The challenge and the response

Isn’t it time that we asked the Americans to decide whether they are with us or against us? But then do they have to answer this question after what they have already done? Not a single American diplomat was withdrawn from Israel even at the peak of suicide bombings in that country in which scores of civilians were being killed. But the first to pack up and leave Islamabad after a couple of terrorist incidents was the very ambassador of this great friend of Pakistan. In these times of high tension in the region Pakistan seems to have been diplomatically downgraded by Washington as it is taking its own time to send a replacement for Ms Wendy Chamberlin. And the language that President Bush is using for President Musharraf when he calls on him to live up to his words does not sound any less harsh or any less insulting than the one he had used for President Arafat at the height of Israeli invasion of the Palestinian territory. If the post-9/11 high profile visits to this country from the influential capitals of the world were meant to recognize and appreciate Pakistan’s role in the war against international terrorism, the post-referendum visits to Islamabad by similarly high profile people from the same capitals appear to be aimed at putting pressure on Pakistan to capitulate in the face of Indian intransigence. Clearly, New Delhi has succeeded in winning over the world opinion in favour of its case against Pakistan on what it calls ‘cross border terrorism’.

Since coming to power in October 1999, President Gen Pervez Musharraf has been trying to convince New Delhi to recognize the Kashmir dispute as the ‘core problem’ between India and Pakistan. His argument was, once that is done every thing else will fall in place and allow the two countries to tackle realistically all the issues marring their relations. Very early in the day of his rule Gen Musharraf had rejected both the Simla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration because, according to him, both these documents had consigned Kashmir to a lowly place in the list of disputes between the two neighbours. That is why he said no substantial movement could be made all these years by the two countries towards their goal of establishing lasting peace in the South Asian subcontinent. Last year he spent three days in India trying to get the Indian leadership to see the problem the way he saw it and bring Prime Minister Vajpayee around to his way of viewing the issue. And by the end of the visit he seemed to have almost succeeded in persuading the Indian leadership to recognize it as the core problem. But then in the trade off India’s interior minister L.K. Advani probably asked Pakistan to recognize what he called the ‘cross-border terrorism’ as an equally menacing ‘core problem’ between the two countries. Musharraf did not agree. First, because he said the Line of Control (LoC) dividing the two Kashmirs was not an internationally recognized border so there was no question of cross-border incursions. Secondly because, according to him, it was next to impossible for Pakistan to plug the routes that the people on the two sides of the LoC use for crossing over to meet friends and relatives. And thirdly, he said what was happening inside the occupied Kashmir was indigenous and Pakistan was only providing diplomatic, political and moral support to the Kashmiris waging a freedom struggle. So, the Agra summit failed even to match the achievements of Simla and Lahore. The President’s publicists, however, touted the Agra trip as a resounding success because as they put it, the Indians could not get General Musharraf to do a ‘sell out’ on Kashmir. The absurdity of this far-out formulation was willingly disregarded by all the religio-political parties in the country and the so-called domestic Jihadis who gave the President a hero’s welcome on his return. All this fitted perfectly and nicely in the world of pre-9/11. India was bleeding in the occupied Kashmir without any cost to Pakistan. The strategic depth, which Taliban’s Afghanistan was providing us, had become highly effective both in the sense of militancy as well as military. But overnight the tragedy of 9/11 had changed everything. The strategic depth in both the senses had disappeared.

However, in the process we got back on our side our cold war ally, the all powerful US. And we thought we had hit the jackpot. With the US promising to provide us with all kinds of assistance — diplomatic, economic and, of course, military — we thought we can carry on doing what we had been doing prior to 9/11 without taking a deeper look at the qualitative change that had occurred in world politics in the aftermath. The first warning that it is not the same world came when the international community accepted much too quickly India’s version of the December 13 terrorist attack on its parliament building. But we refused to see the writing on the wall and tried to side step the issue by delivering an ‘epoch’ making speech on January 12. We were so smug that we did not even bother to counter the Indian propaganda which it had launched in various influential capitals of the world on the issue of ‘cross-border terrorism’. Instead we used the time and opportunity to marginalize the already much-maligned leadership of the PPP and PML(N). We were so over confident on this score too that we started creating the fiction that we are not against these two parties but only against Benazir and Nawaz, as if there was any political meaning to these two parties without these two leading them. This fiction was shown for what it was when the PPP and PML(N) refused to meet the President without their leaders when he invited them for consultation on the deteriorating border situation.—Onlooker

Roadblocks to fight crime?

