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interview War
on terror-- way to US votes
Chatform for
all RIPPLE EFFECT
'No rift in the party' By Aoun Sahi Syed Naveed Qamar, MNA and
member Central Executive Committee of PPP, emerged on Naveed Qamar is among those parliamentarians who have always raised their voice against General Musharraf's regime on the floor of the house as well as outside. He was in Lahore last week. The News on Sunday had a long sitting with him where he discussed different issues facing the country, particularly the PPP's current politics. Excerpts follow: The News on Sunday: You are here to participate in a seminar on 'Revisiting Sixty Years of Independence'. How do you analyse these years as pre and post Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) eras? Syed Naveed Qamar: The 1947 independence movement was originally led by students and people from the middle class. Later it was adopted by the landed class and during partition it was actually dominated by those who were present in the assemblies of the day. Those people were basically not equipped to tackle institutions like bureaucracy and the military; that was the reason that power struggle in Pakistan ended up with the military on the power seat on a permanent basis. The anti-Ayub movement in the late 1960s was also a genuine struggle once again led by students and later joined by labour and other groups of society. That movement was really the basis on which PPP was created. But General Zia's martial law once again brutally broke aspirations of people, raised by the 'awami' style politics. He also completely debased the Pakistani society. The deliberate use of the religious card which was well-funded by the regime as well as the West left very bad effects on the society and it will take a very long time to heal. What we see today is culmination of the steps taken during those two decades. One following the path of Zia and ending up in Lal Masjid and the other taking its inspiration from Awami politics and ending up in the restoration of Chief Justice. TNS: But today the main slots in PPP's hierarchy are filled up by influential people like Amin Fahim, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Syed Naveed Qamar and many more. Why? SNQ: PPP always prefers to allot assembly's tickets to its workers and people from middle class. In my own constituency a school teacher's son has remained MPA while in the constituency adjacent to me a Hari's son was MPA on PPP's platform. But it is possible only when free and fair elections are conducted in the country. All those people you are talking about are on main slots of the party or in assemblies because in the agencies' controlled elections, the candidates of opposition parties have to face consequences and these people are in better position to fight against the agencies and their illegal and immoral tactics. I am confident that if the political institutes in the country are allowed to get stronger, political parties dependence on 'old faces' will certainly reduce and genuine workers will get more and more chance to become part of power. TNS: Keeping aside the Bhutto factor, why should people vote for PPP in the upcoming elections? SNQ: PPP represents a dream of those who are the have-nots of this country. PPP is the only party that promised to make people masters of their own destiny, both economically and politically. While in government, we tried to find solution to people's problems from their perspective. We believe that social indicators will be made basis for budget making. After winning the elections, we have plans to directly target factors leading to poverty rather than using them only as an afterthought. We also intend to have a directorate of employment which will ensure that no family is left without at least basic necessities of life. We believe that the state can only be secure if its people are well-fed, well-educated, and healthy and they also feel that they have a stake in country. Therefore PPP always says that there is a need to reprioritise the basis of our economy. TNS: But PPP did not apply this when it was in power during the last two times. Also military governments are thought to deliver better than political governments. SNQ: First, it is unfair to compare PPP's regimes with military regimes. Military governments in Pakistan traditionally long for eight to ten years with full control. While PPP was once given two years and for the second time two and half years, but even then on relative basis whatever little we delivered has kept the people's hopes alive and that is why people still prefer PPP to any other political party. Even during the last election under General Musharraf PPP was the largest political party. People are with us because they like democracy and are against dictatorship. TNS: Arbab Rahim is constantly saying that Sindh now is not a stronghold of PPP and in the next elections PML-Q will emerge as biggest party in province. How do you view the situation in Sindh? SNQ: He lives in a fools' paradise. In fact he and many others like him are surviving on making such illogical statements. All these elements will be swept away in the forthcoming elections provided these will be held in free and fair atmosphere. TNS: Despite political parties' tall claims, the lawyers' movement has achieved its goal against the same government in just three months. Does this not show that political parties lack will? SNQ: First, this was not only a lawyers' movement. All other political forces were involved in it too. People who spent their nights on the roads to welcome the Chief Justice were not all lawyers