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'Out
and out' a reformer Tense
borders On
his own terms Over
Da Vinci Code Two,
and two together Power
that be Campaign
time
profile Is another
recasting in the offing as Tahirul Qadri moves to foreign lands? England to
be precise By
Muhammad Badar Alam
The
scholarly nature of the gigantic task has made it necessary for him to put
all other pursuits away to trusted lieutenants and disappear in the seclusion
of foreign lands, England to be precise. The idea is to dig deep and come up
with something that keeps Islamic view of the world relevant for the next
thousand years. The ambition is grand and Tahirul Qadri, during the last 30
years or so, has dropped enough hints to show that he is fully up to it. In the
entire history of Indian Muslims, only one more person -- Sheikh Ahmed
Sirhandi -- is credited to have achieved that. For this unprecedented
achievement he is commonly known as mujaddid alf-e-sani or 'the' reformer for
the second millennium. The moral, religious, political, economic and
spiritual decadence of the third millennium should mean that the task of
reviving the religion is cut out for someone with some experience in all of
these disciplines. Dr Tahirul Qadri, for better or for worse, has legitimate
claims to have given a shot or two to all these fields and disciplines,
though the degree of his success in each one of them has varied widely. His
detractors will be prompt to point out that he has been a dismal failure in
all but one of them. An eloquent speaker, Tahirul Qadri has never failed to
impress with his choice of words and scholastic logic. Most of
his audiences mistook his mastery of complex scholasticism, couched in
stylised phrases and peppered with a devout's deep-seated reverence for the
divine, as genuine scholarship. In 1980s, he was a celebrity: his audio
cassettes heralding the arrival of morning for believers across the land of
the pure and the video versions of his speeches doing the rounds as a
religious relic does. He was winner of polemics with Christian missionaries,
expositor par excellence of the divine message and rehabilitator like no one
else of traditional religious beliefs, facing the twin assault of modernity
and orthodox fundamentalism. His fan-club included the whole Sharif family
which produced Lahore's own political dynasty in the years to come. In fact,
Mian Muhammad Sharif, the father of then Punjab chief minister Mian Nawaz
Sharif, was one his most visible sponsors and admirers.
When he
embarked upon an institutionalisation of his idea of religious reform, his
admirers across the world opened their wallets to the maximum. His Idara
Minhajul Quran and Tehrik-e-Minhajul Quran had supporters in almost every
town, big and small, in most of the central Pakistan as they did in lands as
distant as the United States and Norway. In the stagnant academic environs of
those days, in love with tradition but shaken to the bone by the arguments of
its modern and orthodox rivals, his was an engaging voice of certainty which
sought to reconfirm traditional beliefs through the force of his rhetoric.
His self-assured mannerism led many of his followers to assume that he had
divine blessings. Any
human being could have fallen victim to this phenomenal popularity. Tahirul
Qadri, despite his declarations of being the chosen one, turned out to be
just that -- a fallible human being -- and did what most people with an
audience bigger than their family and friends do in the land of the pure.
