Pakistan high commission needs change

A FEW days ago I attended a press conference by Information Minister Nisar Memon at the Pakistan high commission building. It was the first press conference I ever attended in the Pakistani high commission, and it did not impressed me. It was held in the office room of the high commissioner, Abdul Qadir Hasan.

Journalists were cramped in a very small space, with at least three men serving tea, trying their best not to spill it while walking through small spaces available between the chairs. It came as a surprise to me that the press conference was not arranged in the conference hall that indeed could be a more proper place for such a gathering.

These small things though look very insignificant but could damage the overall reputation of a nation. The Pakistan high commission buildings are situated in one of London’s most expansive areas. All these buildings need to be thoroughly decorated and repaired. During my eight years’ stay in London I have seen a number of embassy buildings but don’t remember if any of those buildings were as shabby as that of the Pakistan high commission.

The staff at the visa section is quite friendly but the space available for the visa applicants who wait there is quite small. Whenever I had been to the visa section, I had found it crowded. Besides feeling sorry for the visa applicants, I would admire the overworked staff who very successfully are running one of the most important sections of the high commission.

OSAMA SYMPATHIZERS: Last week when Britain was marking the 9/11 day, the national media focused on a small and insignificant group of Muslim hardliners who sympathize with Osama bin Laden. The group, Al Mohajiroun, marked the occasion in London titled as “A Towering Day in History.” Many British Muslims have expressed their disappointment over the extra coverage Al Mohajiroun is getting. The meeting of the group was held in the Finsbury Park mosque in north London. It was addressed by hardline leader Abu Hamza Al Masri and about 100 men had come to listen to him.

Over the past some time, whenever Al Mohajiroun holds a meeting, there is a counter-demonstration by the hardline British National Party. About 100 BNP members demonstrated outside the mosque, creating quite a scene. But interestingly there was another counter-demonstration held by the Anti-Nazi League which is strongly opposed to the BNP, widely accused of being racist and the party enjoys very little support in the mainstream British society.

Time and again Al Mohajiroun leaders have been giving quite provocative statements and now the Muslim community of this country fears a backlash from the non-Muslim mainstream white population.

ASYLUM-SEEKERS: A UN report has revealed that Britain is the first choice of asylum-seekers in the world with the number of the new arrivals reaching 100,000 in a year. Figures show that the number of new arrivals in the UK is 51,500 in the first six months of 2002, which is much higher than the second most popular destination, Germany, which received 36,259 asylum-seekers in the same period.

The report has also revealed that the number of new asylum-seekers to Britain is increasing faster than ever. The report, compiled by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, shows the number of asylum-seekers has dramatically decreased in countries where right-wing governments have recently been formed and where immigration laws were tightened.

Australia, which has been criticized by the international community for its stand against illegal immigrants, has seen a 54 per cent drop in asylum applications to only 3,284 in the past year, which is roughly five per cent of the total applications received in the UK.

The figures have come as a blow to Home Secretary David Blunkett, whose asylum policy suffered a serious blow recently when the British high court ruled that the minister acted unlawfully when he ordered the deportation of an Afghan family to Germany. The British government is desperate to tighten its immigration laws and trying its best to know as to why it is receiving more asylum seekers than other countries in Europe.

Some believe that the English language is perhaps the biggest attraction for asylum-seekers while others say the British immigration laws are lenient which attract thousands of new asylum-seekers to this country. But it looks like that within the next few years it would be very difficult for asylum- seekers to move into any of the European countries as immigration laws are being tightened throughout the continent.

Rich resources, poor returns

ACCORDING to Kawish, Sindh Governor Mohammedmian Soomro, during his recent visit of the Thar coal project, has held out an assurance that the general sales tax on the coal would be spent on the drought-stricken Thar. Besides, federal Petroleum Minister Usman Ameenuddin, at the inauguration of oil wells at Sinjhoro, has announced that the income generated by oil exploration in Sindh would be utilized on development of the province. He revealed that at present Sindh was getting a royalty of seven billion rupees for the exploitation of its natural resources, and the amount would rise to Rs12 billion next year after Miano, Zamzaman and Bhit Jabal fields would begin production.

The implementation of the two announcements is doubtful as resource exploitation in the province has never benefited the concerned areas. Sindh is very rich in natural resources and these assets are mostly located in backward areas, like Thar, Nara, Kachho and Kohistan, where basic amenities and economic opportunities do not exist. The province has been getting royalty on the resources but its benefit has failed to reach the common people of these areas. Therefore, exploration of these resources has not brought any change in the lives of the people.

The federal and provincial governments should make it mandatory for oil and gas exploration companies to take measures for development of the areas they are working in. Besides, a share of the royalty should be allocated for this purpose. Similarly, as distribution of wealth, obtained from resource exploitation, among the provinces and then districts is necessary, it is also imperative to take the benefit to the poor people of these areas.