and those unfortunate who were killed in Karachi on May 12 were also workers of different political parties. One should not take it as a movement of lawyers; in fact this movement was the outcome of the activities of political parties in the last eight years against the military regime. TNS: Isn't Benazir recent statement that a movement against General Musharraf's government may end up in emergency or martial law an attempt to save the present regime from a mass movement? SNQ: She has not said this. PPP's prime objective is to get rid of the military regime from Pakistan. Musharraf has been trying his level best to consolidate his regime and not letting the real leadership to return to country through different tactics. It is right that objective of all real political parties is how to keep the military out of power in Pakistan. Being a political party PPP is willing to sit down with anyone and try to negotiate the same objective provided that General Musharraf is willing to giving up the uniform. TNS: But the negotiations should be open? SNQ: We also support open talks; it is on record that PPP has been approached on different occasions in the last eight years and every time we demanded that Musharraf should first give up the uniform. I admit that the present reports of the meeting of Benazir Bhutto and General Musharraf in Abu Dhabi created some confusion in this regard. PPP took this position because the military government openly denied any meeting. But one thing I want to clarify is that we meet these people because we think that they may be aware of the mood of masses and think that they should take up their position accordingly. But if Musharraf thinks that he can capture power through force then he is living in a fools' paradise. This will lead towards confrontation and even Musharraf will have to face consequences. TNS: There appears some serious disagreement in PPP circles on the 'deal' issue. Do you think it will result in a division in the party? SNQ: There are debates on different issues in party circles but I don't agree that there is going to be some serious confrontation within the party. PPP has very clear objectives and we all want to achieve them but people have different views on the ways the party should adopt to achieve these goals. TNS: Benazir is also trying to prove that she has the support of the US or the West. How important is this to come into power in Pakistan? SNQ: In Pakistan, by and large US has always supported military governments and our generals feel proud when some US officials pat them on the back. PPP believes that one has to struggle on different fronts against a military dictator, whether it is within the country or outside it. This is why Benazir Bhutto is trying for the West to realise that dictatorship cannot be beneficial for Pakistan or for the rest of world. TNS: PPP is not part of new political front. Is it not damaging opposition's movement against Musharraf? SNQ: We have time and again asserted that we cannot sit with the forces which are part of present regime to form a so called coalition of opposition. PPP and PML-N and all other major democratic forces were already part of a bigger alliance and ARD was already struggling for restoration of democracy. But if All Parties Conference was meant for making MMA's dream of grand alliance true, then PPP is proud of not pushing people towards a betrayal. TNS: You do not consider MMA as a democratic force? SNQ: I am not saying that. Our point is that MMA is part of the government. They are the people who made the 17th amendment in constitution possible. How can they now become part of opposition?
After the events of September 11, 2001 put the 'war on terror' at the forefront of international politics, it seems the issue remains a favourite fallback for politicians starting out on the long road that they hope will end at the White House. By Kamila Hyat In recent weeks, both
Barack Obama and Tom Tancredo, presidential candidates for the Where as the presidential race in the US is only just entering its more serious phases, and independent analysts doubt whether either Obama or Tancredo will make it past the higher hurdles that will be placed on the course as the incline increases, the comments, and the irritated response from Pakistan's Foreign Office, indicate the significance Pakistan occupies in the evolving US presidential campaign. Concern in recent weeks over alleged terrorist infiltration from Pakistan into Afghanistan, talk of strikes by US troops and the apparent US role in averting the imposition of emergency in the country have all contributed to the number of news stories with Pakistan in the headlines that have appeared in the US media, thus focusing more attention on it. The fact though is that for most Americans, Pakistan is a distant, shadowy country. Its people have no real face, its map no contours. As such, it is an easy target for US candidates who have learnt from the example set by President George Bush that creating an 'external' enemy is a good way to create a sense of paranoia and gain support amongst voters who in recent years have been deluged with propaganda directed against 'terrorists', and 'extremists'. It is only as the campaign