NUMEROUS roadblocks and barricades have recently been set up and check points established at selected roads to show off the latest police determination for the enforcement of law and order in Lahore. However, the exercise seems to have become more irksome for law-abiding citizens and less productive in achieving the stated goals for which these roadblocks were put up.

These crude checking devices are currently being used on several important roads in the city. Drivers, especially young motorcyclists stopped by policemen to check their vehicles and their identities have become the major victims of this ineffective method. Often students and middle-order government employees and private sector organizations are targeted. Instead of discharging their duties diligently and exercising their powers judiciously, policemen extort money from their victims.

There can be only two plausible reasons for putting up these roadblocks and barricade on city roads. One, police are strongly motivated to check the rising incidence of crime by arresting robbers, terrorists, bootleggers and criminals engaged in drug trafficking, and two, to effectively control the increasing violations of traffic laws.

Understandably, an upsurge in the crime graph in the provincial capital and recent terrorist attacks in different parts of the country have motivated the government to put the police on the alert. In their effort to combat crime and apprehend habitual and hardened criminals, the Lahore police seem to have received a little thrashing from the top. In their enthusiasm to achieve results, they and other law-enforcing agencies are demonstrating over zealousness and misdirected efficiency, which, instead of causing an appreciable reduction in the enormity of the crime situation, have become a source of harassment for the citizens.

No citizen in his right mind will question the latest police resolve to rid the city of criminals and to create a peaceful environment wherein people can live without fear. However, the methods used by the police to achieve their objectives have not found much favour with a large majority of motorists and motorcyclists. They have begun to question the wisdom of putting so many blocks on a large number of city roads, which are unnecessarily causing much inconvenience to the people.

Today, crimes are committed after a lot of hard thinking and planning by organized gangs of criminals. Even the minutest details are worked out with meticulous care and the police know it. Thanks to the screening of so many “action films,” the incidence of organized crime in our society is constantly rising. On the other hand, the study of crime and criminals has now assumed the status of an academic discipline. Many universities in developed countries offer courses in criminology, which provide necessary training to those who wish to opt for a career in the police. Only an efficient and trained police force, organized on modern lines and equipped with the latest knowledge and equipment, can succeed in controlling crimes. Half-hearted ad hoc measures will not suffice to stem the tide.

If the roadblocks and checkpoints are meant to trap the criminals, they seem to have failed in making even a small dent in the crime situation. The reason for this failure is quite obvious. These roadblocks prompt the criminals to bypass the barricaded roads in the city. A criminal with even the lowest IQ will not use these roads. Moreover, the policemen posted at these points seem so naive and inept that the criminals can easily throw dust in their eyes. The methods of checking employed by the police are not only crude but also extremely annoying to the people. They scare ordinary citizens away from these blocked roads so that they can avoid humiliation, which results from crude questioning by uneducated and often impolite cops.

A shrewd and educated criminal (and there is no dearth of them in our society in which equal opportunities for advancement are not available to the people) will be inclined to use the city’s main thoroughfare, The Mall, knowing that there are no barricades or checkpoints on it. It is therefore naive for the police to assume that by blocking so many important roads in the city they can apprehended criminals. Crime is committed in an organized manner and those engaged in such senseless pursuits are no ordinary people. A large number of them, it has already been established, are young educated delinquents and are equipped with the latest knowledge and devices that can help them avoid arrest. The police should not hope to cope with the menacing crime situation by using age-old and obsolete methods. A lot of thinking, planing and hard work are required to combat organized crime. — SM

Terrorism he said

THE world —- the civilized and the semi-civilized world, that is —- is so obsessed with terrorism that it has in its terror of terrorism forgotten everything else. For Bush and Powel and Straw and dozens, even tens of dozens like them, nothing else matters. For these and similar other gentlemen, terrorism matters more than the causes of terrorism. Palestine does not exist. Kashmir does not exist, Gujarat does not exist. Only terrorism does.

Massah White Man Bush said the other day:

“War are part of an international coalition applying pressure to both parties, particularly to President Musharraf. He must stop the incursions across the Line of Control. He must do so. He said he would do so. We and others are making it clear to him that he must live up to his word.”