Commenting on this issue, Sindhu deplores that while more natural resources are being exploited in Sindh, the incidence of unemployment is rising in the province. From the Union Texas to Lasmo, all oil and gas exploration companies are importing manpower from other provinces. The federal petroleum ministry should initiate an inquiry to establish to what extent Sindh and its people are getting benefit from the resource exploitation.

Tameer-i-Sindh writes that the oil companies have begun sacking the few local people employed by them. For the restoration of their employments, protests have been observed in Jhangara Bajara and Sehwan. However, this voice of protest will go unheeded by the multinational companies if it is not backed by the concerned quarters. The provincial administration and the district governments should fulfil their responsibility by pressing the foreign companies to review their recruitment policy and provide employment to the local people.

Hilal-i-Pakistan deplores the recent violence at Karachi University where the rangers baton-charged the protesting students and teachers and arrested and injured a couple of them, including women. The daily is surprised over the statement of the KU vice chancellor, Dr Zafar Saied Saify, who held the students and teachers responsible for the chaos on the campus. It appeals to the Sindh governor, who is also the chancellor of universities in the province, to personally intervene in the matter so that academic activities may be resumed and the sanctity of the largest educational institution of Sindh is restored.

Common features of Karachi’s woes

KARACHI has seen unprecedented security arrangements during September. General Musharraf twice graced the city with his visit after a lapse of more than four months, celebrations for our armed forces victory against Indian aggression in 1965, regimentized mourning for the tragic incident of 9/11 which has had widespread fallout over our region and the display of ‘Arms for Peace’ were just few events that kept Karachi on its toes.

The defence exhibition at the Expo Centre may be becoming a profitable annual ritual for the organizers that provides the ministry and the government an opportunity for claiming advancement in science and technology. If claims for induction of Magnetic Levitation Trains in Karachi, or the NHA’s stubborn- ness for an insane and unfortunate design for the proposed Lyari Expressway were any measure, our above success, outside the newspapers, may not mean much for the common man.

With literally no room for public participation in VIP-exclusive programmes, these merely translate into long traffic jams and unwarranted diversions caused by high-pitched security and severely agonizing for a very large number of residents of this city. All restaurants in the neighbourhood, even the KFC’s, opposite the Expo Centre were forced to shut down while ‘Arms for Peace’ were displayed for a proud presentation.

In a city where autorickshaws are fined Rs300 for violating the ban on driving on the road on which the Governor’s House is situated, law-enforcement agencies literally shut down the FTC, an important business centre, for three days to secure a bank’s inauguration by Gen Musharraf. Similar was the fate of a sixteen-storey building situated at the corner of the road leading to Cantonment railway station and its lifts were shut down, while the residents of the high-rise on the opposite side were barred from opening their windows and doors overlooking Sharea Faisal to ensure the security of the visiting generals.

Last Friday the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan also organized a seminar to mark its concern towards the prevailing religious intolerance in the city. The high point of the seminar may have been a study conducted by Zulfiqar Ali Shah on behalf of the HRCP. Journalist Ali Hasan also presented his paper on the ‘Objectives Resolution’ and its ultimate incorporation in Pakistani constitution by the late dictator General Zia-ul-Haq. The seminar, presided over by HRCP Chairperson Afrasiyab Khattak, was conducted by the Commission’s director, I. A. Rehman, and attended by provincial minister Wali Razi, IG Sindh Syed Kamal Shah, prominent educationist and human rights activist of Punjab University Dr Mehdi Hasan, and representative of two major sects in a hall full of audience representing various sections of society that freely shared their views on the findings and recommendations of the study.

A year earlier the Pakistan Peace Coalition had also organized a similar conference on religious intolerance in the city in collaboration with the Takhleeq Foundation. Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid, Prof Shaista Zaidi, Syed Jaffer Ahmed, Maulana Ubaidullah Bhutto, and M. B. Naqvi had all emphasized the need for inclusion of the common man in the struggle against intolerance, if religious and sectarian hatred were to be eliminated. Both seminars concluded that religious and political parties, rogue local and international intelligence agencies along with the problems of poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, lack of health and education facilities and dependence on foreign aid, which have badly damaged the social and political fabric of this country, were responsible for the rising trend of targeted killings and the breakdown of civil society.

Wali Razi defended Madaris and their role in society, but IG Kamal Shah pointed out that his force had arrested members of four major groups of feuding fanatics, including Akram Lahori, during the past nine months, that finally brought down the number of people targeted and killed, especially doctors, in sectarian violence to a mere null in the past four months.

However, many amongst the audience felt that the temporary lull in sectarian violence might have more to do with the ominous American presence. A forced check on subversive activities in the region and the fear of Gauntanamo Bay in the minds of extremists may have complemented the hard work done by Kamal Shah’s force.

