Corruption in quake victims’ rehabilitation

ONE must be horrified by Oxfam’s report that corruption is holding up the rehabilitation of the survivors of last year’s devastating earthquake in Azad Kashmir and the NWFP. Saying that corruption was compounding the miseries of the survivors, Oxfam fears that as many as 1.8 million people will have to brave another winter in make-shift shelters because of dishonesty at various levels. According to the prestigious NGO, the reconstruction of houses and infrastructure is patchy and slow, and the situation cannot be reversed unless the government and the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority make the money disbursement process transparent. On paper, the amount pledged to an individual seeking to rebuild his house is adequate: he will get Rs 75,000 initially; once construction begins he will get another Rs 75,000 provided he conforms to quake-proof specifications and uses the right building material. However, the money is not forthcoming easily because in many cases revenue officials and others do not issue relevant documents unless they are bribed. There are also reports from the NWFP of nazims and deputy nazims demanding their share whenever a survivor seeking to rebuild his house asks for government grants. The result of all this is that only 17 per cent of the 450,000 households damaged or destroyed by the Oct 8 calamity have begun building their houses. The rest will have to pass the coming winter in the temporary shelters they have been living in so far. The “rest” means a staggering number of 1.8 million people. Snowfall in some areas is just around the corner, and as the Oxfam survey team found out most of those living in tents are ill-prepared for the northern areas’ severe winter.

The truth is that all rehabilitation plans made last year are now running into difficulty at the implementation stage because Erra came to know much later that what it had been going by was faulty data. The World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and other donor agencies have pointed out to the government that the data provided by the AJK and NWFP governments and National Database and Registration Authority were contradictory and, therefore, unhelpful to scientific implementation of all rehabilitation and reconstruction schemes. Now the Pakistan Census Organisation has been asked to undertake a fresh survey so as to come up with reliable data. Seen against this reality, one doubts the credibility of salt Erra’s claim that 90 per cent of the mid-term reconstruction work has been completed.

In the light of the revealed truths, it seems that the philanthropic spirit that motivated the Pakistani people in the hour of the nation’s worst natural calamity has been partly neutralised by bureaucratic mishandling. The traditional patwari has re-emerged to take hold of the village scene and stand in the way of a faster pace of reconstruction. The ‘patwari’ here stands for any government official or nazim or deputy nazim who may appear to be a stickler for rules but who in reality means apathy and red tapism. Also of concern are reports that extremist organisations are creating tensions by using the influence they gained during the early phase of relief work by raising frivolous issues, especially those relating to women’s involvement in relief and rehabilitation. Women, foreign and local, have been doing a commendable job in providing succour to the survivors, even in the most remote areas. It would be a disservice to the calamity-stricken people if women volunteers or officials were to abandon their humanitarian efforts because of the government’s failure to rein in extremist elements.

Defying the ban on jirgas

IT IS shocking to see sections of people continuing to defy court judgments, especially when some liberal and fair-minded judges give verdicts against retrogressive tribal customs. Perhaps a striking example is the one relating to the jirgas. In April 2004, a judge of the Sukkur bench of the Sindh High Court had banned the holding of jirgas in the province. More than two years later we have the same judge ordering the SHO of Mirpur Mathelo to register an FIR against persons responsible for holding a jirga. Even at an earlier stage it was apparent that some people were disregarding the court’s orders. Within five months of the judgment 25 jirgas had been held in Sindh. Since no significant steps were taken to bring the law-breakers to book, the practice has continued unchecked. What is more, the administration and politicians have been involved in these kind of violations.

What makes these jirgas more abhorrent is that they act as a parallel judicial system and very often they violate the law of the land and its moral norms. Not surprisingly, more often than not, they involve action that affects women adversely. The jirgas are known to uphold tribal customs such as vani that calls for the giving away of a woman as compensation for a perceived wrong. It is good that judges and the courts have begun to take note of these aberrations and are getting the police to proceed against them. Although serious punishments will deter those who uphold the jirga system and use the institution for enforcing retrograde penalties, there is need to do more. First, the intelligentsia and the establishment must try to educate the people and create awareness about the negative aspects of the jirga. Secondly, the courts should be made more easily accessible to people who feel aggrieved and seek redress through legal means. The fact of the matter is that jirgas have flourished because they dispense quick justice. If proper legal avenues are available to everyone who feels he has been wronged, he would not feel the need for seeking alternative justice.