proceeds that things will clarify. There is evidence from several This time round, Pakistan's own election falls at approximately the same time as the contest in the US -- and there seems no doubt that just as Pakistan plays a role in the campaign so many hundreds of miles away, the US will too in the cities, towns and hamlets of the country. It has become increasingly evident that one of the reasons for the visible decline in President Musharraf's popularity has been his perceived affiliation with Washington, and his readiness to follow dictates from the White House. The anger against the US has been aggravated by senseless comments such as those made by Tancredo -- and even though the US senator is, in real terms, a non-entity, his remarks can only add to anti-US sentiments. This is an issue that Pakistan's political parties will be unable to ignore as the campaign gets underway. The religious parties of course will use it in their favour, and the mainstream forces, in the current environment, can simply not afford to side-step it. Each new verbal attack on Pakistan made in the US, as part of the race unfolding there, will as such have an impact back home -- with Pakistan and the US locked in an awkward dance as both draw nearer to polls. What the attitudes adopted during debates in the US, and the recent comments by presidential hopefuls, has perhaps underscored is how little the US understands the world it is determined to dominate. Indeed, over the past decade, it would be hard to identify a US statesman, Democrat or Republican, who has come close to comprehending this reality, or at least showing any willingness to discuss it in public. The fact is that even as the issue of the 'war on terror' is spurred on by US politicians hoping to gain a few extra 'brownie' points, it is their obsession with this issue, and more crucially, the immensely unjust US-led policies in the Middle East that have stirred on the passions that motivate suicide bombers to strike, or young people to plan so many ways to kill and maim. Until these policies are reversed, it is inevitable that the 'extremism' that Washington condemns so often will continue in one way or the other.In this context, it can only be hoped that Pakistan's leaders are able to persuade Washington that any strike on Pakistani soil will bring only the most disastrous consequences. As happened after the bombing of the seminary in Bajaur, and indeed after other operations launched by the Pakistan military, such action can inspire only more hatred, and create the foundation from which the 'terror' the US hopes to vanquish will continue for many more decades, and many more generations -- both in Pakistan and elsewhere across the Muslim world. Sadly, as the remarks by US politicians have shown, the realization that this battle cannot be won by military force has yet to come -- and till it does, the 'war on terror' will continue, in one way or the other, providing to the US the easy 'target' that its leaders need to perpetuate the myth of their country's struggle for greater good within a hostile world.
By Shoaib Hashmi If you have friends and
former pupils living in New York, one nice way to meet them is at a A music lover was sitting around musing on the fact that if you ask anyone who is the greatest musician in Western classical music, and give him time to consider, he will invariably come up with Mozart! Yet no one actually comes up with it, and no one makes a song and dance about it. So how come? And his friend, who was an even bigger music lover, said he knew the answer, and it was one word, and the word was Beethoven! Beethoven followed hard upon, and then extended the horizons of music by giving it a whole new dimension in what we now call 'The Romantic Style' which is infinitely sweet and much more accessible as against the older strictly 'Classical' style as represented by Mozart. A prime example is Beethoven's second most well known sonata the 'Appassionata' -- the most well known being the 'Moonlight' -- in which the movements alternate between the Classical and the Romantic. At the Lincoln Centre in New York, in summer when the 'Metropolitan' opera is shut for the season, they have a series of concerts named 'Mostly Mozart' as a tribute to their greatest, but of course they include others. We managed to catch a Beethoven marathon; a replication of a concert arranged by Beethoven in his lifetime, to make money, and he fought with his musicians, put them on under-rehearsed in a cold hall, and the four hour concert was a disaster, proving that Beethoven was a great musician and a lousy entrepreneur! Americans are good entrepreneurs and split the marathon in two. What we heard included perhaps his most familiar symphony, Number 5, the one that begins with 'Va va va vooom' remember? Followed by three shorter pieces, 'Fantasies', one for piano which was a delight, and two chorals which were most welcome because one seldom gets to hear his less well known pieces. The music was marvellous, and the audience was packed and knowledgeable and enthusiastic, which is always welcome, especially for us Orientals whose own way of listening to music is to show our appreciation vocally and loudly at each phrase. After the concert we wallowed in the euphoria for a bit, then went to the 'Trattoria' across the road, where I noticed a bunch of flowers on the floor near the next table that looked familiar, also the personable young lady who'd put them there. She was one of the singers who had just been singing for us at the concert. Wearing my orientalism on my sleeve, I went and thanked her for a wonderful evening, and she beamed. I told her that I had recognised her flowers before I recognised her, and she beamed some more! And last night there has been a terrific storm with actual tornadoes touching down in the middle of Manhattan! And this morning all the news is about huge sections of the subway that are shut down, and commuters stranded and offices half empty and the buses useless because they are already packed like sardines and it all feels like home!