Massah White Man orders that President Musharraf must stop the incursions across the LoC. My question is: can President Musharraf really do so? I am told that the Indians have 700,000 troops and other para-military forces in occupied Kashmir. Can’t these people stop the ‘incursions’? Admittedly, Pakistan has a large standing army but it is like nothing as compared to India’s. Furthermore, what is the extent of the ‘intrusions’ from across the LoC? Are tens of thousands intruding into a disputed territory? Or does Massah White Man Bush recognize occupied Kashmir as a legitimate and inviolate part of India —- its atootang? If so, let him say so openly in contempt of the wishes of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Kashmir issue is a creation of the British notwithstanding what Jack Straw says about it. He talks ugly or he is ignorant of recent history. The UN resolutions are no longer relevant, he said only the other day. Let us for the moment forget about religion. For tens of thousands of year and more, rivers flowing down from Kashmir have nurtured the Indus Valley. The ancient Indus Valley Civilization would not have existed without Kashmir. Similarly, Pakistan cannot exist without Kashmir. Therefore, if Jack Straw wants that to happen, let him say so in so many words. Let him at least enable us to know where we stand with him.

The fellow who once said that politics was about chaps and geography was about maps was talking through his hat. Over and above everything else, geography, more than politics, is also about chaps. When the British left South Asia, they raped regional geography. Mountbatten was the rapist and Kashmir has known no peace since the Indian army marched into that unfortunate land more than fifty years ago. About Kashmir it was said that if there was heaven on earth, it was Kashmir, Kashmir and nothing but Kashmir. What have the Indians done to their part of Kashmir and what have we done to the part we have? No one today talks of the 100,000 Kashmiris who have died in the current phase of their intifada. All that we are concerned with is an end to cross-border terrorism. By the way, the whole world is talking about cross-border terrorism. Should we take it to mean that there is an international border in Kashmir and that the nations who matter have accepted the Line of Control as a full and final settlement in the state? If so, let them say so in so many

words. Let us then forget about a just and fair solution of the long standing dispute between India and Pakistan. Let us admit that might is right until such time as it breaks its back with its own weight.

I have half a mind to surrender unconditionally to India. I want to tell them: “You create history while I live and died an ordinary man as your subject.” I have no quarrel with the ordinary idiot across the border who shouts Jai Hind and thinks part of the glory is rubbed onto him —- that he is part of the glory. Throw me into the arena and let the lion in, I want to tell the Indians. Who was it who said of the Palestinians that the old among them will die and the young will forget? No, Sir, it is never like that. The young will never forget nor their young and their young until they get their own back.

Former US attorney-general Ramsey Clark’s The fire This Time, 1994, begins with the following dedication:

“For the poor throughout history who have suffered violence, death, hunger, sickness and indignity at the hands of powerful oppressors who would not respect their humanity... with a call for action to end the scourge of war, economic exploitation, and poverty.”

The Americans and the British and other nationals of some important countries have been asked to leave Pakistan and India. A letter Mr Clark wrote to the US media in March, 1992, is being excerpted here:

“For those who believe that truth can make us free, the saddest illustration of media corruption is the cashier’s desk at Al-Rashid Hotel in Baghdad on the morning of January 15, 1991. There, waiting in line to check out and leave Iraq on the eve of what was to be one of the major new events of recent years were some of the most famous and highly paid personalities in the American media.

“If, as we are told, the reason the US media fled Baghdad was for personal safety....”

Question: Is the call made by various governments to their nationals to leave India and Pakistan for personal safety alone or are to there other consideration?

HAVE lifestyles really changed over the years? We can take two extreme views. Mr Omar Kureishi used to do a column, ‘The Past is Another Country’. I think that if we take this view and look back over the years, the past would indeed appear to be another country. As a corollary, we can agree with the fellow who said: fashion is something so ugly, we have to change it every season. But I would like to say that yes, fashions do change every season but does Man change from winter to spring to summer to autumn?

But wait. I think I am beginning to confuse fashion with lifestyle. Fashions do change rapidly but lifestyle takes time. In fashion, we like to go back. For instance, the bridegroom today dresses like a thakur from Uttar Pradesh or a former princeling from Rajasthan. International borders don’t matter here. Likewise, the chooridars are back and, I dare say, the bell bottoms may not be far behind along with the ‘teddy’ girls and boys and shoes also have a habit of recurring after a generation or so. A young friend wears shoes my father used to fancy a good thirty, forty years ago.

