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fake issue Next degree security Capital goes dry By Shahzada Irfan Ahmed The Punjab government's recent steps to issue a notification regarding eight amendments in nikahnama (marriage document) and its annulment within days speaks volumes for the confusion that exists among its different administrative departments and legislators. Soon after the circulation of this notification among the province's District Coordination Officers (DCOs), PML-N leaders came out with conflicting statements about the issue and failed miserably to satisfy the critics.
A life-long struggle Nasra Wazir Ali chose to dedicate her life to a cause she believed in -- striving for a tolerant and educated citizenry By Ammar Ali Jan As the state has consistently failed to reform the dismal education system, certain honest and visionary individuals have attempted to fill this vacuum through sheer dedication and commitment. One such remarkable individual is Nasra Wazir Ali, a lady who has devoted more than 60 years of her life for the promotion of education in Pakistan. Born in 1922 in a village near the city of Gujrat, Nasra
Wazir Ali has witnessed what can arguably be termed the most volatile century
that the subcontinent has ever experienced. Despite being the youngest
daughter of a small rural landlord, she was encouraged by her parents to
pursue her education. After being taken to the village school, a long daily
journey completed on the shoulders of her father, she was sent to the Lady
Maclagan Boarding School in Lahore. "My father always encouraged all his children to gain knowledge as he felt it was a necessary element for our success and for the progress of society at large," recalls the 88-year old Nasra Wazir Ali, who pauses after every few seconds to recollect memories of her childhood. "All my siblings were sent abroad to pursue their higher education. Despite living in a rural setting all his life, my father had no issues in sending his youngest daughter to a boarding school in Lahore which shows how progressive he was for his times." Nasra Wazir Ali did not disappoint. She went on to obtain a Masters degree in education from the Lahore College for Women. After her marriage to an Indian civil servant, she moved to Delhi in 1942 where she took up a voluntary teaching position at a missionary school. Her life was turned upside down when the subcontinent was partitioned and she had to move to Karachi with her two young children. "That was a really difficult period for everyone who
had to go through the process of dislocation," asserts Nasra Wazir Ali,
who was stuck in a train with her children for almost three days due to the
fears of mob violence in August 1947. "I cannot forget the killings,
humiliation and suffering that ordinary people faced during that short
period. We had Hindu and Sikh friends and we had never interfered in each
other's religious affairs. The terrible violence was sheer madness that many
simply could not comprehend." Arrival in the newly-born state of Pakistan and observation of the sufferings ordinary people had to face in this process of state formation had a deep impact on Nasra's outlook on the world. Pakistan was lacking in the essential infrastructure for the functioning of a modern state. The education and health system were particularly inadequate for meeting the challenges of such a huge catastrophe. It is at this point that she decided to dedicate the rest of her life for promoting education in the country which, she felt, was necessary for bringing Pakistan out of the predicament it faced. The journey started in the drawing room of Nasra's bungalow allotted to her husband by the government when she decided to open a nursery school in 1949. This bungalow, situated on Bunder Road Extension in Karachi, soon turned into a site of learning as children from the neighbourhood who were unable to afford a school started converging at her residence. In about three months, the living room and three bedrooms had been converted into classrooms and her family was forced to move into the garage. Her husband, who was a joint secretary in the government, did not complain and was in fact supportive of her wife's dedication for such a noble cause. In 1950, Nasra Wazir Ali and her brother, Zafarullah Khan Malik, became the founding trustees of what was then known as the Froebel Nursery and Kindergarten School Trust. In 1955, the family had to vacate their government residence and the school had to be shifted to a small building at the back of the Empress Market which now houses the B.M.B School. Nasra's search for a better campus continued as she knew that this building was inadequate for sustaining such an ambitious project. "That building was small and unsatisfactory, but it allowed me a breathing space. I went crazy looking for a place to permanently move my school. Finally, I located this building at 55 Depot Lines in 1957 which is now the main building for the Nasra School System," she says. It is at this point that the school's name was changed to Education Trust Nasra School and there has been no looking back ever since. The Nasra School that had a humble beginning with 12 chairs, six tables and one piano, has now expanded to five purpose-built campuses all over Karachi and caters to almost 12,000 students in the city. It is also equipped with computer and science labs and offers classes both in the morning and the afternoon sessions. "It gives me immense pleasure when I meet our former students who tell me that they have gone on to become doctors, engineers, social