DATELINE NEW DELHI: Time to relearn the virtues of straight reporting

THERE was a time when young reporters were taught to balance the police story in a given case with the cautionary words “alleged”, “suspected”, “claimed to be” and so on. In other words, the police version of an incident was deemed potentially one-sided, if not outright suspect, in the eyes of the concerned beat reporter. And it was usually left to the courts to divine the truth, to the extent any court can, and that was the end of the matter. These few words of caution were also handy in tiding over the lurking problems of libel.

Indian and Pakistani foreign secretaries will find merit in this approach of straight reporting when they meet in the middle of November here to discuss, among other serious issues, their recent willingness to crack terror crimes jointly. They would find it useful to consider three or four very recent examples of evidently hasty conclusions that were foisted on the public by Indian police. Only the credibility of the official version of incidents suffered body blows due to contrary evidence. There must be similarly telling examples of police accounts suffering from a credibility gap in Pakistan.

Last Friday when the police in Mysore claimed to have foiled a terror plot with the arrest of two suspected Pakistanis in an encounter, one or two newspapers also ran a small story alongside in which the landlady of one of the accused was quoted as questioning the police version. According to her account (in these times of communal innuendo it must be stressed that the landlady is a Hindu) the alleged Pakistani terrorists were picked up a fortnight ago by plainclothes policemen from her house. So who is telling the truth? The police case is obviously suspect and they have to try very hard to prove that the men were arrested on that very Friday morning.

The Indian Express also reported this past week that the Vice Chancellor of Kashmir University in Srinagar found himself questioning the police account concerning the Delhi blasts during last year’s Diwali. In a challenge to the official theory, the vice chancellor was quoted as stating officially that the key accused was present in the college on the day the crime was supposed to be committed at three of four vulnerable busy places in faraway Delhi.

Likewise with the Mumbai trains blasts. The police chief there was allowed by the media to get away with the story that the culprits in the July terror attack on packed trains had all been arrested. It was claimed that the case was all nicely sewn up and the accused had owned up to their crime. They too were linked to Pakistan. The prime minister, the foreign secretary and practically everyone was thus misled into believing that the Mumbai police commissioner had done the impossible. He had the case thoroughly worked out, leaving no room for any doubt whatsoever. But then seven of the accused, still in police custody and therefore prone to coercion, issued a statement that they had not made any such confession to the police or to anyone else.

Under the circumstances, one of the remarkable things about Indian diplomacy is that a key strategist in the complex of skein of the country’s anti-terror engagements with Pakistan is a former police officer. It was a tough reality for the foreign ministry cadre, usually regarded as government Brahmins, to accept it when M.K. Narayanan, the former head of the Intelligence Bureau, was named to succeed former diplomat J.N. Dixit when he died in harness as National Security Adviser. It was good that the critique of the Mumbai police commissioner’s overreaching explanation for the Mumbai blasts came from Narayanan. And what did Narayanan say, which others could not, would not?

He said in an interview there was “no clinching evidence” in the Mumbai case although there were strong circumstantial suggestions that the police version was not entirely untenable. Such forthrightness could not be expected of anyone other than a police officer, the only ones who must be familiar with the filibuster that usually accompanies high profile crime cases. India’s case against Pakistan on the terror issue will be watched closely for the credibility, not so much for the role the diplomats would play, but by the standards set by people like Narayanan for a transparent dialogue. This is what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said he wants out of the anti-terror joint mechanism.

Unfortunately words of caution like alleged, suspected and so on seem to have gone out of fashion within the media, even more so since the world embarked on the American-led “war on terrorism.” Now only Pakistani terrorists are arrested not alleged Pakistani terrorists. Intrepid writer and activist Arundhati Roy listed her concerns with cavalier journalism in a neatly researched article in the Outlook magazine last week. She presented cogent arguments for a fresh and independent inquiry into the parliament attack case of December 2001 which has landed Kashmiri convict Mohammed Afzal Guru on the death row.

Roy compiled a list of what she says were “malicious, outright lies” that appeared in the Indian media following the attack on the parliament.

‘Case Cracked: Jaish behind Attack’ The Hindustan Times, Dec 16, 2001: Neeta Sharma and Arun Joshi

“In Delhi, the Special Cell detectives detained a Lecturer in Arabic, who teaches at Zakir Hussain College (Evening)...after it was established that he had received a call made by militants on his mobile phone.” Another column in the same paper said: “Terrorists spoke to him before the attack and the lecturer made a phone call to Pakistan after the strike.”