Politics. In 1990, with a huge fanfare he launched Pakistan Awami Tehrik, as
a means to realise his socio-religious reforms. Retired armymen,
academicians, religious scholars, sportsmen and even TV stars entered Tehrik
en masse in those heady days. It is another thing that almost all of them
starting leaving the organisation in droves much before it faced its first
electoral success. Still when Pakistan had its general elections in 1990, the
country's first cricketing hero, Fazal Mehmood, was one of the most prominent
candidates on Tehrik's electoral list. Perhaps the emptying of Tehrik, as
soon as it was filled by a number of towering giants, owes to the fact that
the party was too little a platform to accommodate all of them besides the
overwhelming presence that Tahirul Qadri himself enjoyed. In
mid-1990s, Pakistani Awami Tehrik renounced elections and devoted itself to
social work, through setting up schools, libraries and dispensaries. But the
renunciation was neither complete, nor irreversible. In 1997, Tahirul Qadri
was sharing political stage with people who had done nothing but politics to
make their presence felt. From relying on the iconic popularity of his
erstwhile followers to allying with already established political figures
like Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, Benazir Bhutto, Hamid Nasir Chatta and Manzoor
Wattoo, he had taken a 180 degree turn and very surprisingly was taken quite
seriously by the political class. Whether voters ever took him seriously,
too, is besides the question in a political environment in which most
decisions are taken outside of the electoral sphere which may explain why Dr
Tahirul Qadri was one of the front-runners for a cabinet slot under Pervez
Musharraf's military regime. Some thought he was aiming for the post of the
prime minister. He did
not make it that high, though the highest watermark of his political career
came about under the military rule. He was elected a member of the National
Assembly, the only one to represent his Tehrik in the legislature, only to
resign couple of years later citing Pervez Musharraf's failure to come good
on his promises to clean up the national polity. Tahirul
Qadri was elected to the assembly from a constituency in Lahore where a large
number of his voters were Christians. For someone who had cut his teeth on
polemics with Christians across the world this was a huge volte face but to
the astonishment of his critics he pulled it off rather very successfully. All of
his other religio-political turnabouts have been much less successful,
though. In the process he also earned some bad name for himself and created a
lot of bad blood towards him among those who saw him as an ungrateful
opportunist who leaves no stone unturned to attract attention. While some
religious sections of the society revile him for conferring divine blessings
even on the most mundane initiatives that he purported to undertake, many
Islamic scholars and their offspring have accused him of blatant plagiarism. Like
most things Tahirul Qadri does, his departure to England has generated a lot
of controversy. His critics say his politics has reached a blind alley and
his role as the head of Minhajul Quran is no longer above allegations of
making personal gains from collective pursuits. Away from the den of all
these charges, his grand ideas to transform the whole Islamic polity for the
next ten centuries may take a backseat to the thought of recasting himself --
once again. Whether this will help him attain greatness he aspires is too
early to judge
Pakistan's
tribal belt has become a sanctuary for infiltrators. So think the Afghan and
US officials By Behroz
Khan
Afghan
President Hamid Karzai has last week charged Pakistan for training and
sending militants to destabilise Afghanistan saying that Islamabad should
realise it no longer has power to determine events in his country. A senior
US security official too has recently blamed Pakistan for not doing enough in
the war on terrorism and militant sanctuaries on its side of the border. Islamabad,
rejecting the charges, has asked Kabul to keep its own house in order.
However, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf during an interview with a Pashto
language private TV channel admitted that cross border infiltration was
continuing despite Pakistan having deployed close to 80,000 troops along the
Pak-Afghan border. US has a total of close to 20,000 troops all over
Afghanistan. The
sudden surge in attacks and suicide bombing by Taliban, al-Qaeda and
supporters of former Afghan prime minister, Gulbaddin Hikmatyar -- who have
joined forces for a common cause -- indicate that other regional powers too
could be pulling strings. The US is threatening Iran on its nuclear
capability and has signed historical agreements with India to send a wave of
concern in Pakistan and China, the emerging economic giant of the future. Taliban
in their last days had developed friendly relations with China after their
leadership assured the Chinese that no separatist movement of Muslims would
be backed by Afghanistan. China had fears that Taliban might be funding,
training and sending fighters to Xiahinkiang province where Muslim
separatists under the banner of Uighur army were struggling for independence.
