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crisis Mind your
Chinese language Securing
Karachi threat Primer
of Pakistani politics Yeh
Woh
crisis Efforts to contain dengue outbreak, especially in Lahore, have finally taken the shape of a full-fledged war. Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif is leading it from the front and also thinking about taking Pakistan Army on board. Teams of experts from countries like Sri Lanka have also arrived to share their experience of handling the disease and building the expertise of helpless officials of the province. Furthermore, emergency has
been declared throughout the province with administrative wings of hospitals
converted into dengue treatment wards. Section 144 has been imposed to punish
private hospitals charging from dengue patients and officials are being
penalized on the spot for failing to curtail flights of formidable
mosquitoes. None of these measures has succeeded in stemming the disease while the number of dengue cases and resultant deaths are constantly on the rise. This situation calls for explanation as to why all these measures have failed to yield any result. There have been some explanations like abnormal weather patterns and premature monsoon rains, but different quarters believe the Punjab government did not take the matter seriously. They believe nothing was done when the action was needed. Leader of the Opposition in Punjab Assembly, Raja Riaz, holds the Punjab CM responsible for deaths caused by dengue. Talking to TNS, he says the level of government neglect regarding public health issues is obvious from the fact that there is no health minister in Punjab. “Had there been one he should have been given particular assignments and taken to task in case of failure.” Raja Riaz adds the CM is running one-man show and there is no concept of fixing the responsibility. He shares it with TNS that the government was informed well in time about the likely outbreak of the disease. Riaz claims he had seen a letter written by Allama Iqbal Medical College Principal Dr Javed Akram to the Punjab government three months ago. In this letter, Dr Akram had warned about the outbreak of dengue epidemic and suggested preventive measures. Raja Riaz condemns the Punjab CM for holding too many cabinet portfolios and concentrating too many powers in few hands. For example, PML-N MPAs Malik Ahmad Ali Aulakh and Mian Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman share 10 ministries among themselves. These include ministries of Agriculture, Cooperatives, Livestock & Dairy Development, Forest, Fisheries & Wildlife, and Tourism & Resort Development, Excise & Taxation, Higher Education, School Education, Literacy & Non-formal Basic Education and Transport. Dr Anjum Suhail, Head of
Entomology Department, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, tells TNS there
is an urgent need to conduct medical research for dengue control. Research
organisations like the National Institute of Health are already there which
should focus on medical research on how to save individuals from this virus. He says the research at the Entomology Department is limited to the identification of insects and the viruses they carry. “Different breeds of mosquitoes carry different viruses and not all of them cause dengue fever. Malaria virus is also carried by mosquitoes.” Dr Anjum says the district government used to put kerosene oil in ponds and stagnant water to kill larvae which exists under the surface of water. They would die as the layer of oil would stop them to rise above the surface and breathe. This practice was found nowhere, he adds. Dr Anjum says immense panic regarding dengue exists in the country due to misconception as people believe every fall in platelet level is caused by dengue virus. Tariq Zaman, Staff Officer to District Coordination Officer (DCO), Lahore, tells TNS a team from Sri Lanka has arrived in Pakistan to develop local expertise to handle this disease. It took them four years to bring dengue under control, but people here expect them to achieve results overnight. He says the district government carried out larvicidal spray throughout the year, but unfortunately every time the efforts were washed by untimely rains. He says dengue mosquitoes die when minimum temperature falls below 20 degree Celsius or maximum temperature exceeds 30 degree Celsius. “This year the weather remained within these limits for long and resulted in immense growth of mosquitoes.” Zaman says 70 to 80 per cent cases occur within the confines of houses which means precautionary measures should be taken by the inmates. Local communities should also cooperate with the government to destroy breeding grounds of mosquitoes. A family physician working at a private hospital criticises the Punjab CM’s order to take action against private hospitals charging patients for dengue treatment. On condition of being unnamed, he says this would demoralise the private sector which is playing an important role in fighting the disease. “I agree there should be no overcharging, but the hospitals should at least be allowed to cover their costs,” he adds.