‘Varsity don guided fidayeen’ The Hindu, Dec 17, 2001: Devesh K. Pandey

“During interrogation Geelani disclosed that he was in the know of the conspiracy since the day the ‘fidayeen’ attack was planned.”

‘Terror suspect frequent visitor to Pak mission’ The Hindustan Times, Dec 21, 2001: Swati Chaturvedi

“During interrogation, Geelani has admitted that he had made frequent calls to Pakistan and was in touch with militants belonging to Jaish-i-Mohammed...Geelani said that he had been provided with funds by some members of the Jaish and told to buy two flats that could be used in militant operations.”

‘Person of the Week’ Sunday Times of India, Dec 23, 2001: “A cellphone proved his undoing. Delhi University’s Syed A.R. Geelani was the first to be arrested in the December 13 case —- a shocking reminder that the roots of terrorism go far and deep...”

None of these claims of course were rooted in facts. It would be useful for the foreign secretaries and their teammates to read the piece by Arundhati Roy. It should help them avoid the pitfalls and the hazards of rushing to conclusions, a normal risk when the night editor’s word of advice is ignored.

Former foreign minister Natwar Singh used to blame Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his current misery. Now he has turned his anger at Sonia Gandhi, the Congress president, who he once said he owed everything to.

“Everything that the government did against me was on Sonia’s direction. I will not blame Manmohan Singh,” he told Star News. The charges by the 75-year-old career diplomat-turned- politician, a Nehru-Gandhi family loyalist for long, comes close on the heels of Gandhi’s attack on him in a TV interview three days ago.

Reacting to Gandhi’s accusation of her being betrayed by Singh, he said: “Betrayed is a strong word and according to Indian culture such words are not used for a person older than her 15 years.” He also said something totally unexpected. “Those who are born in Indian soil will only understand the country’s ethos and culture. Others will not” according to the transcript quoted by Press Trust of India.

jawednaqvi@gmail.com

METRO VOICE: Will dengue cure us of poor socio-ecology?

The spread of dengue fever in Karachi has caused alarm all around the city. Some respite was possible in the elite areas mainly where the rich were able to fumigate their houses and gardens, while the poor and the middle class continue to suffer, not only with dengue fever, but also cholera, malaria, typhoid, gastroenteritis and many other communicable diseases caused by our inept attention to socio-ecology.

The life of groups, communities and nations are so closely integrated that their welfare can only be ensured if conditions are created which will secure the good things of life for all and not restrict them to a few privileged individuals or classes. This is not only a matter of social justice – which morally and ethically is all important, but also of enlightened self-interest which should appeal to every sensible person.

With the increase in population, the resultant pollution, degradation of environment and the new consciousness about the care of the balance of the body, there is considerable professional opinion regarding our attitude towards clean air and clean water for all. Any delay in restructuring the policies towards health and environment could threaten human species.

This land of ours has been gifted by nature with all kinds of wealth and resources – material, artistic and human – but, a big majority of people lives a life of poverty in the midst of natural plenty, of ignorance in an age of knowledge, of disease and insanitation when science holds out the promise of conquering both. How long will the educated and the elite view this bitter anomaly with complacence and unconcern?

Where do we begin to find solutions?

Muslims generally have a high sense of personal hygiene. They perform the ablution at least five times a day, before every prayer. They bathe every day, availability of water permitting, and keep their clothes ‘paak’ from impurity because they stand before Allah in prayer morning, afternoon and night. For the Jumma congregation, they make special arrangements to don clean and washed clothes and do not fail to buy new ones for Eid days. Unlike people of most other religions, they wash themselves thoroughly after every use of the toilet.

But when it comes to social hygiene, we have the most appalling attitude. We throw garbage including the despicable plastic bags all around, dump our garbage bags before the houses of others with utter shamelessness, and spit paan as if the entire city was our spittoon. During Eidul Azha time, our unsocial behaviour reaches unforgivable limits. Parts of the animal body and blood lie around for days making this an ugly sight for everyone. The stench and the flies would continue to abound for several days thereafter.

Contrast this attitude of ours with that of the consular staff of the Vietnam embassy, once located next door to our building on Share Faisal. Every morning as I left for the office, I would see the consular staff (not maids and ‘maasis’) sweep, clean and wash the pavement and the service road in front of their mission.

