Vulnerable zone
The humans must spare the ozone layer and revisit activities that are detrimental to environment
By Muhammad Niaz
Concerned with environment, the world community celebrates several environmental days to call for joint actions to achieve a common and healthy environmental future for ourselves and the generations to come. The International Day for the Preservation of Ozone Layer is one of such days which are celebrated every year on September 16.

The debate of a secular Pakistani state generates a needless controversy and wastes the energies of people who sincerely want to see their country move forward on the path of representative rule, human rights, modernisation and egalitarianism. Secularism serves to create a gulf between its proponents and ordinary Muslims, thus rendering them ineffective, marginalised and incapable of making any tangible impact on society. It militates against the strong desire of Muslims to have their distinct Islamic identity and negates the history of political struggle for Pakistan based on the ideals of a modern Islamic state and society.

Historically, Muslims have demonstrated their perseverance in maintaining their distinct Islamic identity. Regardless of the fact whether the states/empires established by the Muslims were true adherents of Islam or not, they always carried the symbolic Islamic tag. At present, there are 47 Muslim-majority states in the world, and not a single one is part of the liberal democratic civilization of the world. Strong religio-political movements are raging in many Central Asian states that claim to be secular. In China, too, there exists a strong Islamic political movement in the Muslim-majority province of Xinkiang. Malaysia and Indonesia are two relatively modern states, but with the strong Islamic underpinnings.

In modern history, Iran and Turkey experienced long spells of secular and liberal politics, but turned to Islam-oriented politics. The recently held referendum in Turkey which empowered an Islamic political party and curtailed the role of Turkish military and judiciary, the two bastions of secularism, should be an eye-opener to the proponents of secularism in Pakistan. When a Muslim country like Turkey, that has had a history of secular politics could not sustain it, it is but wishful to expect Pakistan, which never went through a secular phase in its entire history, to have a secular polity.

Pakistan does not have strong institutions like Turkish army to underwrite the state’s secular character. On the contrary, Pakistan Army, which wields great political influence, has been an active supporter of the conservative Islamic political forces at home. The slogans (Nara-e-Haideri) to inspire soldiers are Islamic and the medals awarded to them have Islamic symbolism (Nishan-i-Haider) attached to them.

In the case of Pakistan, the idea of a secular state is antithesis to the very genesis of this nation that was carved out of multi-religious India on religious grounds. One may quote the Quaid’s speech in the Constituent Assembly expressing his wish for a state that would not discriminate against citizens on the basis of religions, but that is not sufficient material to build the case for a secular polity because these objectives can be achieved in an Islamic state as well. The fact remains that the Quaid’s practical politics, and hence that of All India Muslim League, was based on the two-nation theory emphasising a distinct Islamic identity of Muslims. The Quaid raised religio-political aspirations of the Muslims to bring them under one political umbrella — the All India Muslim League.

Once political and social forces are unleashed for certain objectives, these forces get out of the creator’s hands, gain their own momentum and end up producing results originally not intended. The religious symbols, slogans and rhetoric used by the leaders of Pakistan for political gains at that time created aspirations among the common man about the Islamic character and nature of the new state.

The passage of the Objectives Resolution consolidated the new state’s Islamic identity. Following a series of steps taken by the rulers that strengthened the role of religion in the political system over more than two decades, the unanimously passed 1973 Constitution declared it the Islamic republic of Pakistan (It was declared Islamic Republic first time in the 1956 constitution). The political parties with progressive and modern outlook, including the Pakistan People’s Party and the National Awami Party (NAP), led the framing of the Constitution. The fact that no political party challenged the state’s religious character while framing the 1973 Constitution is a sign that the compulsions of practical politics in this country are such that Islam’s role cannot be excluded from the affairs of the state.

However, an indisputable fact is that the founding fathers had cherished a modern and progressive version of Islam. Both Iqbal and the Quaid were building on the tradition of rational and modern interpretation of Islam initiated by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and his fellows. The students graduating from the Aligarh University, founded by Sir Syed, contributed to the creation of Pakistan with modern Islamic ideals.