Mind
your Chinese language The Sindh government has decreed, or so we understand, that Mandarin Chinese would be compulsory for school students all over the province. Now if a university had declared that it would be offered as a subject, but an optional one of course, I would have lauded the decision. Indeed, even if a school had offered it as an option there would be reason to commend the decision. But for public-sector schools to teach Chinese and that too as a compulsory language is a very questionable decision. In the interest of saving poor children — and I mean ‘poor’ both literally and metaphorically — from becoming the ‘guinea pigs’ of yet another experiment and saving public funds for something more useful let me give a few comments about the teaching of languages. First, let us examine the whole question of why foreign countries want their languages to be taught abroad and why do other countries teach them. For details of this the reader is invited to my book Language, Identity and Power: Language-learning Among the Muslims of Pakistan and North India (OUP 2002). The gist of the matter is that foreign countries want to spread their languages since the number of foreigners who can use them is an indicator of the soft power of that country. It confers tangible benefits: trade, exchanges, influence through obtaining contracts for providing services, making people understand the country and become friendly towards it, increasing cultural contacts and so on. Indeed, the use of the
English language has given a tremendous boost to the dissemination of British
and American cultural products and worldview in the whole world. Just the
sale of British and American books has increased by leaps and bounds in the
last fifty years. And, if one includes the global reach of Hollywood, the
internet revolution, the soft power and the good image the USA has received,
it may be said that no mere conquest could have made such good publicity
possible. Indeed, had the military muscle not been used in recent history,
the positive image would have predominated. So, if Chinese is taught in Pakistan, China is going to gain in terms of trade, cultural dissemination and will bridge the gap which exists between our world and theirs. It is quite understandable then that if China provides teachers the cost will be nothing compared to the gains that country will make in the long run. Indeed, China might well have the long-term interest of replacing our Anglocentric worldview and elite acculturation with their own cultural hegemony. But what do the countries learning a foreign language gain? They gain proficient young people who can gain access to a foreign point of view. Such people can carry on many activities including trade, commerce, academic exchanges, art and cultural exchanges, joint military exercises and even spying. A foreign language is a window to a new world, a new point of view, a fresh way of experiencing reality — in short, it is a new kind of wealth which can enrich life. At the mundane level one can get jobs in the institutions which use that language; in that country itself; and become pioneers who gain access to a foreign culture. So, those who know Chinese will stand to gain and, of course, having a number of such people is in the national interest of Pakistan. But, while this does mean that our universities and even some good schools should make efforts to teach Chinese efficiently to a few interested and motivated students, it does not mean that we should force Chinese down the throats of all children. Firstly, the cost involved in providing so many teachers of Chinese is prohibitive, but let us assume China pays for all this army of teachers and let us also assume that we can protect them against abduction, dengue fever and other mishaps. Even then there are many reasons why Chinese is much more difficult to learn than English which, by the way, we have not yet been able to teach in our ordinary government schools competently. First, while English belongs to the large Indo-European family of languages to which Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi and even Pashto and Balochi also belong, Chinese belongs to an entirely different family of languages. Secondly, and this is even more significant, the scripts of English and Urdu (and also Hindi etc) are phonographic while the Chinese script is logographic. This means that if a child learns to write Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi, Pashto, Persian etc he or she has to learn the symbols (alphabet or graphemes) representing the consonants and the vowels. These are not more than fifty in most of the languages we write. But in Chinese the child will learn symbols for units of meaning of words. Thus the concept of ‘man’ will have a symbol and than of ‘woman’ another one. Thus the child will have to master around 600 symbols in order to be able to write basic Chinese. For sophisticated writing about 2000 plus symbols will be required. This means that no matter what you call an apple in your different dialects of Chinese, when you write the concept of ‘apple’ you will use symbols which will remain the same for all dialects. This makes the writing a unifying factor but at the cost of making the learning of basic literacy a great feat of memory. In short, the learning of this language is a very great burden on our students who will not get any certain or necessary benefit out of this prodigious effort. The effect of this will be that students will drop out of schools or the language teachers will pass everybody and the whole experiment will be a farce just as the teaching of compulsory Arabic was. Nobody really learned Arabic though the influence of the religious right did increase on the minds of students. Such experiments are especially unjust since the children of the underprivileged are the ones who have to suffer. In the 1990s, Balochi, Brarhvi and Pashto were made compulsory to classes 1 and 2 in Balochistan. Language activists were pleased and the experiment started with enthusiasm but the English-medium and cantonment schools were exempted. So, as soon as the teaching was made optional, parents opted for Urdu since they knew that rich and powerful children were not learning the mother tongues and there were no jobs in the end for their children who were burdened with yet another language. It is actually a good policy to teach in the mother-tongue as far as possible to young children. Many countries, including China, are doing that. But then all children are taught in the mother tongue and not only the underprivileged ones. This is what we need: the same uniform policies for all. In my view the mother-tongue should be the medium of instruction in the lower classes. Then we should teach in Urdu or an indigenous mother-tongue according to the will of the province concerned. English should be taught as a subject throughout the schooling years as should Urdu. Higher education should be in English as research is mostly in that language. As for Chinese, and perhaps other foreign languages, we should teach them as optional languages and give special inducements to university students who want to learn them. Forcing them down the throats of helpless children in Sindh is completely wrong.