Does the government, civic or provincial, care about it? For the past three years, the broken sewerage line has been keeping the store basement our house in PECHS flooded and we have been making fervent appeals to the KWSB, town nazim and even the much publicised one-window operation which claims to rectify complaints in 24 hours. But the basement and the area outside continue to be waterlogged as a breeding ground of mosquitoes.

In fact, many communicable diseases can be prevented by suitable sanitation systems, control of disease-spreading materials like foul water or vectors like mosquitoes. Proper drainage of dirty water, disposal of garbage, sewage and human and industrial wastes are crucial for a clean microenvironment, which is a prerequisite for preventive health care.

Not just the filth in the slums of Lyari and Orangi, even the shantytowns existing amidst posh localities of Defence render them rife with diseases. An incredible amount of putrid water collects and stands for days around the houses even when it is not raining. Added to this dirty water and excreta are various other forms of garbage thrown out by dwellers. How can they or their children be healthy and free from disease?

Most Karachiites living in these areas wear better clothes and eat more food, but the appalling sanitary conditions negate all other aspects of progress. Better sanitary conditions and an improved environment in the place of stay and the work are the most important requirements for health.

It is true that public services and facilities in a large and growing city like Karachi are under severe strain and it is not always possible for the government department concerned to ensure clean environment at all times and at all places and in time. It is often done in god’s good time! The garbage is not just piled up and stinking in Mehmoodabad where we go to drop the housemaid every evening but also in PECHS, including the more elitist Block VI and the Nursery Market, which was once called ‘Green Nursery’. It could well be called a garbage dump about which I have written in the past without any result so far.

It is not enough to consider ‘global quality levels’ of living and working places only for the well-to-do, ordinary countrymen also have a right to live and work in a good environment. Many vector-borne diseases and diarrhoea, hepatitis and acute respiratory infections threaten the country, particularly Karachi, and now and again the VHF viral fever popularly called the dengue fever.

Even as the country and the city struggle to eradicate the diseases, people have to take stock of the situation and take corrective measures on their own. While the rich have access to information about health-related issues in many ways – through journals and magazines, personal discussions and visits to doctors and hospitals specialising in preventive medicine —, such is not the case with the poor groups.

It is not enough to keep our bodies and houses clean and orderly, we must keep the neighbourhood orderly with the use of improved technologies and by prevailing upon the civic government to perform its given task. How many more must die of preventable diseases before we awaken to this responsibility. It does not require high education, but simple awareness of our own religion to change our attitude towards socio-ecology.

“Cleanliness is an article of faith” says the habit of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him).

Eid and a world record

Since Pakistan now has the dubious distinction of celebrating Eid on three days, it can confidently aspire to find a mention in the Guinness World Records.

This could be a sort of positive aspect of the annual confusion over the ritual of moon-sighting.

Pockets of the Pukhtun community in Karachi, the so-called mini-Pakistan, followed the edicts of their religious leaders back in the North-West Frontier Province, and celebrated Eidul Fitr on three different days. Incidentally, Karachi has the largest Pukhtun population in a single city. But this can be true of other communities also. Yes, the mini-Pakistan!

The government had in haste announced three-day holidays for Eid. When the Shawwal moon was not sighted the day it was supposed to, the government had to add another day to the Eid holidays. But in government offices attendance was extremely thin. Students going to colleges on Friday were told by watchmen guarding the closed gates to come on Monday if they wanted to avoid frustration. So, practically there were holidays from one Sunday to another Sunday. But that was not the end of the matter. Monday will most probably be the day of exchanging Eid greetings - the traditional enthusiastic hugs and warm handshakes.

Celebration of Eid on two days is not uncommon in the country, as indeed in the rest of the Muslim worl. But three Eids is a rarity for any festival based on the lunar calendar. This was probably for the first time that the NWFP government officially celebrated Eid two days ahead of the rest of the country. Previously separate Eids used to be only a private affair and usually in defiance of the central committee that makes announcements about the sighting or otherwise of the moon.

This has, however, lent strength to the belief that the moon could be sighted earlier in the mountainous areas in the north than in the coastal areas in the south. Scientists say the situation is the other way round.

A positive aspect of this event is that it has given the government a moral justification to ban 'illegal sighting’ of the moon. As the prime minister said the other day, a mechanism should be put in place that prevents the nation from celebrating Eid or beginning Ramazan on different days. If there is only one central committee for moon-sighting, the issue can be resolved.

Otherwise, Eid activities went by smoothly across the city. Unlike last year’s Eidul Fitr that was subdued by the earthquake tragedy, this year pre-Eid shopping and Eid celebrations both moved at an accelerated pace. The governor and the chief minister were so delighted over the peaceful passing of Eid that they rewarded the police for their good performance.