scientists, educationists or accomplished people in other fields," says Nasra, with emotions of pride and joy becoming obvious on her face as she reflected on her remarkable career that has spanned over six decades. "Just when I look around the school and see the energy and vibrancy amongst the students, it makes me realise how worthwhile this entire effort was." The Nasra School typically caters to students from low-income households and its campuses are situated in poor neighbourhoods such as Malir, Korangi, Super Highway and North Karachi. The tuition fee is minimal, and 10 percent of students are given complete financial aid by the school. The school has also produced some excellent results in both academic and extra-curricular activities. This year alone, a female student from the Nasra School achieved the 2nd position in the Karachi Board examinations while another student topped the Agha Khan Board. Recently, the school has started a youth exchange programme with American Schools whereby each year three students from Nasra School are sent to study for a year at a school in the US. Nusrat Zaidi, the coordinator for the entire setup and a teacher at the school since 1972, feels that the greatest achievement of the school has been its ability to provide education to those children whose parents had never been to school. "Most of our students, especially in Malir and Korangi, come from families in which neither of the parents has received any education. This places extra burden on the teachers as most of these parents have little understanding of the intricacies of the education system. The almost negligible dropout rate, however, is proof of the fact that by and large the teachers have been able to retain the interest of the students which is a commendable achievement in the given circumstances." While the school has achieved many successes, it has been unable to keep itself immune to the deteriorating law and order situation in the port city. The campus in Malir, which is situated at the boundary between the Baloch and the Muhajir communities in the area, has witnessed recurrent gun battles between militants from the two communities. The land mafia in the city has also threatened the premises on various occasions, while Nasra Wazir Ali has been a victim of land fraud by the same powerful interest-groups. When asked whether such setbacks deterred her resolve to carry on with her campaign, she replied emphatically "Never. Such incidents in fact strengthen our resolve. It demonstrates to us the problems prevalent in our society and reiterates the importance of striving for a tolerant and educated citizenry." While chatting with her in her small room inside the school premises, it is hard not to get impressed by a lady who had all the opportunities in the world to lead a luxurious and comfortable life, but chose instead to dedicate it to a cause she believed in. At a time when corruption and greed have become the norms, it is a difficult task to find individuals who have led selfless and untainted lives. In Nasra Wazir Ali, however, the youth has a living example on how one can lead an honourable and dignified life in extremely adverse times.
Just when you thought everything had been said about fake degrees, here are some more thoughts -- not necessarily the same By Farah Zia It would have been instructive to cover the by-election
campaign in NA-178 more seriously where Jamshed Dasti was contesting after
his disqualification for having furnished a fake degree in May this year.
Instead of doing that, the media cried foul -- the PPP made a wrong decision
by awarding a 'cheat' and a 'fraudster' an election ticket once again; the
prime minister did worse by visiting his constituency during the campaign, it
said. At one point it seemed that for the educated elite of this country, a
huge moral issue was at stake, which the people of the constituency easily
ignored -- by reelecting Jamshed Dasti when the time came. A careful study of the electoral campaign and the promises made, a comparison of the profile of the candidates, an analysis of factors like the biradari system and the money spent during the election, was in order. That the fake degree was not one of the election issues was clear enough. Yet, the only lesson learnt was that, perhaps, more needs to be done to awaken the electorate. And so the media spent even more time on the issue as the verifying authorities rejected one degree after the other. The issue was blown out of proportion by all sides. In the absence of a Shoaib Malik marrying a Sania Mirza or the even better option of an already married Shoaib Malik deciding to marry an ignorant Sania Mirza, fake degrees made a good story. Or the best, so far. A high moral ground on the part of the media had the potential to generate higher decibels in debates. And playback Indian songs to humiliate the erring legislators would go down even better with the masses. The affected section -- the politicians, especially from PML-N -- recognised the moral issue involved and declared zero tolerance for such a fraud, to live up to its high-moral-ground-wielding reputation. As the number of fake-degree holders continued to multiply, very soon all representatives on the floor of the Punjab Assembly saw a conspiracy against democracy at work. Nothing short of a resolution against the media, or a section of it, was the need of the hour. There it came and a unanimous one at that. And a furore followed. Actually, all the responses on the issue were exaggerated. Each ignored plain common sense, some basic facts and a bit of the