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past
& present MOOD
STREET Town
Talk feature Once
cheated, twice shy RESPONSES
TO LAST WEEK'S
By
Saadia Salahuddin A look at the
newspapers following announcement of martial law on July 5, 1977 by General
Ziaul Haq and the newspapers after imposition of 'emergency' last week made
for interesting reading. These include the
Lahore editions of Mashriq and Pakistan Times the major newspapers under In '77 the first
crackdown came on politicians. On July 5, the day the martial law was
announced the army took into 'protective' custody a number of politicians of
PPP and PNA including Z.A Bhutto, Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, Kausar Niazi,
Sharifuddin Pirzada, Mumtaz Bhutto, Dr Ghulam Hussain, Hamid Raza Gilani,
Mustafa Khar and Nawabzada Nasrullah. The very next day they were shifted to
Murree. The headlines say they were in 'protective' custody. PPP and PNA
leaders were kept in separate buildings. According to the
papers, there was a ban on political activities, rallies, protests and
assembly and no such activities were reported in the papers of the next three
days. Assembling at private places was also banned. Reports on civil society
activities is missing from newspapers in the week following '77 martial law.
It was actually after the imposition of '77 martial law that many
non-government organisations came into being. The Human Rights Commission of
Pakistan was only set up in 1980. Now the civil society is strong and when
the 'emergency' was declared this time, they were the first ones to protest
against it and the first to face the wrath of the law enforcers.
The students in
November 2007 have come out to protest despite the fact that there has been a
ban on students' union for long in this country. Rallies were organised
outside different campuses in the city where youth from mostly well-to-do
families are getting education. This time the community
which made a remarkable impact are the judiciary and lawyers. In '77 the
advocate generals of Punjab and Sindh High Court resigned on the third day of
martial law and their resignations were immediately accepted. The martial law
administrator banished the AG NWFP himself while the chief justices of high
courts of their respective provinces were made governors. This time, in 2007,
judges refused to take oath under PCO and lawyers took to the streets to
protest against emergency. Lahore was the worst hit in the crackdown across
the country. People abroad have greatly lauded the judiciary's courage and
sent e-mails to people in Pakistan to praise the judiciary's stance and sent
them flowers. Apart from being
beaten, lawyers were dragged from their offices near the Lahore High Court
while they were doing their work. A woman lawyer told TNS, "Lawyers
worked with doors locked from outside for fear of being hauled. The entrance
to the building was locked separately. The gateman would open the lock when
needed." All women lawyers were asked to come in plainclothes to avert
any ugly incident. A huge number of lawyers were arrested. "Agencies'
personnel misbehaved with women advocates," says a woman lawyer.
"It seemed the police would shoot at the slightest instigation. They
looked like Indian soldiers and we, the citizens of occupied Kashmir. They
did not look like our brethren," said a lawyer who was in uniform as she
had to go to court for extension of date of a case. Hearings regarding
cases on basic rights remained suspended after the 1977 martial law.
Mashriq's On July 9, 1977 the
heavy arms import by General Zia made the headlines in the name of
maintaining law and order. One headline on July 8,
'77, was 'People pray for long life of Z.A Bhutto' amidst statements from
General Zia that "Bhutto will participate in elections, that army took
charge to avert civil war." The general promised to
hold elections in October 77 which were not held till 1985. In November 2007,
Musharraf has promised to hold elections before February 15, 2008. That is
yet to be seen. May I teacher? By Sarah Sikandar It is
funny -- if you think about it -- the many varieties of teachers we have.
They are an interesting creature. And you can't expect to get up one morning
and decide to be a teacher unless, of course, you get up on the wrong side.
Woody Allen, the famous Hollywood writer and actor, once remarked "I had
a terrible education. I attended a school for emotionally disturbed
teachers." This
first kind never learnt from Plato and the need for a dialogue between the
tutee and the tutor. He enters the class aping a feudal lord without
acknowledging the presence of his students. While Then
there is the teacher who comes flaunting his Urdu Bazaar guide books. If
anything other than the said book is pointed out in the class, it invokes his
curiosity and you are on his hit list. He reads, yes reads, the whole text in
the class making sure no one gets what is being said. The ilk gets offended
easily. They have no patience for those who don't like being in the class and
for those who yawn. Discipline is the only thing he learnt at school. He
marks you absent if you are late by thirty minutes, marks you negative for
late assignment and marks you for whatever he wants. Teachers
who love presentations are by far the biggest threat. They are seen as sadist
who 'do the same to us what must have happened to them.' They somehow have
reached the conclusion that students learn most by presenting their work to
the whole class. Fine, but there must be some other way to make them learn.