Let’s agree, then, that fashion is not your lifestyle. Lifestyle means the style of life which has changed beyond recognition. Look at your eating habits. When I was a boy, it was considered beneath culture to eat out. In fact, there were very few places where you could go out and eat. Today, we have a multiplicity of choices. Utterly confusing, I must confess. But look at the home kitchen. Coal is out, fuel wood is out, the oil stove is out. Gas is in. We take gas for granted. It would be impossible for a city boy or girl to understand some of Munshi Prem Chand’s short stories. What, would he or she, for example, understand by dast panah? How many households have dast-panahs (pairs of tongs) today? Why did a boy in one of the Prem Chand stories buy a pair of tongs for his grandmother? So the dast panah has disappeared from urban households where gas is available. The horse has disappeared from the stable. The stable has made room for the garage (space permitting). Otherwise, you park your car in what passes for a porch in the small house in which you live.

You can’t afford a cow or a buffalo. The gowala will do or better still, packed milk. The dhobi (washer man) is still there but is becoming increasingly expensive. So why not use your washing machine? The tonga is slowly going out of our lives. But the rickshaw is there to make your life miserable. You want to go to Islamabad or Karachi in a hurry? So you fly out —- if you can afford it, that is. All these and more, have been basic changes in your lifestyle and mine. But the most important change has been in matrimony. A marriage is no longer ‘until death do us part’ affair. I have seen more middle and upper middle class marriages break up in my time than I can remember. Mine has been an arranged marriage. My grandmother chose the girl for me. And she has stuck it out for good or for bad. My marriage has developed into a partnership and we have been making our runs in one and twos. Both me and my woman have learned not to hit over the top. Married life, we are both agreed, is not a one-day, limited over match. Both of us are unknown citizens and we have discovered that there is much joy in anonymity. We have made our mistakes but they have not been blunders. We both know that easy does it. However, married life has not been roses, roses all the way for me or for my wife. There have been mishaps here and there but we have always managed to return from the brisk. So I think our marriage will endure, other things remaining the same, that is.

But then I suppose I am not one of the present generation.

Danish laws hit immigrants

DENMARK, once known as the most liberal country of Europe, is lately at the centre of criticism for introducing a number of anti-immigration laws to discourage immigrants from settling in this small country, in the far northern part of Europe.

The new laws are affecting most immigrants, including members of a big Pakistani community. This big shift in the Danish policy towards immigration is the result of inclusion of a far right anti-immigration party in the minority of government of Denmark.

The old Social Democrat-led government was voted out of office in a general election about six months ago. The new government will have to rely on the support of the far right Danish People’s Party whose main goal is discouraging foreign immigration in Denmark, whatever the price.

Tightening immigration rules is at the top of the present coalition Danish government. It was after the Sept 11 attacks in the USA when the election campaign started and was dominated by the issue of immigration at a time when fears about asylum-seekers rocketed. This was perhaps the best time for the ultra nationalist Peoples Party of Denmark to send their message across the Danish population that foreign immigration could be a big threat to the future security of the country.

By the time of the election, which took place soon after the Sept 11 attacks, two out of three Danes wanted stricter refugee policies. Before 11 Sept the figure was only one in two. When the government was formed, Ms Kjaersgaard, the leader of the ultra-nationalist anti-immigration, Danish People’s Party threatened to pull the carpet from under the Liberal-Conservative coalition if she does not get to influence the country’s immigration policy.

After several months in the government the Danish People’s Party is fully successful in forcing the coalition government to change its policy on the immigration laws of Denmark. The new government has made laws to remove the legal right of refugees and immigrants to bring their families to Denmark. Decrease welfare allowances for newcomers, Immigrants are not to be granted a residence permit until they have lived in Denmark for at least seven years, compared to the existing three years period.

Furthermore, these new laws have invited a lot criticism from abroad and human rights organizations. Only last week Denmark became involved in a bitter row with Sweden over its tough new immigration policy. The dispute between these two traditional friendly countries erupted when Sweden’s immigration minister publicly criticized Denmark’s new tough anti-immigration policies. In the continuing row the Swedish foreign minister accused Denmark of “dehumanizing the refugees”.

There is a fear in Sweden and other neighbouring European countries that these new tough anti-immigration laws in Denmark will force many Danes to migrate to other parts of Europe to sidestep strict regulation for bringing foreign spouses into Denmark. These new anti-immigration laws would no doubt damage the reputation of Denmark as a liberal country. The new laws are designed to come into force on Saturday (July 1) — the same day that Denmark assumes European Union’s presidency.