context. What is taking up so much air time and newspaper column space is a condition that was introduced by an unelected 'military dictator' if you please -- apparently to improve the quality of elected representatives but actually to disenfranchise the familiar culprits in the assembly. No one ever sought people's opinion on the issue; no there was no referendum held. In effect, as someone has listed the statistics, he disenfranchised 97 percent of the people in a country where only 3 percent were degree holders. You may ask how could he do it -- introduce such an election law. Well, he could because the Supreme Court had allowed him three years to make laws while he ruled. To their credit, the politicians objected, resisted and protested this condition of the General Election Order 2002. They challenged it in the court while deciding to contest the election nonetheless (they'd learnt their lesson after the 1985 boycott when another military dictator had decided to hold election on non-party basis). To its discredit, the Supreme Court upheld the condition. Those were different times of course when independent judiciary was yet to be born. To repeat the now familiar story, the condition was challenged again before the 2007-8 polls. The decision came in April 2008, and the graduation condition was declared unconstitutional but, note, not 'void ab initio'. So, the technical glitch remains. The current crop of parliamentarians was supposed to be carrying genuine degrees at the time of February 2008 polls, even though the condition itself was unconstitutional as per the latter decision of the court. Had the decision come about two months earlier, this would not have been the case. The politicians never accepted the condition and worked around ways to contest election, even if that meant seeking fake degrees. But degree is not the only issue they may have lied about. A vast majority of them may have lied about their assets and the money spent on their campaigns. Now those are the conditions that have never been challenged in any court and are permanent because there is a moral and political consensus about them. And chances are that while only ten percent of legislators may be fake degree holders, there may be a lot more who have lied about these two issues. The focus remains on fake degrees, an issue which apparently we shall never face in the future. Apart from the Supreme Court's decision, the Eighteenth Amendment has struck it down. Other issues like declaration of assets and liabilities and campaign spending have not been given as serious a thought as this one. If they were, we would realise how faulty the laws are and how toothless is the Election Commission of Pakistan to deal with the corrupt practices. It is this aspect of election related laws that needs to be investigated and followed up on. As of today, the Pandora's Box stays open and ways must be found to close it. A workable solution that has been suggested before is that of retrospective legislation by the assemblies. It is a sensible solution in the given conditions, provided the moral high ground is ceded by all stakeholders. The legislative solution aside, the commission verifying the degrees can complete its work and release its findings to the media which can keep informing the people about legislators who furnished fake degrees without making it appear as "breaking news" and perhaps minus the Indian songs. Democracy is a slow process and the corrective mechanism lies in the continuation of the process. In a democratic dispensation, people are the ultimate arbiters. An informed citizenry can decide the fate of these leaders and their parties in the next election whenever it is due. Meanwhile, on to some real issues please! Email ramisj@gmail.com
Will the four-year bachelors programme in 26 selected colleges of the Punjab improve the quality of education? By Waqar Gillani The Punjab Education Department has launched an
ambitious plan of introducing a four-year bachelors programme in 26
selected colleges of the Punjab by giving them autonomy and bringing them
under a separately constituted Boards of Governors (BoGs). The plan,
apparently well designed, is not well-received among teachers'
associations. The purpose of autonomy is to provide "standardised and
internationally acceptable education" to the youth. In order to streamline the smooth transition to four-year BS programme, the Punjab government has attached 26 colleges with different universities, according to the July 1, 2010 notification of the Education Department. The new four-year graduation session will start from September 1, 2010, and the scheme will be implemented in all colleges, gradually. Most of the universities and private colleges have already switched to the new programme. "The four-year degree programme to be implemented in selected colleges of the Punjab is a good initiative as it seeks to raise standards and provide more relevant education," says educationist Abbas Rashid. "How the success of this scheme will be ensured, of course, remains to be seen. The selected colleges are a small percentage of Punjab's over 460 public sector colleges, but there is no harm in starting at a small scale as long as the effort is accompanied by a vision for cumulative and mainstream reform. The quality of education at this level has to improve to ensure the desperately needed improvement in the quality of education at the school level." These colleges are granted autonomy under Punjab Educational and Training Institutions Ordinance, 1960. Under this law, Punjab Education Department had already