These teachers make sure each and every student speaks in the class, give his
opinion and give arguments. Their sincere effort appears utterly nonsensical
and useless to the students. Lastly,
the homely teacher, a kind particular to female teachers. The only thing she
can flaunt is her diamond jewellery. You always sympathise with her for not
being able to stay home with her children. She loves discussing her children,
her in-laws and of course, the spouse and is never ashamed to share with the
students how she met her soul-mate. Students love her. And if, by any chance,
you happen to be an acquaintance of the family, she never forgets to
embarrass you with personal questions. As for the marking, she is gracious
and the most unfair. She comes to the class at least half an hour late,
pretends has a lot to do outside the class. What about the lesson? We always
have the next class to talk about that. One of
my teachers once said, "it took me twenty years becoming a student.
Imagine how much time it will take to become a teacher?" Indeed, for a
student, it is hard to imagine what's going on inside the mind of the person
standing behind the dais. Very hard indeed. Teachers, like students, bring to
the class their problems, biases and beliefs. Town Talk • An
exhibition displaying the work of painters from Pakistan, Iran, Turkey,
France, Syria, France, Saudi Arabia and the US till19th November at Alhamra
Arts Council. •
Exhibition of Shahid Sajjad's paintings till November 13 at National College
of Arts. •
Exhibition of Sadaf Naeem's works till November 29 at Ejaz Art Gallery. •
World Performing Arts Festival till 1st December at Alhamra Gadaffi Stadium. •
Drama 'Home Is Where Your Clothes Are' by Shah Sharabeel till 29 November at
PNCA audotorium. • LEAF
Discourse on 'Time' on 15 November at Model Town Library. •
Calligraphy exhibition till 19th
November at Alhamra
Arts Councils, The Mall, Lahore A two way traffic Some people actually try to follow the procedure to get a driving license. Just how is the experience like By Ali
Sultan "The Pakistan
Highway Code! Do we actually have one?" says a smiling Fatima Farooqi.
Fatima learnt to drive when she was 19. At 22, interning at a respectable
bank, Fatima's father has given her a car as a gift. Fatima hardly, if ever,
stays at home. Fatima does not own a
driving license. "I am thinking of
getting my driver's license made now," she says while crossing a red
light on an Fatima is not the only
one who is driving without a license and is reluctant to go through the
official method of getting one. "A few weeks back
I went to the police station with a friend. My friend had to get his
learner's driving license so I thought I would go and see how things
happened," says Sami who is a 17-year-old student. "The whole view of
the station at first sight left a bad impression on me. Due to the so many
different queues we couldn't guess where to go first. After asking several
people we finally found the booth where we had to go. "My friend got
hold of some forms which had to be filled. After filling those we had to go
to another booth where he was given another form. When he filled that form we
came to know that one of the earlier forms had to be signed by a doctor
assigned by the traffic police. The doctor had to confirm whether the person
acquiring the license had a good eyesight or not and to check if the person
had any disability. Without checking anything he just signed the form and
asked in which school are you studying? I mean, what has that do with a
driving license?" "All information
concerned with acquiring a driving license is available at any traffic police
office; the only thing is that every one wants a license there and then
without going through the procedure," says Iftikhar Ahmed, DSP, License
branch, Lahore. "Even if someone doesn't want to come and get the
information from here, all information is available on our website. But most
people don't bother." Officially in order to
get a driver license made, a person must be 18 or above, must own a National
Identity Card and a proof of residence, must be able to read a car number
plate from a distance of 20.5 meter and is also required to take a theory
test and practical test. "The theory test
is funny," says Fahad Bilal a 20 year old, who recently gave the theory
and practical test. "The reading material in Urdu has the strangest
instructions and probably has not been updated for the last 20 years. But the
English manual is better." Afaq Ahmed who gave his
driving test two years ago says that reading the driving manual was
depressing. "It had such points as 'You must wear a seat belt if one is
available' and that 'using a hand-held telephone or microphone while driving
is not allowed'. These points to pass the test seemed pretty hollow when on
the actual road no one was following these rules. But now with the new
traffic police in place, new drivers will pay more attention to them." In most advanced
countries, this process is tightly monitored and regulated by the
authorities. Samina Pervaiz who also
got her driving licence by passing both tests says: "I feel it's wrong
to completely blame the system. Yes the authorities should strengthen the
screening process by which drivers get their licences. But it's sad to say
that even now it is quite easy to get a driving licence in Pakistan without
ever having taken a test. Until we don't take rules and procedures seriously,
the system will never change. It's a two-way process." Once cheated, twice shy Hall Road remains a bustling market despite its image of selling counterfeit items By
Naila Inayat The white and red
banner reading 'Battery charger', hands-free at 'wholesale rate. Sale! Sale!
