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expats MOOD STREET Town Talk amends Break
the silence, please Sharing
responsibility
expats Flight home from Tripoli Harrowing tales of survivors who have returned from Libya By Aoun Sahi After Tunisia and Egypt,
Libya has become the next hotspot in Arab world. Unlike Tunisia and Egypt,
Pakistanis are more concerned As with the governments of other countries, the Pakistani government has also started efforts to evacuate Pakistani citizens from Libya. There are about eighteen thousand Pakistanis living in different parts of Libya. On one hand Pakistani foreign office has been making claims of doing all that is needed to bring back Pakistanis, on the other it has not even got clearance so far to land planes in Tripoli for immediate evacuation of expatriates from Libya. So far around 700 Pakistani have been able to get out of Libya and majority of them complained about the role of Pakistani diplomatic missions in Libya. Shakir Mehmood, 42, resident of Raiwind Road Lahore and father of five went to Libya in late 2009. He went there as a mason with a Turkish construction company but his company soon promoted him to the seat of foreman. “There were around 400 other Pakistanis working with the company in the city of Souq-Al-Ahad situated 40 kilometres from the capital Tripoli. “We were working on a construction project of 2000 housing units. We were doing well but suddenly things started getting from bad to worse within days,” he tells TNS that between 2000 to 2500 Pakistanis were living in Souq-Al-Ahad alone. February 21, 2011, was the day when Mehmood realised for the first time that things had started turning bad for them. “Libyans in Souq-Al-Ahad took to the streets on that day. There was continuous gunfire. Our company directed us to restrict our movement to the camp. I remained there for five days. We did not have enough food or water left. We constantly kept on trying to contact officials in embassy but they never paid attention to our situation. Finally, it was our company that managed for us to leave Libya via air,” he says. It was not an easy decision for him to leave the camp and to go to Tripoli airport. “We heard that battles were raging in Tripoli and no one was safe. The airport was packed with thousands of people already waiting to leave. With news of anti-Gaddafi rebels preparing to march onto Tripoli, it was a bad place to be stranded at such a time.” But he along with his other Pakistani friends decided to take the chance. His company sent buses and all of them were directed to hold Turkish flags in their hands. On reaching the airport,
they breathed a sigh of relief. But, their ordeal was not yet over.
“There were checkpoints after every Abdul Maroof Khan, 23, from Lahore was also among those lucky ones who succeeded in escaping from Libya. “We were forced to leave all our belongings there”. He says that things became very tough during last few days. “These are extreme winter days in Libya and we did not have gas or electricity at the camps. Libyans had started looting us every day. They used to be in civilian clothes and in hundreds. They took all the cars, money and valuables and would torture us.” The fear of being attacked by looters kept them up at night. “I got a full night sleep on February 28 after two weeks. Many Pakistanis were simply afraid to get out of their company camps and homes,” he says. “Everyone who gets out is being looted, so people are staying inside fearing for their lives.” Khan expressed dissatisfaction at the Pakistan embassy in Tripoli. “They were of no help at all. We are lucky that our company took our responsibility and managed a safe exit for us. I am really worried about other Pakistanis living there, especially the families.” He says that he would love to go back to Libya “but I don’t think situation is going to become normal in near future”. The family members of those who are still stranded in Libya are very depressed. “My two sons and a nephew are trapped there. They are students at an Islamic college. The situation is getting from bad to worse with every passing day as now we haven’t even spoken to them on telephone. Even internet is not working properly in Libya, so it has become tougher to stay in contact with them,” says Chaudhry Aziz-ur-Rehman. “We received their last email on Thursday; they are very afraid of the situation and have asked us to do something for them as soon as possible.