President Musharraf on return from his last trip to China had said in
Peshawar that he was ashamed to hear from Chinese officials that the
Karakoram Highway, built with the hope to further cement China's friendship
with Pakistan, is being used for infiltration. Currently
though neither China nor Iran is in picture because Taliban insurgency is
going on in areas along the Pak-Afghan border. The
resistance starts from northeastern Kunar province and stretches to the
southwest of Afghanistan. The southern Kandahar, Helmand, Zabul and Urozgan
provinces are in the grip of insurgency, where US-led coalition forces are
engaged in ground offensive as well as air strikes to bomb the suspected
hideouts of the Taliban and their supporters. Dozens of Afghans, majority of
them civilians, have been killed in Kandahar, Helmand and Urozgan during the
last two weeks. Two Chinook helicopters have been shot down in Kunar in the
last eight-nine months killing more than two dozens US soldiers. It's the
first time in four years that Taliban fighters have changed their tactics
from guerilla warfare to conventional war -- by taking control of towns and
villages close to the main cities in Kandahar, Kunar, Paktika and Khost
provinces. Fact is that in pursuit of insurgents the US planes bomb whole
villages, which mostly kill innocent civilians rather than fighters. The
recent bombing of Pajwaye district in Kandahar province is ample proof of
this where more than 100 people, majority of them common villagers, were
killed by the bombing. More
than 60 persons were arrested in Kandahar and Helmand during raids on mosques
and houses. It was claimed by the Corp Commander of Kandahar, Rehmatullah
Raufi that top Taliban military commander, Mulla Dadullah has also been
arrested, but the reports about Dadullah's arrest proved to be untrue. The
concentration of US forces in Kunar suggest that Americans are convinced that
Osama bin Laden, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Gulbaddin Hikmatyar and top Taliban
leaders are hiding in the mountainous region and valleys of the province
covered by thick forests. But the
human losses and heavy damages inflicted on the coalition forces by the
comparatively poorly-equipped resistance fighters bring so many questions to
mind. As for military training, one can to some extent agree with Mulla
Dadullah's argument that there is no need to use Pakistan's soil for training
when they can do it easily inside their own country or to hire services of
the Pakistani intelligence agencies, as claimed by President Karzai. Dadullah
has claimed that he has raised a group of 100 committed fighters, who can
become suicide bombers and die to protect him in case he is endangered. There
are questions that are still to be answered: How and where do the insurgents
hide after carrying out attacks? What are the channels that ensure a smooth
supply of funds and logistics for a sustainable struggle against the military
might of the US? Taliban
can capture a town or village, and even the district headquarters buildings
in different provinces, but they cannot keep control of these places for long
-- they have no air cover or safety against the ruthless bombing by the
coalition forces. Shootings suspects, raids on houses, search operations and
random arrests by the coalition forces reflect their frustration and also
provide the opportunity to the anti-US and anti-Afghan groups to propagate it
as such and win support from people. It's
also a known fact that people are not supporting the Taliban out of their
free will but are helping them either out of fear or hatred created by the
foreign troops showing no sensitivity towards local customs, traditions and
in most cases, to places of worship. Contrary
to Pakistan's stand, the Afghan and US officials are of the firm believe that
South and North Waziristan as well as Bajaur agencies have become safe
sanctuaries for infiltrators and serve as reservoirs for recruiting, training
and sending fighters and suicide bombers to Afghanistan. Since Pakistan was
deeply involved in the past in whatever the Afghan authorities are now
charging it for, the issues of infiltration, training and logistical support
may continue to haunt it in the times to come.
Could an
assembly, itself elected for a five-year stint, elect a person as president
for a total of nine years spread over two terms? By Nadeem
Iqbal
Some of
these issues revolve round the question of the president in uniform. The
central question remains: should the president, after having stayed in this
office for seven years, be seeking re-election by assemblies that will be at
the virtual end of their term? It did
not look exactly like a feeler -- what the president himself suggested
recently. In a brief tv comment he said that under the constitution the
existing assemblies are mandated to elect him for a second term. There is no
ambiguity in the constitution in this context and people debating the issue
are unaware of the constitution, he said. He has
also said he will seek a re-election at least a couple of months prior to the
expiry of his term. His tenure will end on November 15, 2007, which means a
presidential election could be held any time between September 15 to October
15 next. Similar
exercises have also been carried out in the past by the president's
constitutional managers to mould public opinion in his favour. The current
exercise came soon after the announcement of 'Charter of Democracy' by PPP-PML-N.
The
charter does not contain any reference to General Musharraf or his uniform.