Ali Hasan highlighted the dark shadows the ‘Objectives Resolution’ had cast over our constitutions since the 1950s and its final insertions in the 1973 constitution by Zia-ul-Haq that paved the way for subsequent nullification of parliamentary democracy in this country.

Times appear to have changed and so may have our society! Twenty years ago it was Zia-ul-Haq running the country in collaboration with the forces of the religious right for the benefit of Uncle Sam. The act of summary arrest and brutalities against the then president of the Karachi University Teachers Society, Dr Hasan Zafar Arif, was hardly resisted by democratic forces during Zia’s rule. Ironically, last week Pervaiz Siddiqui, the President of the Jamaat’s Anjuman-i-Asataza (teachers society), of Karachi University, was also sent on forced retirement, during the present benign rule that owes its survival to collaboration with a section of our liberals.

One may or may not be able to differentiate between religiously zealous or benign military dictatorships in this country, but it appears that the common denominator remains a need of the US of A.

Another common denominator between the past dictatorial rules and benign military rule of Gen Musharraf may be our celebrated security agencies. But it may be a fact that unabated resurgence of civil-military dictatorship in the country during the past 55 years could not have been possible without them.

Finally no one better than the Karachiites could appreciate another fallout of the hard work of our security agencies and dictatorships: the ethnic and sectarian violence from Ayub Khan’s Pakhtoon-Mohajir riots to Mohajirs against everyone else in this city. The American ‘War on Terror’ may have helped IG Kamal Shah to check sectarian violence in the city, at least for now.

Allah Bakhsh’s biography launched

KARACHI: ‘Allah Baksh Soomro; Apostle of Secular Harmony,’ a biography of the eminent politician by Khadim Hussain Soomro (no family relation with the departed leader) was launched on Thursday. Syed Sajjad Ali Shah, in his presidential remarks, admired Allah Bakhsh Soomro — twice chief minister of Sindh — for his courage, conviction, his message of peace and harmony and care for the common people. ‘There comes a time when one has to stand up, say ‘no’ and pay the price,’ he said. Soomro’s impact on the politics of the subcontinent, apart from the province of Sindh, was widely felt.

Agreeing with columnist Ardeshir Cowasjee, who had earlier made a two minute speech emphasizing the rule of law and maintenance of peace as the prime duty of a government, he further said that this book must be read by those interested in the knowledge of history.

Born in 1900, Allah Bakhsh Soomro, after doing his matriculation at 19, preferred to stay with his father in practical life. He believed that it was not the Muslims alone who lived in Sindh, but Hindus were there also, and that everyone should be treated equally with justice and respect.

Allah Bakhsh Soomro was the chief minister of Sindh when, after a ‘Mandir-Masjid’ tussle and rising communal frenzy, his government was voted out. Again in 1941, he was elected as chief minister. His is the sole honour of holding this position twice.

Those were difficult times, with the Hur movement at its height and martial law being imposed in the province. But Soomro kept his control on the administration, and introduced the resolution on the abolition of feudalism with utmost courage.

When the ‘Quit India’ movement was launched, Soomro renounced his title of OBE given by the British, and wrote a letter of protest to the viceroy, in reply to his comments on the “conduct of the chief minister”. Consequently, his government was dismissed in Aug 1942. A year later, he was murdered, the killer not known as get.

Shaheed Soomro’s correspondence with the viceroy and the British authorities, spread over five years and included in the book as pointed out by Dr Sulaiman Shaikh in his speech, amply speaks about the courage, spiritedness and sense of commitment of the person.

Sindh Finance Minister Hafeez Shaikh, who comes from the Soomro family, enumerated the reforms Shaheed Allah Bux had planned to introduce in the province, including jail reforms and agrarian reform. He was a religious person, but tolerant and modest in his dealings.

Nabi Bux Qazi, a known social figure and intellectual, referred to his personal meeting with Soomro. He recalled the text of the Holy Prophet’s (PBUH) message, wherein he stressed the unity of nations. Qazi admired Allah Bakhsh Soomro’s sense of justice and tolerance. In this context, he also referred to the famous speech made by Quaid-i-Azam on August 11, 1947, exhorting the unity of the Pakistani nation.

Advocate Nooruddin Sarki dealt with the issues of diverse Sindhi politics and praised the book for its timely publication.

Speakers included Ahmad Zafer Farooqi and Doctor Yunus Soomro, Allah Bakhsh Soomro’s grandson “who grew up in the shadow of his illustrious grandfather’s memories” and was proud of being one from his family. Khadim Hussain Soomro of Sain publishers also spoke about the book, completed after “years of hard labour.”—Hasan Abidi

Facing adversity with hope

“THOSE who are prodigal to their own hurt are despaired and they hope not for God’s grace” (Quran 39:53). Such verses which discourage despair and hopelessness falsify the misconception that, by laying great emphasis on punishment and retribution, religion tends to create an atmosphere of fear from God’s wrath instead of hope for his munificence and kindness.