Securing Karachi When hard times come, MQM chief Altaf Hussain is in the habit of getting admitted to a hospital. Nazimabad’s Abbasi Shaheed Hospital was his favourite retiring room when in Karachi during the 1990s. He stuck to his tactics in London too. When PPP’s Zulfikar Mirza fired a salvo of charges, Altaf Bhai first got admitted to a London hospital for two weeks and then surfaced to make a three and half hours long video conference to mock his opponents. The MQM leadership’s body language shows that they are under stress and defensive. In their rhetoric, they have retreated to their ethnic roots, abandoning the ambitions of national politics, and limited their appeal to the Urdu-speaking community in urban Sindh. It seems the party has buckled under the pressure of operation launched by Rangers and police, indicating its weakened capacity to resist. One major reason behind the ongoing crackdown in Karachi is the behind-the-scenes moves by the military establishment. Zulfikar Mirza’s outburst against the MQM and Interior Minister Rehman Malik and his call for the army’s intervention in Sindh could be seen in this context. Mirza could not have gathered the courage to shoot at the MQM and his benefactor President Zardari unless he did not have firm backing from the establishment. Mirza’s charge-sheet prepared the public opinion required for a possible military action against the criminal gangs patronised by all political parties, including the MQM, the PPP, the ANP and other sectarian parties. The Supreme Court, with its
all-embracing suo motto jurisdiction, also did its part by launching
proceedings to investigate the Karachi violence. Two premier intelligence
agencies — ISI and IB — and the Sindh police chief have submitted their
intelligence reports to the 5-member bench, and several political parties
have become party to the proceedings. The high-profile court hearings have
put the government and the parties involved under added stress to move for
making the situation better, at least temporarily, if not permanently. The
Supreme Court may also direct the army to intervene or take control of the
Sindh administration, if the public safety situation remains murky in the
province. The unabated Karachi violence directly hits the Pakistan’s armed forces because Karachi is engine of the national economy and it provides the bulk of the revenues required to sustain the civil and military establishment. If Karachi comes to a halt, the military establishment would be one of the main losers owing to slowdown in economic growth and loss of revenues. It is institutional interest of the armed forces to keep Karachi going and make it a safer place for the business to thrive. In recent weeks, the military leadership has not minced words while voicing its concerns about the Karachi situation. Army Chief Gen Kayani has publicly expressed concern over the Karachi violence following the two recent corps commanders’ conferences. This obviously applied pressure on the federal and Sindh government to take concrete measures to improve the city’s law and order. On the other hand, the MQM is also under pressure from the British government which seems to be increasingly getting wary of Altaf Hussain and his men. It is believed that the London Police have found some sort of evidence of MQM men’s involvement in the murder of party leader Imran Farooq who was, reportedly, parting ways with Altaf Hussain to launch his own faction. The MQM has been dictating media for favourable coverage of its propaganda, but now a section of media is defiant and blunt in its criticism of the party, ignoring the party’s strong-arm tactics. The media’s scrutiny of the MQM is hard to digest for the party’s leadership as in the past they would easily tame the media. The signs are that whatever might be the alignment of political parties, the establishment has put its foot down in Karachi with a policy of zero tolerance for those who create law and order situation in the city. If the PPP-led government fails to deliver, it would be hard for the establishment to sit silently.