The character of Eid in the city was a little altered by the recent development of parks near Clifton beach. Bagh Ibn-i-Qasim, spread over 130 acres, and the Beach Park failed to attract the kind of crowds that were once the hallmark of Eid celebrations. The reason: the decades-old crowd pullers, the dodgems, the merry-go-rounds, the 'well of death’ and other fixtures have been dismantled to make way for these parks. The investors who have spent tens of millions of rupees on the import of these amusement machines have been relegated to a corner of the park. They have begun rebuilding recreational facilities. It would have been better if they had been relocated outside the city as city roads, already choking with traffic, can no longer take extra loads.

A mini-disaster averted

Efforts were launched on Saturday to re-float the oil barge, Orion-I, that had capsized about three nautical miles from the Karachi Port on Oct 6.

The ship carried 70 tons of furnace oil. With the help of foreign experts, the oil was siphoned out on Oct 21 and later disposed of on the shore. No noticeable spill was reported. This saved the city’s coastal areas from the feared oil slick. Naturally, environmentalists and other concerned citizens heaved a sigh of relief when it was all over. The quantity of oil in Orion-I was much small as compared to the contents of the Tasman Spirit, which carried as much as 67,000 tons of oil. But potentially Orion-I could cause considerable damage to the city’s ecosystem.

Tasman Spirit, a Greek tanker, bringing crude oil from Iran to Pakistan, ran aground at the entrance to the Karachi Port on July 27, 2003. The ship split into two on the night of Aug 13, spilling 35,000 tons of its oil into the sea. The spillage not only killed and washed ashore thousands of fish, the oil slick played havoc with the health of people living along the beaches of Clifton and Seaview. Hundreds of people living near the city beaches went to hospitals with complaints of nausea, headache, etc. A strong odour had hung over areas far beyond the shore for many days. Many NGOs and individuals had come forward to play their role in easing the impact of the disaster.

Officials with the Tasman Spirit experience this time too issued statements and directives on whether citizens should eat or refrain from eating seafood. There were also statements that citizens should stay away from the beaches of Clifton and Seaview. But the capsized ship made ripples and could not create waves of concern among environmentalists.

It is, however, heartening to see that people are sensitized to the often neglected issue of environment. Even if they cannot do anything practical, they issue statements to wake up officials and departments to a disaster or to a threat of one. So far there has been no explanation for the causes of the Orion-I capsizing.

Steps are needed to prevent such mishaps and ecological crises in the future.

Youth ambassador for diabetes

Pakistan is to be represented by a youth from Karachi in Cape Town (South Africa) where the International Diabetes Federation is to launch its “Unite for Diabetes” campaign next month.

Mohammad Faraz Baig, 21, a student of BCE, will frontline, along with 25 other youngsters, the battle to highlight the alarming rise of this disorder that affects more than 230 million people worldwide. Faraz has diabetes and has learnt to keep his blood sugar in good control for the last 10 years by taking insulin injections.

The Pakistan Diabetic Association nominated Faraz for this honour because he has been involved in teaching other young diabetics on how to effectively and successfully manage their lives with this health problem.

The IDF says that diabetes has now reached epidemic proportions worldwide. By 2025 the number of diabetics is expected to exceed 350 million. About 80 per cent of this total will be in low and medium income countries where health facilities are inadequate.

The idea of choosing youth ambassadors to support the IDF-led “unite for diabetes” campaign is to get the UN to pass a resolution on diabetes. Thus UN member states will be encouraged to vote for the resolution and express their commitment to policies that help the cause of diabetics.

Pakistan needs this badly. With 3.5 million diabetics, it needs a health policy that focuses adequately on diabetes since the literacy rate is so low, the number of people living below the poverty line is so high and culturally the lifestyle has not been too conducive to good health. Since diabetes can result in complications and co-morbidities related to the disorders it is important that an ongoing health education programme is supported by the government to create public awareness.

Faraz is one of those young men who have a positive approach to life. He has not allowed his disorder to handicap him in any way. Given his dynamism, enthusiasm and leadership qualities he has risen to the challenge posed by his health disorder. Equally creditable is his commitment to help others in a similar situation. He has been involved in diabetes advocacy and now as the IDF youth ambassador he will join hands with his colleagues to ask governments everywhere to take action and make a difference.

— Karachian

Email: naseer.awan@dawn.com