Ultra-nationalist Danish nationals praise the new laws, but immigration organizations are worried that these laws could provoke uncertainty and fear of the future in Denmark. The leader of immigration organization in Denmark, Muharrem Aydas, was recently quoted as saying that the new laws are much tougher than expected. He accused the government of introducing policies similar to “apartheid”.

Mohammad Gelle, the leader of another immigration organization, Indsam, said: “This proposes something which is much worse than we have seen in Austria. Much worse than Haider.”

Denmark is not alone as far as immigration phobia is concerned. Countries like Italy, France, Holland, Austria and Hungary seem to be in the grip of the same phobia. There is no doubt that immigration is getting as one of the main issues in the European Union’s agenda. And it has already acquired the same importance as that of international terrorism. Immigration is expected to be at the top of the next EU meeting planned for July in Seville.

Many of the European politicians believe that they are now fighting two wars — one against international terrorism and the other again economic immigrants. Now, it seems that the European governments would use its aid budgets as weapons to ensure that developing countries help in combating illegal immigration to Europe. This weapon could be used against a particular country that is not helping in combating economic immigration.

The mainstream political parties in Europe are nervous that they should do something to stop the flow of economic immigrants. They are fully aware that if they fail to solve this problem, the ultra-nationalists and fascists would capitalize on the fear of the European population and the result could be the return of fascism and Nazism.

Wholly avoidable deaths: KARACHI FILE

GOOD indeed it is to hear some people talking of steps to check traffic accidents in Karachi’s mostly traffic-choked streets. ‘Accident’ here is an obvious euphemism for ‘deaths’ in roadside crashes. More people are getting killed or maimed than ever. Considering the unrelieved mess, the surprise is that so many millions still manage to reach home in one piece.

Two obvious factors have combined to create this deadly situation. First, just too many vehicles and humans on the move than the roads can contain. Second, mostly inferior kind of traffic discipline. This recipe would inevitably result in the same incidence of accidents and deaths anywhere in the world. The fault is not in this city’s stars but in the unwisdom of those who pretend they are serving it.

The average driver of public transport — from the three-wheeler to the monsters rushing away on 22 — is by and large unfit to touch the steering wheel. His knowledge of driving is minimal, skills nominal; road manners totally absent. He uses the horn when he should be easing the accelerator. About road signs and signals, he is illiterate. He has no idea of the right of way. He is the gushing antithesis of the idea that culture is a sensitive awareness of the other man’s comfort.

How come he is driving heavy vehicles carrying scores of passengers? Elementary. Cash and the clout of this Wadera or tribal Malik master gets him the driving licence without a real driving test. He, or his master, keeps everyone along the route happy. Just read the verses and curses on these public vehicles and you would know who mostly the public transport owners might be. This is an inveterate Mafia, from one end to the other.

Those who are supposed to control traffic are either enamoured or afraid of the men who rule the roads in Karachi. By one estimate well over half of the buses playing in Karachi do not have proper documents. Not many of them stick to the permitted routes. Under pressure to make so much of money by the end of the day, they drive fast and make extra round trips. They have no meal timings, no breaks, no limit to working hours or mileage. It is one long, dreary slog till it is another day.

Those who know this trade suspect that a large number of the public transport drivers resort to drugs. No wonder. Working endless hours would drive them to a quick restorative. After all, they are human beings. This is a matter for some responsible people in the government and society to be bothering about. If such people were not so rare, it would have been a better world for us.

Time and again the public transport issue has been focused in these columns. Some basic questions have been framed for the consideration of the government, of the Governor in particular. What other city of this size, and the compelling needs of this gigantic business centre, lives without rail transport? No answer. No wonder so many have to die in road accidents.

This city used to have a circular railway. By modern standard it was less than rudimentary. But there was enough of it to start building on. Those who were supposed to develop this system chose to do the dead opposite in return for rich rewards from the road Mafia. The same process had led to what at one point was scarcely short of the collapse of the entire national railway network.

Now they are talking of adding larger buses. There is hardly room for a straw on Karachi’s roads. As it is, the buses crawl bumper-to-bumper. If and when more monsters are let loose upon the streets, Karachi will come to a grinding halt. Those who administer this city seem to be either just about as informed about today’s world as the frogs in the well. Or they are bent upon feathering their nests, regardless of what happens to this city.