threat Naseem Ahmad Butt, 55, father of four daughters and a son and a follower of Ahmadi school of thought, was sleeping in the courtyard of his house in Muzaffar Colony in Faisalabad on the night of September 4, 2011 when four unidentified attackers broke into his house and attacked him. He received one bullet in his chest while the second one ruptured his kidney. The firing woke up his wife whose cries forced the attackers to flee. “My brother was lying in a pool of blood when I saw him. He told me that the attackers were between 20 and 25 years old. One of them kicked him and when he woke up, they shot him. He died in a local hospital seven hours after the attack,” Khalid Pervez Butt, younger brother of Naseem Butt, tells TNS. Naseem used to work as a technician in a local powerloom and had no enmity. “The attackers did not steal anything from his house. Being Ahmadi seems to be his only ‘sin’ that made him liable to be killed,” says Khalid Butt. His first cousin Naseer Butt was also killed in a similar fashion on September 8, 2010. “Police has made no effort to trace his killers. However, in a hope of assistance, I have got a case registered with police under section 302 of Pakistan Penal Code,” he tells TNS, adding that it is the fourth murder in his family. “In 1994, one of my
younger brothers and one of my first cousins (younger brother of Naseer Butt)
were killed by religious Three days after this incident on September 7, 2011, another Ahmadi, Chaudhry Basheer Ahmad, was attacked in Rachna Town in Sheikhupura district. He received three bullets and is still in hospital in a critical condition. September has always been a tough month for Ahmadis in Pakistan as on September 7, 1974, the Parliament of Pakistan declared them non-Muslims. Almost all religious parties hold rallies and gatherings in the first week of September every year against Ahmadis. Majlis-e Tahffuz-e Khatm-e Nubuwwat takes the lead and arranges an annual gathering to celebrate victory against Ahmadis every year in Rabwah — the Jama’at Ahmadiya’s headquarters in Pakistan. “Faisalabad has become one of the toughest cities in Pakistan for Ahmadis to live in,” Syed Mahmood Ahmad, secretary of the Faisalabad chapter of Jama’at Ahmadiya, tells TNS. “Naseem Butt was neither an active member of our Jama’at nor was an influential person. He was killed only because of his religious beliefs. Within days after his killing, unidentified people have written slogans like ‘slaves of the companions of Prophet (PBUH) and ‘down with Qadyaniat’ on the walls of Muzaffar Colony. In May this year, a pamphlet terming Ahmadis ‘liable to be killed’ was distributed in Faisalabad. “It also carried names and addresses of prominent Ahmadis in Faisalabad. We have time and again contacted the Faisalabad police that a group of fanatics is threatening Ahmadis in the area. But no action has ever been taken,” says Ahmad. “On June 2, 2011, I sent an email to the home secretary and the police chief of Punjab as well as Faisalabad’s regional police officer, but nothing has been done to help us.” Over the past two years, as
many as six Ahmadis have been killed in Faisalabad, but no killer has been
brought to book. “Religious fanatics are being encouraged by a lack of
action on the part of the government agencies. It has even become too tough
for Ahmadi youth to get education in public sector universities. A few months
back, four girls belonging to our community were expelled from National
Textile University. The 2010 annual magazine of that university carried three
articles against Ahmadis,” says Mahmood Ahmad. Police officials in Faisalabad do not seem to have taken the issue seriously. “We have no resources to provide special security for Ahmadis,” Shakir Hussain Dawar, senior police official in Faisalabad, tells TNS. “As far as Naseem Butt’s murder is concerned, we are investigating it from all angles. We have not ruled out the possibility of religious factor,” he says. Saleemuddin, the Jama’at spokesperson, says that Ahmadis are being threatened all across the country, adding that Faisalabad has become the most hostile city towards the Ahmadis. “Most hate material is being generated and funded there. Eleven Ahmadis have been killed in Faisalabad since 1984.” In May last year, more than 88 people were killed in Lahore when gunmen opened fire at two separate places of worship of Ahmadis. “One year has passed, but no progress has been made in the case.” Human rights activists have termed the situation deplorable. They are worried about the situation and have been writing constantly to the government about the security of Ahmadis. “Faisalabad has become a test case for the government to check the persecution of Ahmadis. The opponents of Ahmadis have even published their addresses and phone numbers on the pamphlets distributed in Faisalabad around three months back. No action has been taken against the culprits. It seems that the persecution will continue,” says HRCP Director IA Rehman. Primer
of Pakistani politics Politics — Politics is the art of capturing power, or staying in power, through fair or foul means, by a group of people, generally employing the tactics of deceit, lying to the general public, making false promises and spending huge money to win the required support. It also involves the use of public money and state machinery for personal ambitions and activities. State — State is coercive machinery, vested with the power to arrest and detain people, legislate, adjudicate and collect taxes, and is run by a small group of people for the protection and promotion of the interests of five million elite out of Pakistan’s 180-million-population. Armed forces are the final protectors of the state and ensure its perpetuity. National interest — The political and economic interest of the political leader or a group of leaders (be they civilians or military) or the ruling elite is described as national interest. The term is used to shield the real intents of politicians or rulers. Establishment — The term
is euphemism to describe military leadership with which the real sovereignty
lies. Till the late 1950s, civil bureaucracy was also part of the
establishment, but ceased to maintain its position after the ascendancy of
the military generals during the regimes of Gen Ayub Khan and Gen Ziaul Haq.