Recent rains in Karachi and interior Sindh have left a question mark regarding crisis control planning in Pakistan By Shahid Husain Karachi bemoaned the death
of 50 people who died of electrocution and roof collapse after Rains in Karachi inundated the entire city, including posh areas of Defence Housing Authority (DHA) and Bath Island where many houses are still submerged. Even Shahrah-e-Faisal, the main artery connecting airport to Saddar was submerged while pools of stagnant water stood at Club Road, Sheraton Hotel, Baloch Colony, Karsaz and Drigh Road. Golimar, Liaquatabad, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Kharadar, Lea Market, Lyari and many other areas were also inundated by rain water. Since almost the entire city has been dug up by the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) in the name of development, ditches could have become death traps but mercifully people were careful and there were no casualties due to these trenches. However, underpasses were filled with water and one could see children swimming in them. Rains have destroyed the
entire road network and despite the best efforts of CDGK to drain Ironically, the emergency ward of Karachi's premier public sector hospital Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre(JPMC), could not cater to the needs of rain victims because it was flooded with rainwater and overflowing sewage and the management had to shift it to an out patient department(OPD). Dr. Seemin Jamali, Incharge, Accident and Emergency Department at JPMC complains that the sewage water flowed into the hospital and found its way into the emergency at a time when more than 50 patients were being treated. She says the hospital comes under the jurisdiction of Cantonment Board that utterly failed to drain the rainwater. Similarly, operations had to be postponed at Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK) because of power outages. In fact, the entire megalopolis suffered from power outages. No wonder power breakdowns triggered riots in various parts of the city, including Sultanabad, Hijrat Colony, Haji Camp, Kala Pul, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Azeempura, Majeed Colony and Mauripur. Angry mob threw the furniture of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) complaint centre onto the main road and set it on fire. Power could not be restored in several areas even after 40 hours. The misery of the common
man is not confined to power breakdowns and traffic jams but While the rains have played havoc in Karachi and upper Sindh, it has brought joy in the impoverished Tharparkar district where farmers and glaziers are celebrating rains because it has offset the danger of drought. Farmers in Tharparkar sowed millet, guar, cluster beans, moong and other crops after the previous showers and were eagerly waiting for the next shower so that their efforts would not go in vain. "The recent rains have ensured a good guar crop in Tharparkar. But more importantly, it will save livestock from death and its migration to barrage areas. Abundance of fodder will not only increase the quantity of milk but also increase the livestock population. In a bad year when there are no rains, goats are undernourished and often go through the trauma of miscarriage but in a good year when there are two or more showers, goats and sheep give birth twice in a year," Sono Khangharani, chief executive officer, Thardeep Rural Development Programme (TRDP), a non-governmental organization tells TNS. The changing weather patterns seen in a broader perspective is shocking. At least 490 people have been killed and 50 million affected by the floods hitting northern India, Bangladesh and Nepal in the past three weeks. More than 100,000 people are still marooned - many perched on rooftops in eastern India's Bihar. Rainfall in Bihar was 900mm as compared to 191mm in Karachi. "Heavy rains and flooding in Karachi and other parts of Pakistan are a result of global warming that does not recognise national and international boundaries," Dr Shahid Amjad, Dean Faculty and Professor, Lasbella University of Agriculture, Water and Marine Science tells TNS. He says the overall impact of global warming with reference to Pakistan and other regional countries has a direct and indirect bearing which is a consequence of climate change. The impacts of global warming are visible in South Asia through higher atmospheric temperatures that in turn increase the surface temperature of the Indian Ocean. As a result, there is excessive amount of evaporation which intensifies precipitation and that increases the intensity of cyclones in the region."Most of the cyclones are spawned in the southern tip of India and they make their way northwards, that is, the east coast of India towards the north of Arabian Sea. This intensifies the southwest monsoon system," Dr. Amjad explains.
