortage of funds; absence of adequate linkages between the institution, government and private sector; lack of awareness among women about technical disciplines resulting in low enrolments; aging equipment and lack of autonomy despite being an autonomous institution.

The principal says her institution requires around 150 computers. Although the minister for science and technology, Dr Attaur Rehman has promised 100 computers, but the promise may take a long while to materialize due to bureaucratic complexities.

The graduates of this institute have bright prospects in the job market, says Ms Javed. “Some of our students were offered a post they were on internships with various private sector institutions.”

Today the PIW graduates work at banks, multinationals, embassies, industrial concerns, hospitals, garment and textile industry and in the public sector offices.

A majority of the students at PIW belong to middle and lower middle economic strata with conservative background, who are not permitted to study in co-ed institutions.

At PIW, they acquire modern technical skills and prepare themselves to enter the job market in atmosphere suitable to their lifestyles.

“It is essential to have something worthwhile in your hands,” a student said. “If ever I need to work, at least I have a skill which will help me, my training at the institute is an asset for me”.

“Pakistan is suffering from economic problems, so women have to work to help the country grow and prosper,” another student said. Women are vital contributors to the economic survival of modern day families and reliance on women’s earnings has been on the increase in the country.—ZAHRA SYED

Remembering a freedom fighter in Mir Jafar Khan Jamali

POLITICAL acumen, intelligence, prudence, foresight, astuteness, sensibility and judgment are essential qualities of a true leadership and these are not directly dependent on literacy, formal schooling or university degrees. They have more to do with social upbringing and values, introspection, and learning from people through interaction and interface based on interest, respect and humility. One living evidence of this in our recent past was Mir Jafar Khan Jamali, one of the most trusted allies of Quaid-i-Azam and an illustrious freedom fighter of the Pakistan Movement.

He was a great visionary, a staunch Muslim Leaguer, though a traditional, but a far-sighted progressive Baloch tribal leader. No wonder, the Quaid called him the ‘gateway to Balochistan’.

Mir Sahib, as he is remembered by many, had a 45-year dynamic political career that witnessed fight with the British, participation in the Khilafat Movement, bridging gap between Afghan and Baloch Sardar, leadership role in the Independence Movement and later in the Pakistan Solidarity Movement.

His exact date of birth is not known but according to the late Sindhi nationalist leader, G.M. Syed, Mir Sahib was born on Feb 14, 1908, in Rojhan. His early informal but traditional education was in Arabic and Persian. Later, in his young and active days he appointed famous writer Naseem Hijazi as his tutor for spoken English. This relationship later led to publication of a newspaper Tanzeem from Quetta with Nasim Hijazi as its editor and Mir Sahib solely funding it. Free copies of the paper were distributed to some 500 activists in Balochistan and Sindh. This newspaper also played a memorable part in the struggle for Pakistan.

His first meeting with the Quaid was in Bombay in the early thirties that culminated into an historical association. He pursued a land case “Jamalis vs the Crown,” a land dispute that began in 1928, when the British declared purchase deed of hundred and fifty thousand acres of land void. This land was bought by Mir Sahib’s grandfather, who was affectionately called Sakhi (the Generous), from the Khan of Kalat for Rs40,000. The British monarchy was unwilling to hand over this land to the Jamalis. Having lost the case to Jamalis in the Delhi and Bombay High Courts, they went to the Privy Council, London. The case was also recommended to the Khan of Kalat, who also decided in favour of the Jamalis. Ho