MOOD STREET By Haneya Hasan Zuberi It has roughly been a
decade that I learnt in my Social Studies class that the white section of
the Pakistani flag represents the On Wednesday, the assassination of Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s federal minister for minorities who was a Roman Catholic, not just shook the grounds of the ideology on which our national flag was designed but also snatched away the smile from the face of Hanifa Bibi and thousands like her. We are the sixth most populous country in the world. One in every 40 human being is Pakistani. A nation is its people, and in our people we can see a significant diverse population, linguistically, culturally and religiously speaking. We might have an overwhelming Muslim population but our non-Muslim population is more than there are people in Miami or Toronto for that matter. From having advocates of a secular Pakistan, burqa wearers, Pathan team captains, our own Zaid Hamids, mazdoors, supporters of blasphemy law, strong women of opinion, female swimmers to many people like Hanifa Bibi who go to church every Sunday -- we are one assorted nation on the face of the planet. Being such a dramatically diverse nation, is being tolerant too much to ask for? I question those who kill in the name of Islam. Wasn’t it our Holy Prophet (PBUH) who would tolerate that lady who used to throw garbage at him daily? Wasn’t it him who prayed for the people of Taif when they threw stones at him to the point that his shoes were filled with blood? If the person who brought Islam to this world was an embodiment of such values then “which” Islam are these people talking about where the only solution is picking up a gun and killing? I fail to understand. Inter-faith harmony and living together happily is a different thing, being tolerant is another. The real test of a nation is how they treat their minorities. Why am I having so much difficulty in putting “tolerance” in the picture here? I recently came across an article written by George Fulton, an immigrant and journalist living in Pakistan who was now leaving the country because, as he wrote, “Pakistan has made me cynical, disillusioned and bitter over time.” I read each word with awe and disappointment. The religious minorities sum up to one-twelfth of our nation. Are we to scare them away like this? Pakistan has been intoxicated to an extent that it can simply be called a country which is intolerant towards its minorities. Believe me, it is not a good reputation to have. I was recently sent a Facebook invitation to take part in a “revolution”. Pakistan is trapped in a democratic system where we have a liberated media and a democratically-elected assembly. Technically speaking, we are incapable of having a revolution here. To be brutally honest, the only revolution we need is the revolution of mindsets. We really need to behave now and get rid of the plague of extremism. That is the first step. The second is to guard our borders and to protect our sovereignty. We have seen a lot of green blood being spilled as a nation. How about looking at our flag once again for a change and thinking about the values it represents? Town Talk * Celebrating Prof ShakirAli’s 95th birth anniversary today at Shakir Ali Museum, 93-Tipu Block, New Garden Town, Lahore at 5:30pm. * Exhibition of paintings by Wahab Jaffer at Ejaz Galleries opening
on Thursday, March 10 at 5:30 pm. The exhibition will remain open until
March 17, 2011. * 21st Pakistan International Education Exhibition today and tomorrow at Pearl Continental Hotel from 1:00pm to 8:00pm. * Spring Festival at Alhamra, Gaddafi Stadium till next Sunday from 9:00am to 1:00pm daily. * A tribute to Tasawer Khanum on Women’s Day, 8th March at Aiwane Iqbal Auditorium at 7:00pm. * International Conference on Water Rsources Engineering & Management 2011 on Mon-Tue, Mar 7-8 * Conference: ‘Islamic Civilisation - Potentials and Challenges’ on Wed-Thu, Mar 9-10 at the University of Management and Technology. Totally at a loss The government is working on a plan to compensate those who suffered financial losses in Shah Alam fire incident By Shahzada Irfan Ahmed Exactly one month ago, an unstoppable fire engulfed
multiple plazas in the bustling Shah Alam Market and caused loss of lives, The scribe who visited the place a day earlier noticed a major change in the surrounding environs before even reaching the place. Surprisingly, the air which was filled with unpleasant smell of burning plastic, rubber and burning material a month ago was full of fragrant scent experienced normally in a perfumes market. The explanation came from an onlooker-a vendor in the market- who announced the fragrance because excavators had reached the go-downs housing stocks of imported perfumes. While this process goes on, a large number of traders who lost all their belongings in the fire have threatened protests in days to come. Their contention is that the Punjab government has not announced compensation for them despite promises made in this regard. The official quarters however say the government has paid compensations