given autonomy to Queen Mary College and Fatima Jinnah College Chuna Mandi in 1990s. "Under the law, Boards of Governors, to be appointed by the government, shall run the colleges for better management of academic and financial resources. Besides providing budget, the government shall approve rules and regulations," documents available with TNS say. The terms of autonomy declare that government staff posted at these colleges shall enjoy job security, pension benefits and pay protection. Over 80 percent of the staff at Queen Marry and Fatima Jinnah colleges is government employed. To provide quality education at affordable prices, no extra amount shall be charged from students. The government is giving Rs700 million to these 26 colleges for upgradation of facilities and staff in this fiscal year 2010-11. The Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association (PPLA) has rejected this plan and announced to start a protest drive to block the plan. PPLA has formed a Joint Action Committee (JAC) comprising professors, teachers and students to launch agitation against this policy. The agitation that started from Multan last week is believed to be dominated by Jamaat-e-Islami's affiliated teachers' wing called Tanzeem-e-Usatiza and JI's student and youth wing Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT). Critics argue that IJT, which holds sway in Government Islamia College Civil Lines (Lahore) and Government Science College Wahdat Road (Lahore), may lose its decades old influence on these colleges, because they are also going under the BoGs according to the new plan. "This is not about JI. This is about education," says PPLA President Zahid Ahmad Sheikh. "We have started our agitation from Multan. The education would become expensive and the staff's future would be at stake under the new BoGs plan. We believe this policy has already failed. Take the examples of colleges that have been granted autonomy like Kinnaird College, Queen Mary College and Government College Lahore. These institutions charge high fees while the quality of education has significantly declined. The government should either stop it or implement it unanimously in all 460 colleges." "This is a western and American agenda. We will not let this happen at any cost. You will see in September -- after the summer vacations -- when The Mall will be blocked to reject this policy. We are engaging civil society in it too," the PPLA president warns. A similar issue was created in the early 2000s when the Pervez Musharraf regime decided to place big colleges and hospitals under BoGs. The same group of people had come out on roads under the umbrella of a Joint Action Committee (JAC) to resist the plan. The plan was later modified before execution. "The Education Department has taken note of the dismal standards at colleges and attached these with different universities, advising principals to work out the capacity-building programmes in consultation with the supervising university," says Rashid. "There is also the issue of capacity of these institutions themselves. One can only hope that it has the resources, most importantly in terms of a strong core faculty, to fulfil its obligations vis-a-vis the affiliated colleges. Also support rather than supervision may be a more appropriate mandate here." He views that the faculty issue is also central in improving the quality of education in these colleges. "Will they be able to attract the kind of teaching staff needed to turn things around? Will they be able to provide an environment conducive to teaching and learning, given the institutional culture that encourages a focus on certification rather than knowledge? Will the Board of Governors be dominated by professionals who will have the autonomy to provide the college with appropriate academic leadership?" Rashid questions.
Terror tours Swat again Recent bombing in Mingora is a grim reminder that all is not well in the valley Rahimullah Yusufzai Just when everybody thought that Swat was safe enough to host peace festivals and welcome tourists, the terrorists struck once again. The bomb explosion outside the busy bus stand in Mingora on July 15 killed five persons and caused injuries to another 44. It was a grim reminder that the militants still possessed the capability to launch occasional attacks despite the presence of thousands of regular and paramilitary soldiers and the police in the valley. The situation in Swat has vastly improved in the past year
following the military action against the militants. The militants are
sometimes able to sneak into Swat to carry out target-killings of their
opponents and explode bombs. But they lack support and are unable to stay
undetected for long. The Amn Mela, or peace festival in Mingora and Kalam
were organised to send a message to tourists that Swat was peaceful and ready
to receive tourists. However, the latest bombing in Mingora in which some
tourists were also caught in the explosion would send a negative message and