Sale!' You cannot miss Hall Road, intersecting Mall. Though the 'wholesale
rate' remains a bit vague. With a long list of CDs
in my bag, I was too excited to get to the market. While I was thinking the
fun had just begun, a boy came up to me looking at my cell phone. "Aap
nay yeh phone bechna hai," With the wedding season
just round the corner, the hustle and bustle in the market spoke for itself. Hall Road is believed
to be the place where many people are being cheated round the clock. "I
read an advert in newspaper. I purchased products worth Rs. 50,000 but except
for one or two things nothing works," tells Uzma who has come here to
seek a redressal for her purchases. "Last month I
bought a VCD converter from one of the plazas here. I did test it in the
market but that was the only time that it worked. All my pocket money was
spent on the converter," says Azhar a college boy. Saadia says she
purchased Play Station I (PS-I) for her son from a shop which sells games for
children at Hall Road and the result was similar. The play station stopped
working the same day. She took it to the shop that had given her a one year
guarantee. They said they will fix the problem there and then and took the
PS-I and sent it somewhere. After waiting for fifteen minutes she got it
back, went back home but this PS-I again went out of order in an hour. This
time when she went to the shop they directed her to another one in a basement
at Hall Road, saying technicians will fix the problem in no time. Saadia says, "Then
I realised I had been cheated. That basement was full of repair shops of
different gadgets. She went to the shop as directed. It had piles of PS-I and
X-Box. Three men were concentrating on fixing either a PS-I or an X-Box. So
they buy Kandam (condemned) playstations and X-boxes, repair them for the
time being and sell in new packages to people at original rates. I bought
PS-I from here at Rs. 4500. I could only go thrice on being forced by my
children to get it repaired but I cannot run to Hall Road for this every
other day. Cheats are thriving and nobody is there to check them," she
says. Cheats, when not
checked in a market, also affect honest traders' businesses because those
once cheated are twice shy. Many shopowners do not agree with the notion that
the buyers are being swindled in the market. "I disagree that any such
thing is happening here and even if it happens it's the mistake of the
customer himself who wants to bargain for a quality product," says
Hameed, manager of Pioneer Electronics. Zaheer who bought an
L.C.D on company rates from a shop in this market falsifies this notion. He
says: "Two months back when Pakistan cricket team reached the finals of
the T20 world cup I bought a Philips LCD with warranty. Since then I have
been coming here to get something or the other fixed. So how can anyone say
that you will not be deceived if you don't bargain?" Similarly, another
salesman says, "In our society we call it 'do number kaam' and it is
being done everywhere, why blame only Hall Road for it." Talking of 'do number
kaam', there is a scent shop which is not that refreshing for your senses yet
it adds to the productivity of the place itself. "The perfumes that I
have are best to none. Did you ever think that labels like White Diamonds,
Calvin Kline and Contradiction can be available at such low costs," says
the owner of the perfume shop in his defence. As I was leaving Hall
Road I saw many people gathered around a shop. It prompted me to see what it
was as I went in and questioned about this rush, the owner said smiling,
"This is a photocopy shop and we have just decorated it with boxes of
electronics such as a deck, microwave etc." Just an idea of everything
that is going on in this market.
Lahori
curses 1.Lukh Lanat 2.Dur fitte mun 3.Dafa dur 4.Maghroon latho 5.Oye meesne 6.Tut peneya 7.Khasman nu kha 8.Paran mar 9.Tenun keraiy pein 10.ja namurada To
enlist by popular vote for next week, send in your emails on top ten 'Ideas
to lodge peaceful protest' Please
email at shehrtns@gmail.com
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government control, and daily Musawat and Neda-e-Millat.-- one supporting
Bhutto, another flaying him.
Students are also
nowhere in picture in 1977 as colleges were closed for summer vacation at
that time. Though there are news of colleges opening on July 12 in daily
Musawat of July 8, which comes as a surprise.
headline on July 8, 1977 daily reads, "High courts have been
allowed to hear writs but not against martial law, that remains
suspended." Among the extraordinary measures announced then were NA, PA
and senate dissolution, cutting of thieves and robbers' hands, public
floggings, death sentence for those who damaged government property. 
the students try to avoid
the teacher's eyes he takes a look at what he's up against. Never mind. 'With
my experience and Ph.D I need not care.' Throughout the whole class the
students avoid his eyes pretending they are not only listening to what he's
saying but documenting the golden words. They are not, of course. The class
looks more like a press conference. Only here, if some unlucky soul raises a
point his argument is crucified until he is made to confess it wasn't his
own.
empty street. "I told my dad to get it made for me."
(You want to sell this phone?). I didn't
bother to reply but as I moved on, there was a continuous enquiry about my
cell phone by different people. Finally, I asked one salesman, "Why do
you think I want to sell my mobile phone?" he was forthright in his
reply: "Because your mobile is still new and if you sell it to me, I
would retail it right now as a brand new mobile!" As I walked by he
tried to convince me saying, "Both you and me would benefit from this
deal". 