to the heirs of the deceased and is working on the plan to help out those who suffered financial losses. The assessment of financial losses is not an easy task, especially when there is little evidence available with the claimants and that’s why it’s a time consuming process, they believe. Rana Mujahid Islam, convener of the compensation committee formed in this regard, has a solution with him. He says they ask the claimants to take oath on Quran to verify whether they have made a genuine claim or over-stated their losses. Mujahid, who is also a trader in the market, believes it is impossible for the government to fully compensate the victims. “But we hope they will get some assistance to start their life from scratch.” He tells TNS most of the sufferers belong to the importers’ community, who had imported containers full of consumer goods like perfumes, pampers, melamine dinner sets, body sprays etc. They do have import documents to prove the worth of the merchandise but cannot provide sale/purchase vouchers to explain how much stock was burnt to ashes and how much was sold out, he says. All such records, sale vouchers and accounts registers have been destroyed in the same fire, he adds. Mujahid says millionaires of yesterday have become paupers of today and many of them are being pestered by their creditors. He says it’s a common practice that many investors pool money to import goods from abroad and then sell them through traders in this market. These traders have a marginal share in the profit but in case of such disasters the investors are normally not willing to share the loss, he adds. He says they also doubt the fire was an act of sabotage as they don’t think a 10-storey plaza can come down in less than an hour. “There was some explosive material installed there and mischief involved, we believe.” Malik Pervaiz, a PML-N MNA from Lahore, tells TNS the government wants to compensate the financial losses of these traders but for that a process will have to be completed. A committee of traders is collecting claims which will be verified by the body of Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) before being forwarded to the concerned government body, he adds. The business community of the city will also be asked to make a contribution to this fund, he says. Nadeem Sheikh, a regular client of Shah Alam Market traders, tells TNS he has heard currency notes worth millions were also burnt due to fire. Traders here mostly deal in cash to avoid bank charges and their cash lockers are always full to the brim, he adds. He says there’s no way such claims can be proved as very few people issue invoices to buyers. Khawaja Salman Rafiq, PML-N MPA in the area, says the government’s financial compensation plan for traders is very much intact but it will be executed at a later stage. Right now the government’s priority is to compensate the owners of adjacent houses, properties and commercial buildings affected directly by the fire. He says the government’s first priority was to give compensation to the heirs of the deceased. “We have paid Rs 500,000 to every bereaved family and soon be paying Rs 75,000 to every wounded person. The loss of money definitely comes after that of life which is priceless” Salman says the financial claims will be verified thoroughly and it will be ensured that the public money entrusted with the government reaches only the deserving people.
Break the silence, please The recent killings of Shahbaz Bhatti and Salmaan Taseer call for promoting reason-based thinking and accommodation of diverse views By Ayra Inderyas I paused for a minute
and reflected on Nazia’s reaction to the cold-blooded murder of federal
minister Shahbaz Bhatti. A Christian I see a semblance here with what my father and elder sister tell me every time I bring into discussion the issue of religious minorities in Pakistan. They tell me not to talk on these issues for fear of being misunderstood. On the other side, studying public policy and governance at Forman Christian College Lahore where we are being taught to develop knowledge based thinking against perception driven ideologies, develop ability to question and believing in facts and evidences, I literally find myself in a dilemma when it comes to questioning the perceived notions. Increasingly, I saw a consensus being developed on observing virtual silence on religious laws and policies among my friends and relatives that it is safe not to utter a word or share an opinion. It has become more controversial since the saga of Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman given death sentence over blasphemy charges by the Sessions Court in November last year. The beginning of year 2011 saw the atrocious murder of former governor Salmaan Taseer on the pretext of his alleged remarks over blasphemy laws. Last Wednesday brutal murder of federal minister for minority affairs Shahbaz Bhatti further strengthened the consensus on silence, which has left people shocked and terrified, instilling feelings of insecurity and mounting fear in Christian community. I had an opportunity