could affect the prospects of revival of tourism in Swat. Swat wasn't the only place that suffered violence in recent days. Bajaur Agency was again becoming a matter of concern as the militants after a long gap were able to fire rockets at Khar, its principal town and headquarters, and blow up a number of schools. The 94th educational institution in Bajaur was destroyed on July 13 when the Government Middle School in Tani village in the former militants' stronghold of Mamond was dynamited. A day earlier, a girls' primary school in Baba Killay just outside Khar town was blown up. The schools for girls are a prime target for the militants though they haven't spared educational institutions for boys and health outlets and other government buildings. Any place associated with the government and anyone supporting or interacting with the security forces is considered a legitimate target by the militants. A major challenge for the security forces is the situation in Mohmand Agency. The recent suicide bombing in Ekkaghund, the entry-point to Mohmand Agency from the Peshawar and Charsadda side, killed 106 people though the members of the anti-Taliban Utmankhel tribal jirga from Ambar area, who were the main target of the bomber, survived along with the senior government officials they were meeting. The attack went wrong as the intended target was missed and instead common tribesmen, shopkeepers and customers and passengers passing through Ekkaghund were caught in the devastating explosions and killed and maimed. This was one of the biggest terrorist attacks in the country and it focused attention on the happenings in Mohmand Agency where the government policy of mobilising the tribes to raise lashkars to fight the militants is having serious consequences with the Taliban striking back by sending suicide bombers to blow up jirgas of tribal elders. Along with the local militants affiliated to the Mohmand Agency chapter of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), those evicted from Swat and Upper and Lower Dir districts and Bajaur Agency as a result of tough military operations have also found sanctuaries in sizeable numbers in Mohmand Agency. Its strategic location bordering Bajaur and Khyber tribal agencies and Afghanistan has made it important for both the militants and the military and both sides are trying to gain control of Mohmand Agency. The militants, led by Abdul Wali alias Omar Khalid, were evicted from the Qandaharo, Ambar and other areas and restricted to places in Khwezai, Baizai, etc on the border with Afghanistan. They are able to cross over to Afghan territory also as the attack on a Frontier Corps border post and the seizure of soldiers sometime back showed. This brings us to the issue of infiltration of the militants from Afghanistan into Pakistan's border areas and the gun-running that goes on across the Durand Line. Increasingly, Pakistan government functionaries and military officials are complaining that these militants are being provided sanctuaries in Afghanistan, particularly in the eastern Kunar province bordering Bajaur Agency. Maj Gen Tariq Khan, Inspector General Frontier Corps, was the first one to raise this issue and directly accuse the Governor of Kunar of aiding and abetting Pakistani militants who were pushed out of Bajaur following the military action in its Mamond and Charmang areas and sought refuge in Kunar province. Later, others such as Interior Minister Rahman Malik also highlighted the issue and asked the Afghan government to stop militants and weapons entering Pakistan. The Afghan government has generally ignored these allegations or issued denials. Pakistani Taliban militants, however, are now beginning to admit that many of them crossed over to Afghanistan after the military operation in Bajaur and started fighting alongside the Afghan Taliban against the US-led coalition forces. Waliur Rahman, head of the Jaish-i-Islami group that fought against Pakistan's security forces in Bajaur, told TNS in a phone call from an undisclosed location that he and his men were part of the group of Afghan Taliban fighters who were resisting the coalition and Afghan forces attack in Kunar's Marwara area near Pakistan's border. "If we were being assisted by the Afghan government or its governor for Kunar province, why would we be fighting against the Afghan and US armies? It is all propaganda that Pakistani Taliban received help from the Afghan authorities," he argued. However, Waliur Rahman conceded that one Pakistani Taliban commander Jan Wali alias Sheena, who is an aide to the senior TTP leader Maulana Faqir Mohammad, had appealed to the Afghan government to allow Pakistani tribespeople displaced by the military action in Bajaur to seek refuge in Kunar province on humanitarian basis. He said the Afghan authorities accepted the appeal and allowed displaced Pakistanis from Bajaur to stay in Kunar. "Only humanitarian assistance was given to the displaced Pakistani families. There was no question that military help was given to them by the Afghan government," he stressed. This issue hasn't harmed Pak-Afghan relations at this stage, but it hasn't gone away. Presently, President Hamid Karzai is on the best of terms with Pakistan, hoping to use its influence to make a deal with the Afghan Taliban. Unlike the past, he and his ministers aren't demanding action against the Haqqani Network in North Waziristan as the Americans are doing. Instead, Karzai would like to do business with the Haqqanis through Pakistan and, if he could convince the US, wean them away from al-Qaeda and Mulla Mohammad Omar-led Taliban and make them part of Afghanistan's political mainstream. This cannot happen in the near future and may never materialise but this is what the beleaguered Karzai is aiming for in case the US and Nato forces start withdrawing from Afghanistan. However, this summer is turning out to be the most violent since the US invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 due to the record rise in Taliban attacks. It is also having fallout in Pakistan as seen in the spurt of violence in parts of tribal areas, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and beyond.