MIRC -- the most common and widely-used chat software in Pakistan -- is attracting people from all professions and ages Different people with
anonymous personalities, regardless of distance, status and society, This is the chat world developing new generations as cells where there are no terrorism threats but hacking and virus threats keep chatters taut. The most common and widely used chat software in Pakistan MIRC where one can find people from all professions and all ages. The more persons join in, the livelier the life of internet becomes. The chatter travels into the world of imaginations where one can see his/her words evolving into the shape of events as if the talk is real. The most interesting aspect of the chat world, and the main attraction for chatters in Pakistan, is anonymous identity unless the friendship jumps from virtual to the actual world. Several may raise their eyebrows in surprise that old people -- some nearly 60 -- also find solace from loneliness in the chat world. "Chatting helps me forget I am old and now useless for my family," said Elyas Hussain, a retired brigadier in his late 60s. In the chat world he has not yet crossed 30. Elyas is a member of the board of directors of a local bank. He says he daily spends at least two hours on MIRC and chatting with various people freshens him up. Elyas says young persons are impressed with his sagacious talk and he has won friendship of many girls as well as boys since joining the MIRC. Another chatter in his late 50s doesn't hesitate to tell his real age nor his objective to come at MIRC. "I am having problems with my marriage. So, I am here to look for a good friend with whom I can share my emotions, feelings and problems," he said. However, teenagers and persons in early 30s are rarely seeking friendship and it's only fun for them. It's the freedom of 'speech and expression' that entices them and they openly talk to each other on all topics that are otherwise forbidden in the actual world. "I can't say that I enjoy here but there's a lot of freedom here," said an unnamed chatter who is a pilot in the Pakistan Air Force (PAF). "What chatting? Whenever I tell anyone that I am 16 years old, they ask me to go and study kiddo," complained a teenager boy. "I am administration manager for a small company but online I am just here for some loitering around," said Riaz Khan. Nadia, a house-wife and mother of three kids, says that her husband is most of the time out of town because of the nature of his job so in her solitary hours MIRC gives her company. "MIRC is full of lies. It rarely turns up trumps, otherwise it's wastage," said a senior government official who daily comes at MIRC with a hope that he may find a girl of his dreams. "Because of some personal issues, I started coming at MIRC and chatting with different people helped me incredibly in getting rid of depression," said a businessman. Where the economic activity has increased distances among people, internet life works as a soothing healer by shortening the gap and helping people remain in touch. Chatting is a small world that has both advantages and disadvantages. "The traffic of visitors in the channel is increasing day by day but the modesty is becoming lousier," said operator of the popular 'Pakistan channel', who preferred to remain anonymous and works in the Sui Northern Gas Company. He said elder persons usually don't care about ethics which could be harmful for teenagers and pollute the channel's lively ambience.
RIPPLE EFFECT Without a spine By Omar R. Quraishi There are many people in society with spines, from politicians to senior bureaucrats to many people in the private sector. Having a spine generally means to have the courage to be able to go against the flow, as it were, to speak out when one sees something wrong happening and not take everything lying. If the last were an accurate measure of what it is to have a spine, then it could justifiably be said that many Pakistanis are spineless -- that is they take whatever comes to them with every standing up and asserting themselves. Whether that is one reason that for over half their country's existence they had to contend with military rule is something that needs to be examined by sociologists or other academics who study such things. As an example of this, let me cite a recent instance. I was travelling abroad. I checked in with the airline at Karachi airport -- thankfully the line was not very long. However, when one went to the immigration section, manned by FIA staff, the lines were ridiculously long. In fact, they were so long that several people waiting in the queues were in real danger of missing their flights. I asked one of them that the plane wouldn't leave without them to which he said that the airline he was travelling on was not a Pakistani but a foreign airline, and if the passenger did not show up on time, even after having checked in, they were known to offload his luggage and leave. The agony of these passengers was made worse by some others further ahead in the line who repeatedly allowed women to break the queue and enter it right at the front. No one was prepared to tell the women that there was no separate line for women only and that like other passengers they too must wait for their turn -- since everybody was clearly pressed for time and had to, quite literally, catch a flight. This however, fell on deaf ears and intermittently the line was broken by the men in question, who all of a sudden had apparently become chivalrous. It was only when one passenger got the courage to speak up and ask the men in front of the line that what in the world were they doing and who gave them the right to allow just about anybody to break the line and delay everyone else that the women stopped coming -- and the line began moving. Even then, several other silent spectators, all of them waiting for their passports to be stamped lest they miss their flight, snickered at the man who had spoken up. It is this culture of complacency and of doing nothing, or maybe because those in positions of authority always act with apathy to the plight of ordinary people, which perhaps explains why most Pakistanis tend to sit by quietly and do nothing, even when a little bit of collective action may help them individually. Another instance of not having a spine came to light recently on PTV. The show in question was broadcast on Independence Day and also a day earlier on Monday. It had the president talking to a smattering of well-known personalities -- mostly from showbiz, entertainment and the arts -- who were invited to the Presidency for a