What adds immensely to the despair of the educated citizen is the absence of contemporary thinking among the elected leadership of city administration. The Nazim has been travelling a great deal. In around ten months he has been over half the planet, without being much wiser. To return from China uneducated must be an achievement in reverse to the advice of the Holy Prophet (PBUH).

The only way to deal with the increasing killing on Karachi’s roads is to reduce traffic, not increase it. Revive and develop urban rail transport and do this as a crash programme. This cannot be done unless our administrators are able to resist the temptations from the runaway road Mafia. Nowhere in the civilized world today major city transport relies entirely on roads. Urban rail system is the only answer. Stop strangulating what you have of the KCR. Start applying urgent respiration remedy. Given some will, some wisdom, this can be done quicker than we expect. No other way to reduce roadside manslaughter. These are wholly avoidable deaths.

World cup fever

Pakistan may be languishing close to the very bottom of the world football rankings, but that has not deterred local enthusiasts from joining in the global revelries that accompany the mother of all football tournaments. World Cup fever has come to Karachi, infecting die-hard enthusiasts in the initial stages but threatening to become a full-blown epidemic once the tournament gets into full swing.

Already, many five-star hotels and upscale restaurants are luring football fans to their premises to watch the extravaganza on massive screens while they feast on lunch or while away their teatime in the company of the game’s biggest names. Karachi’s most happening shopping mall has even installed rows of seats and a large projection TV in its lobby to capture the attention of enthusiasts. Newspapers are full of Cup-related competitions and promotions, and names like Zidane and Beckham are being bandied about by the growing number of football savvy young people in the city. If the last cup finals saw football capturing the imagination of a surprisingly large number of Pakistanis, the current media blast suggests that the game will win over even more converts this time round.

If the upmarket parts of the city are set to be swept by Cup fever, one part of the old city, too, is bracing itself for the tournament. Lyari is an area that has remained football-crazy for decades, even as the rest of the city remained hooked on cricket and cricket alone. The area boasts a large number of football clubs and is home to several players with enormous potential who could have moved on to greater things had they been provided the facilities and opportunities. Local football, sadly, lacks the glamour of cricket. And it’s glamour that attracts the sponsors and brings in the cash.

In Lyari, the World Cup is likely to be a big event, and the tournament will be followed with keen interest in the area’s own distinctive style. Small restaurants will resound to cheers and much raucous argument as the tournament progresses.

During the last World Cup in 1998, many in Lyari placed their television sets outside their homes, and shared the spectacle with their friends and neighbours in truly communal fashion. The problem this time, however, is that there will be bright sunlight during most matches — a fact likely to spoil some of the fun. The other piece of bad news for enthusiasts is that most matches will take place during office hours, encouraging those with access to the Net to furtively check up on the score online — while hoping that the boss is not lurking nearby.

The city’s police chief, Asad Jehangir, this week had a meeting with owners of public transport. The agenda of the meeting, according to a report in this newspaper, was a good one: to prevent the rising incidence of traffic accidents in the city.

The meeting decided that there would be increased cooperation between the traffic police and transporters. The latter side’s representative told the police chief of the problems they faced on the road and it was agreed that some sort of mutual understanding would be arrived at. Mr Jehangir was quoted as telling the meeting that over half of all fatal accidents on Karachi’s road involved pedestrians and around a quarter had to do with motorcyclists. Clearly, pedestrians are usually on the receiving end of rashly driven vehicles.

Unfortunately, while the transporters had their say at the meeting there seemed to be no one representing the interests and views of ordinary road users. It’s another story that motorists, motorcyclists or pedestrians are hardly likely to form their own association or that we have any mentionable associations that seek to project the rights of road users.

No one is criticizing such meetings but the problem is that the good intentions and ideas discussed during them are often never implemented. In fact, surely this isn’t the first time that such a meeting has been convened, such opinions expressed, and an amicable agreement reached between the police and public transporters on such an important issue. Having said that, it’s also not that easy to give quick-fix solutions to a problem like increasing traffic accidents in a city the size of Karachi.

By the same token, the problem is not just the transporters or the traffic police’s but of all those who use the road network. The problem also relates to the fact that over the past couple of decades the city’s authorities have basically done nothing to provide an efficient and reliable means of public transport. Naturally, the private sector stepped in to fill the void, and despite much criticism has done quite an okay job. However, the public perception that bus and coach drivers are no angels might be partially right but then again most motorists or motorcyclists, or even rickshaw drivers are no angels either.