to meet Salmaan Taseer, his wife and youngest daughter Shehrbano in November last year. The governor’s repeated utterances, that he was advocating check on misuse of blasphemy laws, echoed in my ears. It was my ever first meeting with a VVIP. I remember how his wife Amna Taseer talked about being the voice of the voiceless and rendering support to people belonging to lower strata of society. During my one hour interaction with the governor, I found him a person with whom I could talk objectively and who could also lend an ear patiently to the differences of opinion. My wildest imaginations could not lead me to think about horrendous outcome of Taseer’s visit to Aasia Bibi. And now, Shahbaz Bhatti fell victim to the forces of extremism. He had earned a reputation of a true representative of Christian community who enjoyed confidence among the Christian masses and the higher church leadership singing praises for his outspoken and firm stand on issues pertaining to religious minorities. During his tenure, August 11 was declared a minority day to commemorate the speech of our founding father Jinnah, who categorically spoke many a time on safeguarding the rights of religious minorities in Pakistan in his speeches between 1947-48. The year 2008 also gave me an opportunity to meet the minister of minority affairs in Islamabad, Bhatti, who kept on highlighting the significance of inter faith harmony among masses and stressed on policy action and strategies to bring all faith based school of thoughts on table to make peace and tranquility a reality. I also garlanded him during his visit to Cathedral Church Lahore in 2008 and there again I saw him speak on interfaith harmony by resolving issues through consensus. Right after the minister’s assassination I saw my acquaintances and friends weeping and every one I spoke to talked of insecurity and pressures that have become so very obvious in the face of this incident. The very thought that these two men have been killed on the pretext of their involvement on an issue, which has become so controversial that I have to think many times before even uttering my opinion, has left me with many questions. Last month I came to know that one of my distant relatives was aspiring to seek an asylum in Europe on religious grounds. It really gave a shook in my firm conviction not to leave my country for good as we are equal Pakistanis who want to live in this country with pride and patriotism and contribute to the uplift of our poor masses. It is time to promote reason based thinking, freedom of speech and accommodation of diverse views instead of brutal extremism. (The writer is a human rights activist) Sharing
responsibility Though the water coming
from the Wasa tubewells is fit for human consumption it is not hundred per
cent free of contaminants According to a report of Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) issued by Local Government and Community Development Department (LG&CD), water in 65 Lahore UCs test positive for bacteriological contamination, in 54 UCs it is found contaminated with coliform and in 4 UCs it has arsenic. The water in UC-1 and UC-3 of Ravi Town and UC-42 and UC-43 of Wahga Town has been found to contain arsenic beyond the permissible level. Talking to TNS, UC-1 resident Dr Abdul Hameed said, “When we came to know that the water of UC-I has arsenic in it, we contacted our MPA, who got a water filtration plant installed in the area. Besides, most of the people have changed their old water pipes to avoid water contaminants”. There are 18 UCs in Lahore where water is free of all contaminants which include UCs 16, 18 of Ravi Town, UCs 20, 30, 32 of Shalimar Town, UCs 37, 38 of Wagha Town, UC 74 of Data Gunj Bakhsh Town, UCs 85, 94 of Samnabad Town, UCs 106, 107, 109, 110 of Gulberg Town and UCs 117, 119, 120 and 123 of Iqbal Town. Talking to The News on Sunday (TNS), Iqbal Town Wasa Director Aslam Khan Niazi said, “A Wasa tubewell pumps out one lakh gallons of water in an hour due to which water table is going down by 2 to 3 feet annually. If the misuse of water is not checked, the city may face severe water shortage in near future. Water coming through Wasa tubewells is fit for drinking as it is lifted from 700 to 800-metre deep underground. Sometimes rusty and decades old water pipes either in streets or houses are the main reason for contaminants in water. People are least bothered to change rusted pipelines and put blame on Wasa for providing them contaminated water”. Talking to TNS, Wasa Laboratory Chief Chemist Syeda Zainab Abbas said, “Wasa keeps monitoring water by conducting routine sampling, complaint sampling and follow-up. There is no problem with the water supplied by Wasa tubewells”. About faulty chlorinators, she said where chlorinators were out of order, there manual chlorination was conducted. On the report of Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) that there is arsenic in water in Lahore, she said, “Wasa recently got its tubewells’ water tested from UET’s Environmental Department’s atomic absorption spectrophotometer, which found