After Pakistan’s birth, successive rulers tried to adopt and promote a moderate and progressive version of Islam. Gen Ayub Khan introduced family laws, recognising several rights for women, based on a progressive interpretation of Islam, something contested by the conservative clerics of the time. In the 1960s, Islamic thinkers such as Fazlur Rehman, Jaffer Shah Phulwari, Ghulam Jilani Burq and Ahmed Pervez produced Islamic constructions in sync with the contemporary world’s requirements. These ideas helped produce a political thought and movement which formed the basis of the Pakistan People’s Party led by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

Bhutto wisely coined the party’s motto Islam is our religion and — democracy is our politics — thus combining the two desires of the people and bringing them in harmony with each other. The modern and radical ideas kept flourishing in the days of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. It was Gen Ziaul Haq who stopped the evolutionary march and imposed a conservative Islamic regimen on Pakistan. In the wake of the Russian occupation of Afghanistan, the West and Saudi Arabia supported Zia’s conservative and militant Islam. With Ziaul Haq in power for 11 long years, the scale tilted heavily in favour of the conservative Islamic elements, and the forward-looking Muslims became marginalised and were cast out from the academia.

The ground reality is that most Pakistanis are modern practitioners of Islam though they have not articulated it in the form of an ideology. They are practically acting on the Islamic principles keeping in view the spirit of the message, ignoring the tribal customs of the medieval Arab society. In contrast, the conservative elements and the mullah have given up ijtihad (rational interpretation) and want the enforcement of the religion in a literal manner ignoring the present-day world.

The conservative clerics, however, have become a strong organised force because at present there is no one to challenge their ideology. This is the failure of Pakistan’s educated classes because they abandoned their heritage, symbols and traditions and left the field open for the mullah and the conservatives. It is up to the educated classes to take up the challenge and not repeat the mistakes of previous generations by adopting discredited foreign ideologies like secularism that push them far away from ordinary people.

Prithvi Raj Bhel, 40, a farmer from Sujawal Tehsil in Thatta District, looks devastated. He and his family are living in a tent made of a piece of cloth just in front of college hostel in Makli in Thatta. Makli hosts about 200,000 flood-displaced people, the largest number of displacement at one place.

Makli is full of tents, makeshift thatched huts, water tanks and canopies to shelter displaced people. Inadequate arrangements by the state machinery and non-governmental organisations have put the lives of these people in great danger.

Situation in Makli is pathetic and that of Prithvi Raj is worst. While other displaced people can get cooked food from the government and NGOs, Raj and his family cannot. Government officials are in the process of registering internally displaced persons (IDPs), but Raj and family have been denied registration.

The only difference between other hundreds of thousands of IDPs and Raj is that he is a scheduled caste Hindu, generally considered lower caste or ‘Dalits’. Even though there is apparent discrimination against minorities, the situation of scheduled caste people is miserable.

“We are literally singled out here. First we were denied a place in the common relief camp and now people come with food for distribution, but they do not give us any,” complains Prithvi Raj while talking to TNS.

Prithvi Raj is not the only person who is complaining about discrimination on the basis of caste and descent. A visit to half a dozen camps of IDPs in Sindh — from Karachi to Hyderabad via Thatta — shows that scheduled caste people are facing the worst kind of discrimination at all these places.

Scheduled caste Hindus such as Bagri, Bhell, Kolhi, Menghwar and Oadd make a tiny population of Sindh. According to official figures, they are only 300,000, but Dalit activists challenge these figures and claim that the actual number of Dalits is 2 million in Sindh alone.

The ongoing floods in Sindh has affected millions of people as 17 out of 23 districts of Sindh have been badly affected. As per latest official figures, 7 million people have been rendered homeless, while 2.2 million acres of agriculture crop has been damaged. In monetary terms, the province has suffered losses of Rs446 billions.