A few days ago the afternoon nap of a colleague’s mother was broken by the persistent ringing of the doorbell. Perhaps the caller had forgotten her manners and the fact that it takes some time to get to the gate from inside the house. At the door she found an oddly dressed woman arguing with the driver who was trying to tell her not to ring the bell so frequently. She said that she was collecting donations for a welfare organization working for the betterment of the poor.

She spoke of our moral and religious obligation towards the poor. When the lady of the house politely tried to tell her that it was not possible for her to extend any help at that time, the woman had the audacity to say that if a person cannot do any good for the human beings in this world it is better that he die. How can anyone, especially someone claiming to be working for the welfare of humanity, say such a thing? Donation and charity is given voluntarily, and what this woman was doing was simply extortion.

Interestingly, most of these so-called donation collectors usually go to houses in the afternoon when mostly women are alone at home and perhaps taking a break from housework.

They also provide a chance to robbers who may use this as a disguise to enter a house. There are so many instances of robberies in the day, the colleague says, that one has to be careful while answering the door.

It must have been around 9 or 10 pm when many residents of a part of Defence Phase V saw a display of pyrotechnics right outside their homes. The source of this ‘fireworks show’ was an electricity pole at the corner of 19th street, off Khyaban-i- Mujahid.

A colleague who lives close by said it was giving off sparks like nobody’s business. The problem was apparently caused after the residents of a house close to it were seen by the colleague to be literally tugging at a wire that was coming into their home from the pole. Now, normally this would have been very dangerous but this house, from where the people were trying to pull the wire, had no electricity. As it turns out, the owners had an illegal ‘kunda’ connection and were desperately trying to get rid of it lest they be caught by the KESC staff, which would have come to investigate the sparks.

The colleague, meanwhile, had the sense to call the KESC complaint centre and tell them of this electricity theft. He was brusquely told to call on another number to lodge his complaint. He politely told the man that all he wanted to do was to tell them what was going on and if he (the KESC man) was that bothered he could inform his superiors himself.

As for the power thieves who kept on tugging at their ‘kunda’, they had no power all night. The next morning they managed to get hold of an electrician who removed the illegal wire. Apparently, the colleague says, they went through all this ordeal for no reason since the KESC people don’t seem all that bothered about catching power thieves. Probably, the more likely case is that they are simply looking the other way.

— By Karachian

New horizons, old systems

KARACHI: Sameera, who is a senior HR executive in a multinational, strode into my house the other day with her husband and two children, stating dramatically, ‘We are leaving town for good. We just came to say goodbye.’ Now, being halfway to becoming a hermit, I hardly go visiting family or friends. You could label it a snobbish attitude, as I prefer my own intellect (I can always win all arguments with myself, you see) to arguing with lesser mortals and so, stay away from inane gatherings. I hence end up being pretty ‘out-of-it’. To regularly break the peace in my routine life, are four over ebullient creatures I live with — namely; my three kids and a husband — so the need for company is fulfilled at home. With an obvious ‘don’t-call-me’ attitude, visitors too are rare. This scant interaction with the outside world leaves me with almost no information in my data bank of what’s happening in other people’s lives, which is anyway crammed with proposals, presentations and other job-related ‘to-do’ lists on the one side and ideas for nonsensical articles (such as the one you are being subjected to now) on the other.

Oblivious to how she had stunned me with this startling announcement of settling abroad, Sameera continued, ‘Actually, we are migrating to Canada,’ she said excitedly. ‘We hadn’t told anybody because we didn’t want it to get around to our work place as we weren’t really sure of how long it would all take.’ Sameera — whom I have known since we were ten — and her husband are sound of mind and sure-footed people. She is a successful professional and her husband is at a high managerial level in a foreign bank. So what was it that triggered on this cataclysmic decision of exchanging a well-settled life with a struggling immigrant status?

The reasons my friend poured forth were many. Some, personal, while some of general significance. Her children’s education featured primary in her reasons to leave. With two children aged ten and seven she was already spending almost ten thousand rupees on a monthly basis for their education in schools of good repute. And this was just the very junior level. Once they would enter senior school, it would easily amount to twenty thousand rupees a month not counting the examination fees for ‘O’ levels. And from there on, it is just an increasing graph. Living expenses apart, no amount of money can ensure provision of daily amenities like water and electricity, which rest in the hands of the state. And after a couple slogs their entire youth away maintaining high costs of living at the cost of neglecting their kids, what remains in the bank to show for oneself? Not enough to ensure high education for their children and a stable roof over the head in old age. It is obvious that free education for the kids and state-sponsored medical facilities become the big plus factor when achieving professionals opt for the post immigration struggle. So, ‘If slog we must, I’d rather do it to ensure my children’s future, rather than to maintain silly status standards here and remain broke at the end of every month,’ asserted Sameera while explaining her reasons for migrating.