Residents of Islamabad and Rawalpindi are forced to buy water from tankers as the twin cities are hit by a water shortage By Shaiq Hussain Islamabad, the beautiful. These words introduce you to the capital of Pakistan through its official website and truly so as this city is considered one of the most lovely and developed world capitals. But, that doesn't imply its residents are free of worries or face no problem. The so-called privileged Islamabadites, with anger evident
on their faces, could be seen carrying empty buckets and containers in their
hands to fetch water from nearby mosques and markets. They are facing grave water shortage as supply by the relevant government authorities usually remains suspended for days because of nearly empty dams and out of order tube wells. The residents of 'G' and 'I' sectors, especially, have to suffer a lot owing to present water crisis. They have no choice but to buy costly water tankers. This water crisis hit the capital in January this year, but aggravated with weather becoming hotter. Now with the advent of monsoon, everybody is looking up to the sky for rains to fill the Khanpur Dam, Simly Dam and Rawal Dam -- all three main reservoirs supplying water to Islamabad and adjacent city of Rawalpindi. The demand for water in the capital is estimated at over 100 million gallons per day (mgd), whereas the supply these days is only around 57 mgd, showing over 40 percent gap in the demand and supply. This is mainly because the water level in all the three dams has gone down and, according to official estimates, only 15-day water is available at these reservoirs. As a short term measure, the capital city managers have resorted to the use of dozens of water tankers that ply daily on the roads of Islamabad and Rawalpindi in different sectors to supply water. "Gone are the days when I would wake up with first thoughts of my business concerns in different parts of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. It's now the concern about water availability that is on my mind all the time. I keep waiting for the driver of some private water tanker to knock at my door," wails Abdul Hannan, an Islamabad-based builder living in sector G-8. "Each water tanker charges Rs800 for every trip. However, the water supply tankers arranged by the government charges Rs350, but for that you have to wait for hours and sometimes for days." Bushra Asif, a housewife at Sector 1-10, says she is considering shifting from the capital to some remote village due to the water shortage. "Sometimes, we don't have water even to wash our faces what to talk about taking a bath, washing dishes and clothes," she retorted angrily while sharing her woes with TNS. A senior official at the Capital Development Authority (CDA), seeking anonymity, told TNS the rate approved by CDA for private water tanker firms was fixed at Rs400 for each trip, and anything beyond that is illegal. "CDA has been receiving complaints of excess charging by private firms. Stern action would be taken against these firms for violating the contract," he warns. The CDA official disclosed that out of around 180 tube-wells in Islamabad over 50 are out of order. "The underground water level has also gone down which too has impacted the supply of water through the tube-wells," he said. Muhammad Ghulam Khattak, Managing Director of a private tankers firm, FASCO, told TNS that his company receives 250 calls daily for tankers and his vehicles, currently 35 in number, make 220 trips to different sectors of capital city in 24 hours. Khattak contradicted the CDA official and said his firm charged Rs660, a rate approved by CDA, for each tanker trip. He revealed that apart from two private firms that were allowed by CDA, some people were illegally doing the business of water supply in the capital city. According to him, around 80 illegal tankers are providing water to the different localities in the city. In Rawalpindi, apart from Rawal Dam, around 270 tube-wells are meant to provide 21 mgd water daily to different localities. But almost half of the tube-wells are out of order. Shamsabad, Dhok Kashmirian, Sadiqabad, Dhoke Kala Khan, parts of Satellite Town, Kohati Bazaar and cantonment areas, including Lalazar Colony and New Lalazar, R.A. Bazaar, Gharibabad and Tench Bhatta, are the worst hit areas. Chaudhry Naseer, chief of Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) Rawalpindi, said owing to the water shortage the agency had been forced to supply water to Pindi residents on alternate days. He hoped monsoon rains would refurbish the water reservoirs and supply to the Pindi residents would improve. Another major reason adding to the worsening of water crisis in Islamabad and Rawalpindi are the rusty main water supply pipes that have not been replaced for decades. The CDA official said half of the 57 mgd water being supplied to Islamabad was wasted because of leakage. "The water situation in Islamabad can improve if the old pipes are replaced," he said. Chairman CDA, Imtiaz Inayat Illahi, told TNS that hot and dry weather and the depleting reservoirs have created serious water crisis in the capital city, adding the authority was receiving around 700 to 800 complaints daily from different localities about water non-availability. Illahi said the authority was undertaking long-term measures to ensure smooth supply of water to the capital city in coming years, and one such