It says: "We the elected leaders of Pakistan have deliberated on the
political crisis in our beloved homeland, the threats to its survival, the
erosion of the federation's unity, the military's subordination of all state
institutions, the marginalisation of civil society, the mockery of the
Constitution and representative institutions, growing poverty, unemployment
and inequality, brutalisation of society, breakdown of rule of law and, the
unprecedented hardships facing our people under a military dictatorship,
which has pushed our beloved country to the brink of a total
disaster;..." The
president has reacted by saying the so-called Charter of Democracy contained
nothing for the welfare of the Pakistani masses and they were only interested
in their own lust for power. While Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez
Elahi's statement is aimed at targeting the conservative Muslim League
workers. Nawaz Sharif, he said, had practically joined the Pakistan People's
Party by signing the Charter of Democracy in London and the PML-N workers
should therefore quit the party and join the real Muslim League. What's
most interesting is the rebuttal of the president's statement by the
Inter-Services Public Relations. The rebuttal by ISPR would suggest that
whatever General Musharraf had said he had said as an army chief. As
president he has other channels to rely on, like the one through his press
secretary and the government spokesperson as well as the newly-appointed
federal information minister. Denying
the remarks, the ISPR stated: "The president did not say that present
assemblies will elect him for a second term in the interview to the private
television channel, and clearly stated that his tenure expires on November
2007 and new elections should be held one month earlier in October 2007 under
the Constitution." Musharraf
had also said that new presidential elections could be held two months before
his tenure expired in November 2007. Director General ISPR Major General
Shaukat Sultan said that the president said that presidential elections
should be held between September 15 and October 15. "The president had
clarified the constitutional position and had not used the word of his
election by the present assembly as attributed to him." Earlier,
the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) announced that it would
chalk out a strategy to counter President General Pervez Musharraf's move to
get re-elected from existing assemblies. ARD
spokesperson Munir Ahmad Khan said: "There is no constitutional, legal
and moral justification for the present assemblies to re-elect Musharraf for
another term. How can an assembly, itself elected for a five-year term, elect
a person as president for nine years?" "An
assembly can elect a new president for the remaining term if an incumbent
president dies, resigns or (gets) impeached, as happens in the US. But, one
assembly, under no circumstances, can elect presidents for two full terms. If
this unfortunate precedent is set, it will open a Pandora's box and everyone
will be abusing it in future," he said. All
these political maneuverings are being done in the backdrop of some other
developments on the borders. There has been a volley of statements where
Afghan President Hamid Karzai and a top British army officer have accused
Pakistan of letting Taliban militants infiltrate Afghanistan to carry out
attacks. This has received swift condemnation from Islamabad that dismissed
the charges as ludicrous. Besides,
some recent statements emanating from Washington suggest that the US can look
at Pakistan without Musharraf. In a recent congressional hearing the US
Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher (May 18) said that the US
believes it is important for Pakistan to ensure the 2007 elections are
credible, free and fair. "We
are supporting the election commissioner with money. We found aid money to
help him with setting things up, getting transparent ballot boxes, all the
other kinds of things he wants to do," he said. "We think that's a
key pillar of having a free election." The US,
he said, also had engaged the Pakistani government and 'others' in its
efforts to 'build the basis for a good election, a free and fair election'
next year. "We remind the government and everybody else of the
importance that election be credible, free and fair and widely recognised,"
he said.
By Shoaib
Hashmi One of
the things about coming to America is to let all the flowing energy sink in,
and then ponder on what makes the place tick. Problem is that you may get
very peculiar answers. One thing that was difficult to take in is that
apparently the place does not have an official, or national language! They
have been making do with an assumption all this time, until word started
trickling in that people were being refused jobs because they can't speak
Spanish! They are beginning to get round to it but it is obvious that it is a
minor matter and does not really bother many. I don't
know if word has got round to you yet but there is stuff of much greater
import at hand; here all five boroughs of New York, and the rest of the city
and suburbs; not to mention the rest of the State and the other fifty States
and other nations north and south of the borders, and in Europe and any other
continents left over, I mean everyone has completely lost his marbles -- over
The Da Vinci Code. You wake
up in the morning to the sound of this convoluted discussion of the movie on
this talk-show panel, then they go to this wide-eyed interviewer stopping
early morning joggers in mid-jog to speculate on it because it hasn't opened
yet; and you go to bed with a panel gathering to talk about it, all night
long I guess, which is why they look exhausted in the morning. One
would have thought the subcontinent at least would be immune, but it seems
there too there have been protests and demonstrations -- for or against I
don't know. All of which is a bit rum, because if you, like me, have been
dumb enough to plod through the book, you will recall that it is quite a
plod. The tale is fanciful, the story telling is pedestrian, and there is
nowhere near enough action to give Schwarzenegger an anxious moment. And I am
afraid to say even this because the last people who tried to tell Dan Brown
that he wasn't the cat's whiskers got clobbered for a few million dollars in
law costs. Actually
I saved myself the trouble of having to say anything as I came away the day
the film finally opened. The weather had turned changeable and wet, and there
were freak thunderstorms all over town and we barely made it to the flight --
only to sit in a cramped seat for three hours, until the passengers balked
and they gave us a sumptuous airline dinner right on the tarmac! Departing
flights were lined up dozens strong, and only one could take off every five
minutes, so every five minutes we moved fifty yards and stopped again. We sat
gloating that we manage things better in the third world; but by the time we
were ready, the early evening editions of the papers were in, and so were the
very first reviews of 'Code'. The first one I read said, "It seems like
the dog's dinner, not the Last Supper!" Ho, ho! Of
course it's going to be the voice of one crying in the wilderness, and the
film will have made its millions way before the ink on the last nasty review
is dry. The thing about hype is, once hyped it can't be de-hyped! And that is
what really makes it tick!