It is true, though, maintaining status is what kills the ‘in- between’ class of working people. And you almost always end up spending that part of your income — which should be saved — on your house, car or children’s entertainment. ‘But why shouldn’t I want those things? I work hard and I want to enjoy the best that life has to offer. And I know I can do that out there. There, I don’t need to prove that I have connections to get anywhere. I know I am worthy and I will Inshallah be successful. Not like here where you are measured by the house you live in or the car you drive or whom you know!’ Well, she had a point. And she was showing enough verve to convince me that she would will the success for herself.

Having heard of many tangles and twists in the whole immigration procedure, I asked her how simple or difficult it had been to get through, and that was when a torrent of abuses and indecencies came out. Apparently, it had all gone relatively smooth till where the Canadian officials were involved, but where our own people came into play it became a nightmare.

The first step was gathering official documents like birth certificates, and ID cards (which were lost) etc. That could have been agonizing but money buys a lot around this part of the world that we live in and, the time-frame involved for getting these documents made is directly proportional to the money one is willing to spend on the agents. A stickler who follows rules will end up with a lot of sound and fury but no paper in hand! So one needs to bury the principles for a while and get the work done. Once the relevant personal documents are in hand for all members of the family one just needs to arrange them in the way indicated in the submission form; fill the form and courier the package to the Canadian High Commission in any one of the long list of designated countries. The many immigration agents — the Sunday Advertiser is full of adverts of many such institutions — actually charge 1500 to 2000 US dollars for just arranging the wretched documents; which the hopeful immigrant has to provide himself and for filling the form; again, with information provided by the client himself. It is a business of turning another’s ignorance into one’s profit!

Those who have gone through these agents were told at the interview that it is preferred that NO agents are involved. After receiving the documents package, the Canadian High Commission affirms receipt of the documents and then in due time intimates the date of the interview. No source or influence determines the interview outcome. It rests entirely on how the individual conducts himself/herself. It all has to add up to a total of designated points which are assessed on academic qualifications; years of work experience, age, proficiency in languages (English/French) and final points for the interview. But like I said, this is the relatively easy process as it involves just the High Commission people (presuming you are not using the agents).

What ends up becoming a nightmare is the medical examination that needs to be taken at home. There are only two to three privileged practitioners from each major city listed among the names of doctors supplied by the Canadian High Commission. You can take your pick. They are all out to dig something out from your insides to give you a medical run around. A series of investigation starts with such a vengeance that you end up with the feeling that you might die in a week’s time, whereas to all intent and purposes you were a perfectly healthy human when you started out. From MRIs to Echo Cardiograms to Nuclear element induced tests to umpteen blood tests & ultrasounds to 24-hour urine tests (God knows how one manages that one!); you could be asked to go through any or all of them. The brotherhood of medicine has its own band of specialists from where you shuttle back and forth for consultations and report confirmations etc. And when you are actually about to drop dead from fatigue and mounting bills, you are finally given a letter that you were initially suspected of being clinically dead but the medical men & women have miraculously found reasons for your being alive and hence have passed you as normal! I was told that some people have spent close to Rs150,000 on this medical rigmarole. Obviously, with so much already invested, one will hardly give up at this last stage, though many have been sorely tempted to do so. Once the medical results reach the Canadian High Commission, it takes between four to ten weeks for the visas to reach you. And once that ticket to ride is in your hand, nothing that you’ve gone through seems so horrible. After all, attainment of a new life can hardly be easy. From there on it is luck, hard work and the will to survive which determines your fate in the land of plenty.

Though one might add an end of line here for the country’s intelligentsia. Someone needs to wake up to the fact that these hopeful immigrants are the hard working, capable professionals who are depleting this country’s manpower resource by opting to apply their skills elsewhere. These are those who are honest and are happy following rules and discipline. The gaps in our system triggering the decisions of many like Sameera should be addressed now. Otherwise, we won’t have any but the corrupt and inept, running and ruling our country — a terrifying thought indeed!