According to Pakistan Dalit Solidarity Network (PDSN), the number of scheduled castes affected by flood is between 300,000 to 500,000. “This is a big disaster for Sindh and people have suffered a lot, but scheduled castes are facing different kinds of problems,” says Convenor of PDSN Malji Rathore, an alliance of several civil society organisations working for protection of the rights of scheduled castes. “It’s unfortunate that the discrimination we face goes on even in times of disaster.”

A two-year old research study on the status of scheduled castes in Pakistan titled “Long Behind Schedule” has revealed the scheduled caste communities face severe discrimination in Pakistan, both in public and private spheres. They live in segregated housing and their children are discriminated against in schools. They are poorest of the poor and are victims of double discrimination — first as Hindus in a majority Muslim country and second as the lowest caste among Hindus.

According to a report, scheduled caste Hindus were even denied shelter and food at a Dharmshala in Larkana where local management had made arrangements for 500 upper caste Hindus displaced due to floods from upper Sindh and Balochistan.

Nisar Khokhar, a BBC correspondent from Larkana, says that arrangements at Dharmshala were very impressive, but unfortunately there was no place for scheduled castes. “Milk and other food items were available in huge quantity, but the entry of scheduled caste Hindus inside Dharmshala was banned,” he tells TNS.

He says that he was impressed by the efforts of local Hindu Panchayat, which did not take money from the government and was managing flood relief facility inside the Dharmshala on self-help basis. But, unfortunately, those who were in the most need were denied access to the facility just because they belonged to lower caste.

The attitude of government officials is no different. In Makli, Prithvi Raj and other scheduled castes are denied registration as displaced persons. This registration will entitle them for government aid in cash and kind. The government had already started distribution of cash (Rs20,000) through “Watan” card scheme.

“DCO office in Thatta has refused our registration and told us to go to Hyderabad because our NIC is from Hyderabad,” complains Pirthvi Raj. “Yes, we have NIC from Hyderabad, but when flood came we were settled in Thatta District,” he argues.

The official plea that they should go and register themselves in Hyderabad will deny these poor people compensation because Hyderabad is not included in the list of affected districts.

“We have received nothing, be it ration or cooked food,” says Sono Bagri at Sabzi Mandi Camp in Hyderabad city. “When we try to reach them, we are told to go away because we are ‘Bagri’ schedule caste”.

An NGO activist tells TNS she has been asked by her boss not to focus on Bagris because they are not affectees, but beggars. Even provincial ministers are on record saying that Bagris and other schedule castes are beggars and have gathered in and around camps to receive aid.

“Discrimination against Dalits is a general phenomena in disasters and aid particularly in South Asia,” says Rikke Nohrlind, head of International Dalit Solidarity Network (IDSN), a Copenhagen-based organisation. “It happened during Tsunami, and now we are receiving reports during current floods in Pakistan.” She regrets that discrimination on the basis of religion, caste and creed continues even in this modern era and in times of disaster.

United Nations has recently adopted guidelines for elimination of discrimination based on caste and creed. These guidelines urge governments to take special measures to ensure equality.

Hundred of thousands of customers of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) have been suffering for more than a month due to workers’ strike demanding a 50 percent pay raise. Citing the fiscal year 2010-211 budgetary announcement by the federal government, the workers’ union considers pay raise mandatory for regular employees.

PTCL authorities claim the strike is over now and demands of workers have been met. Claiming that most of the workers have come back to work, authorities say only a few ‘miscreant’ elements are provoking some workers to go on a strike and engaging the company in unnecessary litigation.

However, the company has also been issuing show-cause notices, termination letters, and public notices saying, “no work, no pay”, asking the workers to either end the strike or face sacking. If the strike is over, the company should not use these tactics, union leaders say.

PTCL management had announced before Eid-ul-Fitr holidays that it had resolved the issue with its employees and the union had called off the strike. Under the new agreement, it was decided that all the arrested employees of PTCL would be released while their salaries would be paid before Eid. The PTCL management had also agreed to give the employees Eid Award of Rs8000 but the workers union rejected it, saying the strike will continue until all of their demands were met.