politics The
chartered flight by Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif could be suggesting that
they have no real hope of a return soon By Asha'ar
Rehman
The
Charter of Democracy signed by Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and Mian Muhammad
Nawaz Sharif after weeks of suspense reads like a dream remedy. Beginning of
course with the military, whose burgeoning role in the politics of the
country, we all have agreed and agreed again, has to be curtailed. A
significant part of the charter is dedicated .to providing a framework within
which this containing job can be done. The National Security Council is to be
disbanded and Kargil is to be investigated. The services chiefs as well as
the chief of joint chiefs of staff committee are to be appointed by the prime
minister; the coups since 1996 (which means focusing on one coup and ignoring
the rest) are to investigated; no one is going to have the right to ask the
military to intervene or throw out an elected government (unlike what has
been the case in the past); the military land allotment and cantonment
jurisdictions are to come under the purview of the Defence Ministry and a
body is to be set up to review, scrutinise and examine the legitimacy of all
such land allotments; etc, etc. Military
intelligence agencies have also found a prominent mention in the map of
Mohtarma and Mian Saheb. The recipe for good democracy seeks to put
Inter-Services Intelligence, Military Intelligence and other security
agencies under the command of the elected governments "through the Prime
Minister Secretariat, Ministry of Defence and Cabinet Division
respectively." Those
who can see eye to eye with the military can of course envision changes in
the judiciary as well. The two former prime ministers say it is time all
military and judicial officers filed their annual assets and income
declarations, for the time being leaving another suspicious breed by the name
of journalists outside the ambit of their reform scheme. They also suggest
ways to ensure an independent judiciary and say: "No judge shall take
oath under any Provisional Constitution Order". They promise Pakistanis
that should they get another chance to implement their charter, the
recommendations for appointment of judges to superior judiciary shall be
formulated through a commission which shall comprise among others members of
various bar councils in the country. The decision to approve the names
proposed by this commission is to lie with a parliamentary committee with
equal representation of the treasury and the opposition. The
charter also discusses other less important areas such as the restoration of
the Constitution as it read on October 12, 1999, before General Pervez
Musharraf took over, but it kind of compliments the General for his work by
qualifying that certain constitutional provisions enacted under him such as
the restoration of joint electorates are to stay, even if with some
alteration. The
charter repeats the old line that Kashmir has to be resolved in the light of
the United Nations resolutions passed half a century ago. This is perhaps the
only place where the charter's authors have defied the current international
opinion on issues, taking care as they have that their observations are
cushioned in an international document a la Islamabad. This
brings us to the jarring, missing part in the Charter of Democracy. It sets
out to reform the system on a large-scale but fails to address the issue of
Pakistan's sovereignty in relation to the diktats of the world powers. It is
surely a blueprint to constitutional amendments, but it does address other
questions on the side, like Kashmir, Afghanistan, and might as well have
continued to include foreign interference in the affairs of Pakistan, both
directly and through financial institutions such as the World Bank,
International Monetary Fund etc. And since the charter doesn't take up these
matters, it is only natural for it to avoid entering areas where it would
have been incumbent upon its signatories to suggest possible reforms in the
country's economic system. For the moment at least, the two former prime
minister whose hands had been tied by constant outside assertions have
limited their view of the economics to National Finance Commission Award and
yes, to an open parliamentary debate on the defence budget. Even
when the topic is federating units and where a new constitutional package is
deemed necessary, there is, as yet, no talk of provincial autonomy. The most
radical the charter gets is when it suggests incorporating Federally
Administered Tribal Areas into NWFP "in consultation with them." But it
needs to be reiterated that the charter's essence lies in its objective to
free future prime ministers of the halters previous prime ministers have