project was that of "rain water harvesting" which would help increase the level of ground water in Islamabad. "Loadshedding is also contributing to the water crisis," he said, adding the authority had asked the power authorities in the capital to arrange for an express feeder for its tube-wells. Marriage of inconvenience The Punjab government's somersault over amendments in nikahnama exposes utter confusion in its ranks By Shahzada Irfan Ahmed The Punjab government's recent steps to issue a notification regarding eight amendments in nikahnama (marriage document) and its annulment within days speaks volumes for the confusion that exists among its different administrative departments and legislators. Soon after the circulation of this notification among the province's District Coordination Officers (DCOs), PML-N leaders came out with conflicting statements about the issue and failed miserably to satisfy the critics. For example, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah told media
that they had been asked by the Federal Ministry for Religious Affairs to
include these clauses on the behest of Peshawar High Court. However, Federal
Religious Affairs Minister Hamid Saeed Kazmi has totally disengaged himself
from the controversy, saying that marriage has become a provincial subject
after the passage of 18th Amendment. "The Religious Ministry did not ask
the Punjab government to introduce these amendments," says a handout
issued by the ministry. As per understanding of most of the legislators in the Punjab Assembly, the provincial government had introduced these amendments which were suggested by the Peshawar High Court to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government. However, it was revealed later that very few of them knew about the contents and no proper consultations had been done by the departments involved. The Punjab Local Government and Community Development Department, which circulated the notification, had reportedly not even taken the provincial law and home departments on board. The amendements suggested in the notification include additional columns and space to provide for dowry articles in the nikahnama, inclusion of names and signatures of parents of both the bride and bridegroom along with their CNIC numbers and dates of births, mention of marks of identification of both the bride and bridegroom, their medical reports (in an attempt to reduce the chances of having abnormal children), change in the name of bride after marriage, exact dates of birth instead of age as recorded in their school certificates/CNIC/passports and the latest passport size photos of the bride and bridegroom. Hafiz Shahid, a family law practitioner based in Lahore, tells TNS that the Peshawar High Court had in fact directed the federal law division to make corrections in entries pertaining to dower, back in March 2010. The bench, he says, had issued the directives while hearing a writ petition of a woman Ulfat Bibi versus her spouse Amanat Khan Durrani. The purpose behind this direction was to remove certain confusions that often cause delay in disposal of family cases including claim over gifts given to bride by her parents, he adds. Shahid says it seems the authorities concerned went much beyond and introduced these amendments without proper consultation. The Peshawar High Court bench had suggested: "These articles cannot be purchased from a single shop, thus many shopkeepers are involved, who cannot be produced in each case by the wife while seeking decree for recovery of dowry articles or its market value to prove her case, therefore, the federal government of Pakistan/Law Division shall take immediate steps to direct reprinting the form of Nikah wherein additional column with enough space be provided in which the description and value of the dowry articles is to be essentially mentioned." Different clauses of the notification were criticised severely by civil society activists, jurists and opposition parties that appears to be the main cause of its immediate annulment. PPP MNA Sherry Rehman disapproved the condition of adding parents' signatures, saying it would promote forced marriages and create problems for couples willing to contract civil marriages. Another objection to this clause is that it is contradictory to the Supreme Court decisions in which it allowed marriages without the consent of the "wali". The additional columns for dowry articles were also seen as an attempt to legalise dowry and increase burden on the parents of the bride. Dr Mujahid Musa, a family health physician, tells TNS that the clause about medical reports is a good suggestion but hard to implement. He says several developed countries have failed to enforce similar clauses as people do not want to make such reports public. It makes sense that the spouses must be aware of the medical state of each other, but why others including witnesses, nikah registrars and guests be informed about medical reports, he questions. Dr Mujahid says the said clause was also vague in the sense that it did not mention the exact medical tests the marriage aspirants were supposed to undergo. All said, one thing is for sure that the existing marriage laws in Pakistan need to be reviewed. But what is even more important is that any attempt at this should be calculated, unlike the one made by the Punjab government. |
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