Unhealthy medical practices

THE report that hospitals in the NWFP have been using un-sterilised equipment when treating patients is hardly surprising given the fact that many medical centres in the country do not observe even the basic rules of hygiene. This can be attributed not only to the absence of proper sterilisation facilities and equipment coupled with poor knowledge of hospital waste disposal, but also to sheer neglect on the part of doctors and other members of the medical staff. Single-use items such as syringes, transfusion bags and catheters are routinely reused — sometimes even sold to the recycling industry — while other medical devices such as surgical items are not cleaned or disinfected in the proper manner. This mans that those undergoing treatment are constantly exposed to serious illnesses such as Hepatitis B and C as there is no guarantee that the medical instruments they come into contact with have been thoroughly cleaned and sterilised. No wonder, studies carried out in two districts of the NWFP — where many in the remote areas resort to the services of quacks — show that a third of all hepatitis cases are attributable to the use of contaminated syringes and other equipment.

It is a pity that there is no effective monitoring system that can ensure that hospitals and clinics would maintain satisfactory standards of hygiene to lessen the risk of patients contracting serious diseases. With no plans to revamp the health sector or to hold health units accountable for negligence, it is only an enlightened and vocal public that can make doctors and hospitals see the error of their ways.

Self-purification exercise

TO describe fasting in Ramazan as ‘difficult’ would be an understatement. Rigorous would be a more appropriate expression. Hunger is comparatively easier to control. But thirst? That is more difficult.

Yet, not only must one observe fast, not eat a bite but also forswear a drop of liquid from dawn till sunset. And because Islam follows the lunar calendar, Ramazan rotates through all seasons. So the ‘agony’ reaches its peak if the month falls during summer when the days are longer. It is also more acute in countries that lie in the Torrid Zone.

Yet, there are people, millions of them, living in all latitudes and climes that bear the strain with a smile of welcome. Rather than appear crestfallen for the fear of hunger and thirst, they feel a frisson of sublime happiness and even a sense of pride at having found an opportunity that is doubly rewarding for they would be fulfilling their duty towards Allah simultaneously with purifying their own spiritual system.

Amazingly, even some non-Muslims eagerly accept this challenge and enter into the fold of Islam. Safia Al Kasaby, 43, nee Elizabeth, is a case in point. An American Christian woman, Safia lost an uncle and seven cousins in the attack on WTC on 9/11. Yet, rather than ‘abhor’ Islam, she converted last year and will be joining the faithful in the ordeal of fasting.

Many, indeed most, Muslims who observe Ramazan fast do not go to delve into the why and wherefore of it. Why should they when they know that it is a command from Allah, their Creator, Sustainer and Master? That is enough for them, because who, other than Allah is their best well-wisher?

Who was it that gave him sustenance when man was a foetus? Who shaped him, gave him senses of hearing and eyesight and intellect? Who provided for him when, as a baby, he was helpless and as an infant, could not decide for himself? Without a question, then, He knows what is good for those who serve Him, better than what they would themselves know. This is beautifully explained in the following words: “...it may be that you dislike a thing which is good for you. And that you love a thing that is bad for you.”(2:216)

Observing the highest principles Allah vouchsafed an explanation for His reason and His purpose behind the Ramazan fasting. First, it was not an innovation applicable only to the followers of Muhammad (SAW); “... it had been prescribed for people before them.” (2:183). And because Muhammad was sent as witness to the message of those who had gone before him, it was only just and fair that his followers should also be subjected to a similar exercise.

The purpose is to inculcate self-restraint (2:185). The myriad benefits that accrue from self-restraint do not require any emphasis. They had been known, long before the arrival of Islam, to Greek philosophers and Hindu sadhus. The latter practised many aspects of self-control including holding the breath for prolonged durations, called pranayam. In Islam, Sufis were the exemplars of self-abnegation.

Gautam Buddha’s and later, Abu bin Adhem’s giving up all the pleasures of princely life, even their homes and families, for a life of rigorous austerity are history. Another example, near home, is of Sultan Nasiruddin of Delhi. He was king, yet he denied the perks and pleasures of a royal lifestyle for himself and his household, living on the bread he earned from the sweat of his brow.

Talking of self-control, it is not peculiar to spiritualism. Its value is acknowledged even for the practice of hypnotism and mesmerism. The importance of self-control lies in its capacity to develop will power. It is also said to sharpen memory and improve intellectual capacity. There are anecdotes galore of the miracles that people, practising self-abnegation, have performed. Indeed, there is no limit to what man could achieve through will power.