The ongoing issue in Etisalat-led PTCL — a government entity privatised in 2004 — started in early August 2010 after workers demanded 50 pay raise in their running basic-pay as announced by the government for the public sector. More than 26,000 telecom workers have been on an indefinite strike since August 16, 2010. The current number of PTCL employees stands at 29,000. Thousands of customers have been waiting for their complaints to be addressed for the past one month.

According to figures available with TNS, more than 200,000 telephone lines of the company are out of order across the country. Reportedly, more than 42,000 telephones lines need repair in Karachi alone. The strike is also compelling businessmen and industrialists to switch over to other wireless communication services (phone and internet) to stay in touch with their local and foreign trade partners.

PTCL had given a raise of 20 percent to its employees, whereas the government had announced a 50 percent increase on the existing pay of public sector workers. The strike had also led to some clashes in the past few days in Islamabad and Lahore. On September 4, a dozen PTCL workers and four policemen were injured in a clash between police and workers.

“Our whole leadership has been arrested after the management lodged cases against us,” Rana Sabir, a PTCL union leader, who is released on bail and is contesting the union case in the high court, tells TNS. “The company is threatening workers and sacking them for not ending the strike,” he complains, adding, “Around 1,000 workers have been terminated with one stroke of pen during the past few weeks without any prior notice.”

“PTCL is a service-oriented organisation dedicated to provide top quality services to its customers. We notice that since August 13, 2010, you — Mr so and so — are not available to perform your duties. This is tantamount to abandoning your employment without notice and you are not interested in remaining our employee. We cannot afford to keep positions open and let down our valued customers. Therefore, we are hereby constrained to terminate your services with immediate effect for the above reasons — non availability to perform services. Your dues as per your service terms (if any) as admissible, will be remitted to your bank account. We wish you best in your future life,” reads one termination letter dated August 23, issued by general manager human resource on behalf of the authority.

“The pay-raise issue has become a permanent problem. We are regular employees and our rights are protected as government servants according to the 1996 verdict of Supreme Court. But, we have to launch protest for pay raises every year,” union leader Sabir highlights. “We have three demands — one; pay raise according to the government rules, two; bonuses as per rules and three; promotion of employees. The federal government has issued circulars telling PTCL to follow the government pay-raise structure for regular employees.”

The union people allege the PTCL management is using every possible means to sabotage the strike. “The management went to the Lahore High Court to stop this strike, but the court refused and directed the management to settle the issue through negotiations. The court had also ordered the management to refrain from any action against peaceful protesting workers. Sardar Latif Khosa, advisor (Information technology) to prime minister, has also requested the PM to intervene and resolve the matter.

“We believe in dialogue and do not want to be threatened by workers’ union for the unjust demands,” Syed Mazhar Hussain, senior executive vice-president (human resource) of PTCL tells TNS. “The strike is almost over. More than 95 percent workers have joined the work. There is no strike in Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. It is also declining in most parts of the Punjab.”

Hussain says that after privatisation, PTCL is no longer a government organisation enjoying subsidies and other financial benefits. “It is a corporate entity that is liable to 35 percent corporate tax, in addition to 19 percent GST. PTCL has to fight it out with a host of competitors in a fierce, cutthroat environment.”

“PTCL is not bound to give the demanded pay raise. We have a Board of Directors which approves all decisions. The management has already announced salary raise for all its employees. They have been given 30 percent salary raise on running basic pay with an additional 20 percent based on punctuality, conduct and discharge of normal duties over the next one year to be paid with retrospective effect from July, 2010.”

Hussain maintains that in this age of competition, no organisation can survive without bringing performance-based culture and PTCL is striving to introduce this culture. “We are facing difficulties in introducing this culture in a government sold company. We are trying our best to give maximum facilities to our employees, while at the same time competing in an extremely competitive environment.”

“PTCL is paying reasonable salaries to its staff as compared to government pay-scale. The company is also giving them and their families, including their parents, unlimited medical facility.” Hussain claims that High Court, Labour Court and National Industrial Relation Commission (NIRC) have declared the protests and strikes as illegal and have directed the unions to stop all such activities.

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