The establishment also runs real estate businesses, farms, grocery stores,
mills and other business concerns for the welfare of its personnel. Political party — Political party is a platform where people come together in order to become part of a government; they share some stated objectives which they don’t believe in necessarily but pretend to do so for the sake of propaganda. This programme works as a cover for their real objectives that include misusing the governmental position to make illegal money, earn fame and exercise authority in public matters. Political parties are generally organised around a personality cult and the members of the party rise in their ranks by working hard to win the blessings and patronage of the leadership through sycophancy and degrading their self-respect. The party’s office-bearers are nominated by the party leader and hold their positions at the pleasure of the party leadership. The decisions are taken by the top leader in consultation with his loyalists within the party, members of the family and his personal friends. The other members of the party are supposed to toe the party leader’s line regardless of their conscience. Those who defy party line are either sidelined or chucked out. Dissent is not tolerated by the top leadership. The loyalists are given opportunities to make a fortune through state patronage. Workers of the party act like slave farmers of the feudal who promote personality cult of the leader in the hope when he comes to power he would also share crumbs with them. Generally, people with low education and lacking in useful skills acquire this occupation so as to use political platform to make living and gain some influence. The main activities of a party include throwing mud on the opponents and strive to influence public opinion through misstatement of facts. Democracy — It’s a government by the feudal, for the feudal, by the poor. The primary task of the elected members of the assemblies is to make money for themselves at the expense of public exchequer and public interest and to exercise authority. The elected members of the assemblies blindly follow the party leaders in exchange for the state patronage for their personal interests. The conscience of an elected deputy usually remains dormant. Only moneyed people can contest elections. Ethnic and parochial prejudices are exploited to return to the assemblies. The support of the poor is elicited by raising emotional slogans, buying votes and appealing to ethnic and local sensitivities. Politician — A politician is a person who strives to or secures a public office; the position of authority and on assuming the office he becomes above the law and can violate the law with impunity. A politician survives at the pleasure of the establishment and with the money made through state patronage. A politician can meddle into executive’s jurisdiction and works as a broker between interest groups and the state by securing kickbacks. A politician also enjoys freedom to illegally occupy a real estate, issue a contract of government project to a favourite party, get his cronies employed on the government jobs, run gambling dens, collect extortion money from businessmen and extend patronage to criminals, depending upon his inclination and the conditions in his constituency. Rule of law — The term means application of punitive law on the poor and the lower middle class while impunity and protection to the upper middle and elite classes. There is a set of written laws for the commoners and an unwritten law for the privileged. Men are not equal in the eye of law. Around 140 million poor Pakistanis are not deemed human beings and thus do not deserve any human rights. Political discourse — This is conversation involving partisan discussants who indulge in blatant lies, twisting of facts and presentation of half truths in a brazen manner, invoking ethnic or parochial or biases or a combination of these. Media — It’s an effective tool in the hands of establishment and elite to propagate its views on public issues and divert people’s attention from the real issues of their daily life and long-term interests. Media is dependent upon state exchequer and big corporations to make profits. Media is a successor to the tradition of munazira (polemics) and one main function of the print and electronic media is to propagate the statements of the political elite. Bureaucracy — The fixed tenure, paid government functionaries whose primary duty is to protect their personal and institutional interest and keep the people away from the rulers and decision-making process and implement the law and rules and regulations in a selective manner to provide maximum benefits to the elite and deprive the poor and lower middle income groups of any possible benefits from the government system. In return, bureaucracy is allowed to benefit from the institutionalised corruption in the form of expensive real estates, fleet of cars, bungalows, hordes of servants, foreign tours, discretionary funds and kickbacks.