question and answer session with the president. The event was moderated by Mahreen Khan, formerly of BBC fame, and who reportedly was hired by the present government as a consultant to improve its image, especially overseas. Questions were asked by several members of the audience -- one of them was otherwise reasonably well-known Farhan Ali Agha. Mr Agha, talking in deference far over and above that necessary given the occasion, asked the president a long-winded question. It was one of those questions which if ever asked in a press conference would be immediately seen by professional journalists as a plant - i.e., it did not put the person giving the press conference in any spot of bother and in fact had only one answer, which tended to put the person in a good light. As is usually the case with many of us, instead of immediately coming to the point and asking a tightly-worded question, the actor first gave his own, mostly sugar-coated, comment, saying that the country was presently undergoing through many crises (who doesn't know that Mr Agha?!) and that in any country worth its salt in such times its people came together. He then asked the president that what was it that was needed for people to 'come together' and unite. After the president had given his answer, the actor then proceeded to chip in by saying: "Sir, if I may add -- I just want you to know that we [Pakistanis] are ready to do whatever needs to be done for the sake of the country." What was the point of this statement, except for the person who made it to ingratiate himself with the country's president? And that too a military dictator who of late has suffered more than a couple of defeats -- at least as far as winning the moral high ground is concerned. Let's hope this incident is not reflective of how artists in the country generally feel towards a military dictatorship. It may well be that the mantra of enlightened moderation suits them or that television has become more liberal and permissive under the present government than in the past, but a creative individual, especially one whose bread and butter is the arts should be expected to be more aware of how lack of democracy stifles the public space for artistic endeavour and creativity. Like I said earlier, this country is full of spineless people -- people who don't even have the moral courage or strength to speak their mind. In this context one can say that at least the mullahs and the extremists are better than the rest -- they seem to have no qualms in speaking their mind (and doing usually much more). Quite a few of us need to grow a spine. It would do all of us a whole lot of good. The
writer is Op-ed Pages Editor of The News. Email:
omarq@cyber.net.pk
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the political arena by winning his seat as member Sindh Assembly in 1988. In
1990 he was appointed provincial minister for information. During the second
term of Benazir 1993-96 he first served as chairman privatisation commission
in 1993 and later as federal minister for Finance and Privatisation.
Democrat and Republican parties respectively, have directly referred to the
'war on terror.' Obama has spoken of strikes on Pakistan; Tancredo, in
remarks that have aroused widespread fury, has spoken of bombing the Muslim
holy places of Makkah and Madina. Other contestants and commentators have
more indirectly alluded to the question of 'safe havens' for terrorists, and
other issues surrounding the matter in discussions surrounding the campaign.
recent polls that more and more Americans are seeing through the rhetoric
regarding the 'war on terror', and favour a troop pull-out from Iraq and
Afghanistan. Less sensational, but for many Americans more meaningful, issues
such as health care, brought up by Hilary Clinton,may eventually emerge as
the key matters in the presidential campaign, and the focus on Pakistan may
backfire against those using it as a ploy. But the ties between events in
Pakistan and the results of the 2008 US presidential poll are in many ways
more intricately linked. Within the country, among the security apparatus, it
is believed that more 'arrests' of key terrorists, especially al-Qaeda
figures, may be made soon -- as per a script directed from Washington.
Indeed, it is believed that Pakistan has for years played a carefully
orchestrated game in which important leaders are 'found' and apprehended to
coincide with important encounters with the US, thus gaining the country's
leaders greater mileage as a key alley in the 'war on terror.' But now, this
game could prove to be a dangerous one.
picnic in Central Park. Their children can chase the pigeons and they can
scream their heads off, and you can doze in the shade after nibbling on the
goodies they bring along in little carts. Only thing is living in the Big
Apple they are all nostalgic for something from back home, and forget that
you have come from home and 'Dahi Bhallas' and 'Haleem' are not a fondly
remembered delicacy. So they break their backs cooking up a feast of such
stuff and you stuff yourselves under the elm threes or whatever. Good thing
is that afterwards, in the evening, there is music.
rains lashed out on August 9-10. Rains also claimed many lives in interior
Sindh. Districts Dadu, Larkana, Qambar and Shahdadkot situated on the right
side of River Indus have been worst affected.
water, many streets are still submerged and traffic jams have become the
order of the day. Sometimes it takes two to three hours to reach the work
place. The city nazim Mustafa Kamal maintains that since as many as 13
agencies are managing the affairs of Karachi, and do not coordinate with each
other, it's next to impossible to deal with a catastrophe. The CDGK and
Cantonment Board start accusing each other once the city is faced with a
crisis of such magnitude. The sufferer is the common man. For instance, it
took city administrators years to have a look at devastated main road in
middle class locality of Gulistan-e-Jauhar since both the CDGK and the
Cantonment Board could not decide under whose jurisdiction it falls.
water-borne diseases have badly affected the people in Karachi and other
parts of Sindh. More than 10,000 cases of diarrhea and gastroentritis have so
far been reported in the province. This was officially confirmed by deputy
secretary health, government of Sindh, Dr Shakil Mullick. He agreed that
there was imminent danger of an epidemic if unhygienic conditions continued.
all gather on a platform from around the world. Some want to get rid of
depression, some are out to kill loneliness while others only to meet new
people.