found placed around their necks. It encompasses and also builds on a lot many
of the independent demands voiced by various circles in Pakistan over the
years on that count. Coming from the leaders of two major political forces in
the country, these vows and promises should matter, and in the words of a
Pakistan People's Party leader from the NWFP, should at least herald a new
future where inter-party dialogue and adjustment is encouraged. The
responses to the 36-point document are indicative of the dilemma of the
Pakistanis who live in perpetual confusion and crave absolute clarity. The
clouds of confusion could have been lifted a bit and the divide would have
been pungent had the earlier signs delivered on their promise. The
takeover in 1999 was supposed to bring out the divide starkly, but it didn't
and we had a situation where even the direct victims of the coup appeared to
be seeking a rapprochement with their tormentors. The exile of the Sharif
family more than five years ago provided another opportunity for the
demarcation of a line where military rule per se was rejected in favour of
the prevalent model of democracy. The PPP,
which is more an anti-establishment idea than an organised political outfit
working concertedly towards a set objective, had its moments too, but it
wasted them while preferring to get its country head photographed with the
man in power and getting Ms Bhutto's spouse out of the country. The Charter
of Democracy will have served its purpose if it could just manage to clear
the blurred lines in a helter-skelter whole that is called politics in
Pakistan. Many among us would have been happier if the plan had come from
people with better democratic credentials, like many would prefer a policy of
equidistance with the failed politicians on one side and the uniformed
reformers of the system on the other. But the arrangement seems so very
impossible in what we have made of Pakistan today. The
charter has led to some very caustic responses from the ruling group. For all
these counter remarks may be worth, none of the worthy gentleman in the
ruling camp has so far felt the need to argue against it point by point. They
have been otherwise heard so vociferously campaigning for a president in
uniform continuing in foreseeable future but perhaps coming up with an
anti-thesis to the Benazir-Nawaz proposals would amount to giving them undue
importance. The funniest part in the drama is where post-charter General
Musharraf is shown as coveting the post of the prime minister. More
realistically, the impossibilities inherent in the charter convey a message
as if Mohtarma and Mian Saheb are content with where they are.
A breakup
of the power breakdowns that mark the summer season in the country By Aoun
Sahi
Defending
the authority, Chairman Wapda Tariq Hameed had said a few days back that the
stupendous increase in the usage of electrical gadgets is a major cause of
loadshedding. The extra load overheats transmission equipment, leaving no
choice with the authority except to suspend power to cool its transformers,
otherwise the whole system could collapse, he said. What
exactly are the reasons of loadshedding? Market data confirms that
airconditioning units, fridges and other home appliances sale has increased
manifold in recent years. Chairman Pakistan Electronics Manufacturer
Association Sarfrazuddin estimates that 700,000 air conditioners units will
be sold in Pakistan this summer. Introduction of less power consuming split
air conditioners in the market is main reason, he says. "The cost of one
split unit was over Rs50000 four years back and is now around Rs20000.
Airconditioners and refrigerators which were considered a few years ago as
luxury have become a necessity in recent years due to severe climatic
conditions." Principal
information officer KESC Sultan Hassan says that there is a visible
difference in the consumption of electricity in Karachi during winter and
summer. "In summer an additional 300 megawatts of electricity is
consumed in Karachi, most of which is eaten up by ACs. In Karachi alone, the
increase in demand of electricity is 7 per cent per annum due to different
factors -- including more and more usage of electrical gadgets. With that
kind of demand, electricity infrastructure ought to be double in ten
years," he says. According
to Sultan Hassan KESC has a production capacity of 1500 megawatt while the
city consumes 2200 megawatts during peak hours. "For the rest we rely on
Wapda which provides us 550-580 megawatts. People should understand that
loadshedding is a phenomenon to keep the power supply intact. When demand is
more than production or availability, loadshedding in certain areas of city
is unavoidable. Otherwise the whole system will collapse." People
are not interested in the logic provided by Wapda or KESC officials.