arsenic within permissible limits and declared the water fit for human use. Actually, a certain amount of arsenic such as 50 PPM is acceptable in water. If arsenic contamination in a tubewell increases above the acceptable level, it is diluted with the increase of water as tubewells are connected with one another. Arsenic is an internal phenomenon and it has nothing to with external activities. But in future the level of arsenic contamination in water may increase because water table is going down gradually, which may hit underground arsenic layer and increase arsenic contaminants’ mobility. So there is a need to stop excessive use of water to prevent water level from going further low”. Wasa tubewells supply water to its consumers through pipes. Sometimes when the tubewell remains out of use the pipes accumulate fungus and particles which change water colour and taste. But this is a rare. “Filtration plants ensure water free of arsenic contaminants and Wasa has asked the Punjab government to allocate a hefty amount for installation of filtration plants in the city. Besides, Wasa has planned to upgrade its lab by setting up state-of-the-art arsenic kits such as inductive couple plasma (ICP) to check water quality. Facility ceased With the dissolution of Federal Ministry of Special Initiatives, Rs 12 billion Clean Drinking Water for All (CDWA) project has been closed, said Provincial Management Unit of LG&CD spokeswoman Saima Siddiqui while talking to TNS. She said under the project 3,494 water filtration plants, including 150 in Lahore, were to be installed throughout the Punjab. But the ministry had released only Rs 3 billion in which only 52 water filtration plants were installed in Lahore, besides 29 in Mianwali, 23 in Gujranwala, 4 in Lodhran, 12 in Multan, 4 in Rahim Yar Khan, 20 in Muzaffargarh, 21 in DG Khan, 3 in Pakpattan, 1 in Bahawalpur, and 8 in Bhakkar. The City towns where water filtration plants have been installed under Clean Drinking Water for All (CDWA) project include six in Data Gunj Bakhsh Town, 12 in Shalimar Town, 10 in Ravi Town, four in Wagha Town, 10 in Aziz Bhatti Town, five in Iqbal Town and three in Gulberg Town. The main object of a water lab is to detect coliform group bacteria in drinking water. If it tests positive, the water is contaminated. Bacterial contaminated water can be made potable after chlorinating it, said Public Health Engineering Department Lab Research Officer Zahid Javed. About arsenic contamination, he said, “In every case water gets arsenic contaminated, underground rocks, protozoa, algae, industrial and human waste are the causes. The only solution of arsenic contamination is filtration plant”. nizami_shafiq@hotmail.com
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about the situation in Libya as thousands of Pakistanis have been living
there for a long time now.
kilometre or so. At each checkpoint we were stopped and our belongings
were searched. Every valuable item we had, our mobile phones, my laptop,
memory cards, cash and even mobile SIM cards were snatched from us at
these checkpoints,” he says. Their one major concern was that no footage
goes out. The scene at airport was also deplorable. Thousands of people
were waiting for their turn to get the flights. “Libyan troops started
torturing people without reason on airport, I saw at least 8 people die in
front of me on the airport. We were lucky enough to have Turkish flags in
our hands; the security guards seemed to respect this flag and did not
tease us a lot. We stayed at the airport for 48 hours to get our flight to
Turkey. Our company helped us a lot and finally we were able to get back
to see our dear-ones in Pakistan,” he tells TNS.
minorities living in the country. When I came home from school, I remember
enthusiastically explaining to Hanifa Bibi, my housemaid who is a
Christian, that the white part of the flag represents her community. I
remember her smiling with acknowledgment and patting my shoulder.
www.ejazartgallery.com / ejazartgallery@yahoo.com
property and stocks worth billions. The damage was so immense that the rescue
and rehabilitation work is still on and a visitor to the place finds hordes
of people present at the place. These include labourers removing the rubble,
rescue staff, onlookers and scavengers sifting the debris in search of goods
of any value.
woman who works at my place, she is so frightened that she has stopped her
children from mentioning even a single word about religion while talking
to friends at school.
either due to Wasa negligence or consumers’ lack of civic sense. If
water quality is not monitored and water is not chlorinated or improved
after being found contaminated, it means the civic agency is not
fulfilling its chief responsibility of providing its consumers with
quality water. On the other hand if the consumers don’t realise their
civic duty with regard to saving water, replacing their decades old water
pipes, cleaning water tanks and keeping distance between water supply line
and sewerage line, it means they too are equally responsible for poor
quality water.