Yeh
Woh Pakistan was violently jolted and broken into pieces by forces of nature so strong that the earth parted and hills tumbled over. When we overcame the shock and counted our losses we were stunned by the unfairness we were treated with. The year was 2005. When it ended, the US Geological Survey counted 24 significant earthquakes around the world in that year, killing 88,003 people in total. And that included a much stronger 8.6 quake in Sumatra, Indonesia. Pakistan’s contribution to the total was 86,000 dead bodies. The state infrastructure for relief and rescue didn’t crumble in the face of rough terrain and the sheer size of the affected area; it was found non-existent even in the country’s well laid-out capital where a single residential building collapsed and people buried under the debris had to wait for a team of experts from UK to come and dig them out. The government of Pakistan admitted it was caught unprepared and vowed never again. Then Pakistan drowned in
muddy waters. Heavy rains lashed the northern parts, rivers swelled in from
east and west, and as a result one fifth of the country’s land area was
inundated. The year was 2010. In that year the world — including poor
countries like Afghanistan and Columbia, and most populous nations like China
and India — faced 11 devastating floods that killed 2017 people in total.
Flooding in Pakistan alone matched and possibly surpassed that number. The governments of Pakistan and its provinces admitted grave oversight and culpable negligence in handling the calamity and wilful disruption of rescue operation by state functionaries. They instituted a number of enquiries, announced administrative changes, promised to fortify disaster management capabilities, and vowed never again. Again. Mercifully, nature hasn’t yet tested us with another earthquake, but it did put our floods preparations under scrutiny this summer on a very very small scale as compared with the last year. Initially only five out of 22 districts of Sindh received heavy rains, and then a mega cloudburst turned Karachi’s main roads into canals but even this much was too much for the state’s infrastructure to handle. We are still counting our dead, and the world is yet to compile a comparison sheet for the year 2011, but it’s already established that the death toll in Sindh has surpassed this year’s combined death toll of floods in southern Africa (141) and the Philippines (47). And what are our governments saying and doing now? The president and the prime minister have visited the affected area for a photo-op each; ordered this or that official or minister to do their duty; appealed to the world to come to our help; and then sauntered off to more important engagements like a health check in London and state visits to Central Asia. The interior minister is in Dubai taking care of his own and possibly his boss, the president’s business. The opposition leader has scored his own points by visiting some Sindhi areas and reminding people how their governments are ignoring the plight of people there. NDMA, the body charged with disaster management, held a news conference to announce it has distributed so many tents and so many packets of ration. And media has faithfully reported all of this, without questioning if it’s the job of a president and prime minister to instruct officials to do their duty? That too in a state of emergency? Is it the job of NDMA to distribute relief goods? Why should the world come to our rescue every time a man-made or natural disaster strikes us, knowing that we will not be thankful? If anything we will blame the UN agencies and INGOs for following foreign agenda, corrupting our women, and generally undermining Islamic values, and no less than our prime minister will accuse them of ‘eating up’ more than half the aid they bring in. There could be only two reasons for why a calamity kills more in Pakistan than anywhere else in the world: God hates us more than any other nation, or we are utterly incapable of managing our affairs. From 2005 to 2011 and from the head of state to the servants of state, no one seems to know their job, or if they do, find no reason why they should do it. And so, disasters will keep striking and we’ll keep getting killed like pests. It has happened in Muzaffarabad, Balakot, Swat, Layyah, Badin, Karachi, and will be reaching a city near you shortly. masudalam@yahoo.com
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fanatics. Police had arrested the assailants. Local activists of religious
parties held protest rallies against the arrests of culprits and one of the
assailants had been released just a few months back,” he says.