"The use of more gadgets does not justify power breakdown for hours. If
that was the reason, why don't the affluent localities, where usage of these
gadgets is on its peak, do not face loadshedding," asks Amjad Hussain
Lodhi, a resident of Lahore's walled city. He admits that in his house usage
of electricity is almost double in summers. "In winter average
electricity bill of our house of 7 people is around Rs700. But in summer the
bill goes up to Rs1500 and will further increase since I have installed a
split air conditioner." Haji
Mian Tariq Farooq President Abid Market Lahore thinks that availability of
electrical appliances on installment is also one reason why they are being
sold in such huge numbers. The
producers of electrical appliances also verify that the demand is reaching
new heights in the Pakistani market. Zonal Sales Manager Haier Pakistan,
Rehan Alvi tells TNS that three years back the consumption of air
conditioners was 350,000 units per year which has now crossed the 700,000
mark. The overall sale of home appliances is increasing by 20 to 25 per cent
every year, he says. "The
manufacturing of split airconditioners was introduced in the year 2001 in the
Pakistani market and now more than five companies have their production
units," says Rehan Wapda
officials says that electricity consumption is on rise "It's 11 per cent
more than last year. From April 20 to May 1 this year, it increased by 25 per
cent compared to the corresponding period last year," says Member Power
Wapda Muhammad Anwar Khalid. "There is no shortfall of electricity.On
May 23 the total demand in the country was 12,600 megawatts, while Wapda had
over 14,000 megawatts electricity available on that day." Anwar
Khalid says that loadshedding is not a phenomenon related to shortfall of
electricity alone. There could be other reasons like some accident or
emergency. "WAPDA has 700 grid stations of various capacities and when
the electricity load at a specific transformer increases more than it could
handle, it overheats and WAPDA has to switch it off to cool it down. This is
what we do to save the whole system." "More
usage of electric gadgets is not a big problem. The real problem is excessive
and uneconomical usage. We should review our electricity consumption habit
and try to save more and more electricity," says Khalid. The line
losses have been reduced by three per cent in the last three years.
"Line losses have been brought down from 24.4 per cent in 2003 to 21.4
per cent. We're already ahead of target that was set at 21.9 percent. The
numbers of consumers have also increased from 13.3 million in 2003 to 15.8
million in 2006," he adds. Architects
are of the view that electricity consumption has something to do with the way
houses are designed in Pakistan majority of which ignore the climatic
conditions. The occupants consume extra energy to make the houses
comfortable. "It is estimated that improved building designs can reduce
household energy bills by up to 20 per cent," says Abdul Khaliq Mughal,
a Lahore-based builder.
Behind
the headlines By Dr
Mehdi Hasan Anybody
watching tv over the past few weeks can easily gauge that elections are round
the corner. General Pervez Musharraf is constantly on the move addressing
political rallies, meeting delegations of ruling party workers and local
bodies' representatives, and announcing development schemes for
under-developed areas. General Pervez Musharraf has taken the campaign
responsibility upon himself. Leaving
the prime minister aside who never had any political pretensions, the top
leadership including former Nawaz Sharif loyalists like Mushahid Hussain Syed,
Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chaudhry Pervaiz Illahi are not worthy of
running a successful campaign. Mushahid Hussain had never been a politician
with mass appeal. The Chaudhries from Gujrat may have had a strong following
in their home-constituencies, but they never had to do the political
campaigning on a national level. In the 2002 election that brought them into
power, they succeeded because their group was 'chosen' by the establishment. The
visibility of Pervaiz Illahi in the media is mainly due to his position as
the chief minister of the largest and most developed province. As for the
rest of the vocal members of the ruling establishment, their political
vocabulary during the last four years has been limited to expressing support
for the idea of having an in-service general as president. The talk
of elections next year has made the political differences among the ruling
coalition more visible. The most serious differences recently surfaced in the
Sindh coalition, where the very important partner MQM decided to boycott the
provincial assembly session. With the
ruling coalition in disarray, General Pervez Musharraf has been forced to
take up the leadership of the political campaign. The campaign is targeted at
his own election by virtue of a win for the present ruling coalition and if
necessary through some compromise formula with the opposition parties,
particularly with Pakistan People's Party. ****** Musharraf's
advisor in the field of education is Dr. Atta-ur-Rehman, the chairman of
Higher Education Commission. Dr. Atta had taken upon himself the
responsibility of changing the face of higher education in Pakistan. Earlier,
his programmes suggesting changes in the current university setup were
severely criticised and opposed by the university teachers nationwide. They
were of the view that in the name of reforms, Dr. Atta was trying to do away
with whatever little autonomy was available to the university education in
Pakistan. Instead of an elected senate and syndicate, the suggested scheme
had asked for a board of governor with governor of the province as head to
manage the universities. Dr
Atta-ur-Rehman is obsessed with the idea of producing thousands of PhDs to
compete with India. However, with the quality of existing faculty, especially
in the public sector universities, this ambitious plan of the chairman HEC
was bound to fail. He along with the president ignored certain important
areas such as the primary and secondary levels that need drastic changes.