The fact remains that a religion like Islam seeks to convey, by reminding every individual about retribution in the life hereafter for wrong actions in the world, that material success in the present life achieved by means foul and unfair is not the real success, because life begins here but does not end here. This is, by no means, a message of despair and pessimism, but of realism and reasonableness.

Hope and contentment flow from a firm faith in God and equally firm belief in future reward for the right things done in this world. Any person with such beliefs, whether professing Islam, Judaism, Christianity or any other religion, “has the reward with God and will suffer no fear and no grief” (2:62).

Conversely, the atheists and unbelievers who deny the existence of God and, therefore, also reject the possibility of after-life accountability, but do good deeds not for Divine pleasure but from other motives or ideological promptings, will have no reward and will suffer from fear and grief. Let us strengthen this argument by taking recourse to another Ayat: “Who so desires the pomp of worldly life, he will be paid for his deeds herein” (11:15).

The point that one’s efforts and resources should be devoted to earning God’s pleasure (which presupposes strong belief in His existence) is the only course to attract God’s grace and favour, becomes quite explicit from this Ayat: “Whoever sells himself to seeking God’s pleasure will receive the Divine compassion” (2:207). The vastness and wide range of meaning hidden in the phrase “sells himself” can best be appreciated by those who wield the pen.

Proceeding further, we find an indication in the Quran, which is quite relevant to the present discussion, and can be taken to mean that it draws the line segregating a believer from a non-believer so far as one’s behaviour in the midst of adversity — the mental and psychological reaction in unfavourable circumstances — are concerned. Advising the believers “not to relent in pursuit of the enemy”, the Ayat says: “The enemy too is suffering like you (with the difference that) you can hope from Allah what they do not hope” (2:62).

This ‘hope from Allah’ in moments of acute crisis, which only a believer in God can entertain, makes all the difference. The believer is liable to face anxiety, uneasiness and apprehension in circumstances of impending hazard as any other human being or the enemy and the opponent, but whereas the latter becomes demoralised and, resultantly, weak and loses determination, the former faces the situation with patience and steadfastness in the hope that God’s help will strengthen his position ultimately.

There is a concrete instance of this ‘hope from Allah’ in the Biblical story of Joseph’s (Hazrat Yusuf’s) father as narrated in the Quran in its own way. As mentioned in the Quran, he said, in the grief-stricken moments following the suspected murder of his son, that “he was not despaired of God’s grace, despair being the business of the unbelievers” (12:87).

Belief in God’s existence is, according to the Quran, ingrained in the human soul, as is the consciousness of good and evil, right and wrong. Unlike other religious dogmas, the Quran suggests that man is born innocent and untainted, bearing no stamp of the ‘original sin’ nor carrying the burden of sins committed in the earlier cycle of birth. It is the upbringing, and the social environment in which one lives by accident of birth that make a man and a woman an atheist and an unbeliever. “God created the soul and perfected it and inspired it with the consciousness of what is wrong for it and what is right for it”, (95:4).

By quoting these excerpts from the Quran it is intended to remove the wrong impression that Islam, like some other religions, paints a depressing picture of the world peopled by human beings who are prone by nature to be bad and vicious. On the contrary, Islam treats human beings as born clean and unblemished, endowed with the self-correcting mechanism of self-criticising conscience.

Western philosophy has produced two strains of thought and two kinds of outlook on life: One is the pessimistic doctrine that the world is a bad place and life offers nothing but despair and hopelessness. Its extreme form is ‘nihilism’, or highest degree of scepticism, which had led to the creation of a movement in Tsarist Russia to overturn all the existing institutions of society. Islam has remained opposed to this doctrine all through, as its corollary is denial of God, which is unacceptable to all adherents of Islam whether observing all the tenets of this religion in their practical lives or not.

The other school is that of ‘epicureanism’ which denies the concept of retribution and accountability in the life hereafter. It, therefore, encourages sensual and care-free enjoyment of life and pursuit of pleasure by all means. This outlook critics point out, is reflected in Islamic poetry also — Omar Khayyam’s quatrains or Hafiz Shirazi’s compendium of verses — but those who read and appreciate these verses neither think that these poems actually preach hedonism and enjoyment of the pleasures that are religious taboos nor did the poets mean such things. They were not libertines and did not lead licentious lives. All this is allegorical poetry.

The Western world is undoubtedly influenced by both these philosophical doctrines produced in the West itself and has suffered from the consequences. It did not allow the chastening influence of Islamic philosophy and ethics to enter its domain.