But, all things apart, self-control is what distinguishes humans from beasts. The latter are slaves of their instincts. Man is master of his instincts and demonstrates it through self-control. Self-control is also the first step to self-sacrifice. Ramazan, therefore, prepares the believers for the greater rigour and perseverance that are called for in the case of jihad when they may have to fight in Allah’s cause, and was demonstrated in the Battle of the Ditch (khandaq).

Allah says, “I have created jinns and humans only so that they may serve Me”(51:56). He also wields absolute power over His subjects in all matters, including their life and death. Yet, withal, He does not act like a slave driver. He is extremely compassionate.

Also He not only “preaches” the precept of kindness; He also demonstrates it by setting examples. One of the most outstanding among such is the concessions in the observance of fasting. The number of days is fixed. The count must be completed, but not necessarily in the month of Ramazan. Sick people and travellers and women during their periods may skip the fasts during the month. However, they must complete the days any time later. Those who are totally incapable due to age or infirmity or similar disability are absolved from fasting by feeding a destitute in lieu of each day of fast.

Ramazan also fosters self-purification. Occurring once a year it is like an annual overhaul of the spiritual system. The cleanliness drive begins with paying zakat and culminates with fitra at the end of the month. Paying zakat is like clearing away the scum that has collected during the year on one’s wealth. And fitra once again induces the believers to bring a smile to the faces of the orphans and widows on Eidul Fitr. Both zakat and fitra are proof of the emphasis Islam lays on a well-knit community life where joys and sorrows are shared between the rich and the poor.

Fasting, prayer and giving alms are accepted not only in the monotheistic religions of Islam, Judaism and Christianity, but also in Hinduism and Buddhism et al, as the basic elements for attaining salvation or nirvana. Only Islam takes all these to a loftier and more sublime level.

Muslims offer extra prayers, observe fasts, and spend on charity also at other time during the year, either as an act of thanksgiving for some special bounty bestowed by Allah or for atonement of sins, or for beseeching Him for some special boon. But, it is in Ramazan that fasting, prayers and charity reach their peak.

During this month people not only offer additional rak’ats of prayers for tarawih, but many also offer tahajjud prayers after midnight. None of these prayers are compulsory, though. But, because Quran was sent down and the Night of Power (Lailatul Qadr) falls during this month, Ramazan has a particular sanctity and it is believed that prayers made in this month receive Allah’s special favour.

To conclude, Ramazan with its fasting and prayer and almsgiving is an experience. It cannot be communicated. It has to be applied in order to realise its unique properties. Ask them who fast and they will tell you of a feeling, not of depression or tiredness but of alertness of the mind and faculties and a sense of serenity and lightness as if in a state of levitation.

Intelligent observation

INTELLIGENCE services are undergoing something of a renaissance in these dangerous times, recovering from the battering they took because their own careful work was “spun” too often by unscrupulous politicians.

Few have forgotten the UK government’s notoriously dodgy 45-minute warning of Saddam Hussein’s ability to attack with weapons of mass destruction he turned out not to possess, or the spurious accounts from Washington of a link between Baghdad and Al Qaeda’s 9/11 onslaught on the US. So it is encouraging to hear that it is now the considered view of the 16 different agencies that make up the enormous US intelligence community that the war in Iraq has helped produce a new generation of fanatical jihadists and increased the threat of global terrorism.

Not only does this American finding have the ring of truth about it, but millions of ordinary people in Britain, Europe, the US and far beyond have reached the same bleak conclusion from a daily torrent of news, analysis and information that is freely available to all.

It needs neither spy satellites, informers, nor highly trained analysts to observe the rage and fury that has been generated by Iraq: we have heard it in native Yorkshire accents from the young men who brought mayhem to the London underground on 7/7; from public opinion polls; from countless demonstrations across the Arab and Muslim worlds; from Iraqis, Shia as well as Sunnis, who hated the Ba’athist tyrant but who have paid an intolerable price for their liberation from his odious regime. Events in Afghanistan, Palestine and Lebanon, mixed in with Fallujah, Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, and heavily spiced by anger and resentment at perceived double standards, have added to this poisonous brew.

Obvious though it may be to state that Iraq has become a “cause celebre for jihadists”, the importance of this part of the US National Intelligence Estimate is that it flatly contradicts George Bush’s upbeat version of the state of play just weeks before the midterm congressional elections, in which Iraq is playing a central role: thus the president’s distinctly peevish tone when he was forced, under Democratic pressure, to declassify part of the report in response to a timely leak in the New York Times.

Mr Bush’s argument is that Iraq is a central front in the “war on terror” and that a defeat for extremists there will be a serious blow to extremists worldwide.

—The Guardian, London