Then there are at least five different systems of education operating in
Pakistan that hinder any higher education reform. First is the Madrassa
education in thousands of religious seminaries. Then there are schools that
charge monthly fee of rupees fifty thousand and produce students who find it
easy to get admissions and jobs abroad very easily. However, they are totally
unaware of Pakistan's culture and way of life. When students from these
so-called elite institutions come to rule which they must, they are unable to
understand the real problems and issues faced by society. The
third system of education is being followed by institutions run by Christian
missions working in the subcontinent for about two hundred years. These
institutions have been serving the cause of quality education at a reasonable
and affordable cost. Now, these institutions along with their hospitals are
facing the wrath of the religious might. Then
there are the mushrooming 'English medium' schools established in houses
everywhere, with untrained and inadequate staff. They are fleecing the public
since 1977 when Zia regime had denationalised educational institutions. Lastly,
there are schools run by corporations, municipal committees and other local
bodies in a most pathetic condition. the working conditions are unspeakable
and facilities provided to the students and teachers are below standard. The
chief minister of Punjab has started a publicity campaign and spent million
of rupees on advertisements projecting Punjab government's programme for
improving the state of education in the province. For all practical purposes,
it only has a propaganda value. The
higher education reformers also seem to have ignored the important question
of academic freedom and promoting a culture of debate and freedom to question
age-old norms and beliefs. To achieve this objective, the criteria for
selection of teachers and vice-chancellors and principals will have to be
changed. The importance of social sciences and arts education will have to be
recognised. The science education is being promoted at the cost of liberal
arts and social sciences. What's
most important, the social status of teachers must be improved if talented
people are to be attracted towards this important field. One hopes that this
high sounding talk about education is not a part of election campaign. For it
needs serious efforts and revolutionary decisions.
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Dr
Tahirul Qadri has always believed in a divine mission for himself. All
worldly gains that he has made during his continued journey to his
metaphysical destiny are just useful byproducts, not the real thing.
Fortunately for his followers, he will now be focussing all his energies to
achieving what he is made for -- a resurrection of Islamic thought and
theology. 
Afghanistan
is in a grip of fresh violence, with the tempers running high across the
Pak-Afghan border. The blame game has once again put the two neighbours at
loggerheads. The surge in assaults by the Taliban fighters and air strikes
and military operations by coalition forces is causing serious concerns about
peace and stability in the region. The insurgency and attacks against US and
allied forces stationed in Afghanistan are on the increase in areas which
share borders with Pakistan's tribal belt -- giving an excuse to Kabul to
point accusing fingers towards Islamabad for not doing much to stop the
cross-border infiltration.
In
the midst of statements hinting at a general election next year or in early
2008, the political environment in the country remains fluid. Different
stakeholders throw feelers to gauge public response to frame their respective
election campaign.
Necessity
is the mother of invention. This Mother's Day, a fresh proof of the truth in
the saying was provided in that ultimate place for revolutionary ideas, the
West, in this case precisely London. The inventors are two Pakistanis .They
are neither the angels nor can they be given marks for uniting in time. They
are the estranged children of the ailing Pakistani democracy, posing as
responsible souls after lives spend in waywardness.
"We
are facing hours of unannounced loadshedding on a daily basis in our city. At
least Wapda should inform people beforehand," says Nazir Ahmad Wattoo, a
resident of Dhuddiwala Faisalabad. 