The State of Civic Bodies in Karachi and Lahore.

By Dr. Meher Zaidi.

The recent fire accidents in which 22 and 21 people were burnt alive in factories located in Karachi and Lahore respectively, speaks volumes of the neglect  and insensitivity on the part of public officials and civic agencies officials to the safety and life saving measures for the workers  and  workplace.http://dawn.com/2012/09/12/at-least-63-dead-in-karachi-factory-blaze-fire-officer/ http://dawn.com/2012/09/12/21-burnt-alive-in-lahore-at-least-22-in-karachi/ http://dawn.com/2012/09/12/most-victims-are-labourers-devastating-fires-in-factories/

The first and foremost person responsible for ensuring safety in the workplace is the owner/manager of the place. He/she should ensure that all safety measures against fire, industrial accidents, building safety (including safe electric circuits/gas connections, piping, provision of alarms, water sprinkling arrangements, sprays, sand bags ,safe exits, fire drills etc) are in place with quality checks and audits periodically. Insensitivity and slackness speaks for the loathsome behavior of all concerned in this country. They emphasize on five time prayers to please God but the basic responsibility towards human beings and those also who are bread winners of the poor families speaks volumes of the real face of Pakistani muslims.

The building regulatory bodies are next in responsibility. The officers of these agencies are totally corrupt to the core. They take enormous bribes to pass maps and give liscences but never check  the construction and regulate the usage of the premises for the purpose it is built. These corrupt officials operate through touts who range from ordinary political workers to the level of engineers and even high government  officials. There is no building regulatory audit and no accountability of this audit by the civic agencies heads. In case of accidents like these and even when the bridge fell in Karachi ,due to faulty construction, the persons responsible find loopholes and bribe their way to freedom. 

The third group of people responsible but no less are the area elected representatives.These are the people who should ensure that factories and warehouses are not located in residential areas. That the workers are given due safety equipment and safe workplace environment and that the poor employees are given political voice no matter even if they are coming from another area. There should be complete ban on factories and ware houses in residential areas.The elected representatives who are presently colluding with factory owners and indirectly helping all corrupt regulatory officers should be made accountable to the public.

The sad state of affairs is that presently if the area residents even if they complain or try to raise voice against such factories or ware houses these corrupt people physically assault them or their families or involve them in some criminal cases with the collusion of area police. This cancerous web of treachery, deciept, dishonesty and corruption is so densly knit that ordinary citizens are scared and find it impoissible to report. They cannot even get the elected representatives on their side. All political parties should be ashamed and should take lesson from these two recent accidents and make it mandatory on all their representatives from lowest denominator to the top to ensure workplace safety as a first right of the citizen.

No plazas, factories, shopping centers be built without ensuring fire safety measures and good electrical audit.The fire and accident evacuation drills should be made mandatory in all such workplaces.These issues should be made part of all school and college curiculum so that there is general awareness andd sense of responsibilty of the masses.

The single most important factor in saving lives is good firefighting and evacuation agency.Presently both Karachi and Lahore firefighting agencies ar under staffed, ill equiped and out dated. These should be expanded massively.They should receive a very updated staff and equipment including vehicles.The Karachi section was bieng revamped following the Ashura bomb blasts but thanks to the infighting between the then interior minister of Sindh and the elected representatives of Karachi, this was put in waste basket.A much needed and most important department stands un-attended and helpless.

As the fire tenders find it difficult to negotiate and reach these densely populated areas ,the relocation after a survey and listing of all such factories and warehouses in Karachi and Lahore is now unavoidable. Both chief ministers should urgently start this exercise and finish this before the next elections with recommendations for action for the next governments.If the new local governments are in place this work will become easier, provided corrupt people are not re-elected and /or the poltical parties purge themselves of these corrupt and damaging elements.

With the new  industrial zones close to Karachi and Lahore, relocation plan should be made and instituted by the new governments on priority basis. The poor workers ‘ lives will not have been lost in vain if this is done. It is high time that we , the people of Pakistan shun our garbs of shamelessness and demand that workplace safety and safe residential areas be our right. We must fight against corruption at political and civic level.The political parties must expunge their corrupt members and change. Otherwise the masses will eventually rise and burn everything  down and who knows that maybe best.   http://meer-mehernewspappar.blogspot.com/2009/12/moon-market-lahore-mayhem.html   

Pakistan Happenings...Of Local Government Elections,New Alliances & Karachi.

As the Pakistan Peoples Party(PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement(MQM) reach accord for a new Local government ordinance, the other political parties like the Awami National Party(ANP),Muslim League ,Functional  (ML-F) which are coalition partners of the PPP government in Sindh are opposing this ordinance.The local government has been successful in Karachi & Hyderabad, two cities governed by the MQM in 2001 till 2009 through the 2001 Local Bodies Act . As described in the editorial of Business Recorder today,All cities need local governments.http://www.brecorder.com/editorials/0:/1235083:lg-ordinance/  The personnel and infrastructure of this tier of government has to be institutionalized.The provincial government officials are transferred after a period and the local body staff has to be deployed on permanent basis with a service structure. A big megapolis like Karachi  needs a permanent local government structure. For that matter cities like Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana also need well trained, well entrenched local government staff which cater to the needs of these cities.
The politics of opposition are based on mistrust and lack of confidence amongst the various coalition partners in Sindh.The background of these political tensions is ethnicity. Sindh political landscape has a very varied expression of ethnicity. The main ethnic groups are Sindhi speaking (Sindhi, Brahui, Balochi speaking communities),Urdu speaking,Pushto speaking,Hindko, Punjabi, Balochi,Gilgiti &Seraiki speaking.Karachi and Hyderabad have a large population of Urdu speaking people. Generally the MQM wins a large mandate from these two cities. During 2000 and 2008, it successfully ran these two large cities with lots of roads & infrastructure development.It bases the strength of this development for favor of the local government (as envisaged in 2001 ordinance).There have been various problems in the implementation of this ordinance and practical problems were highlighted and discussed in many conferences during this period.The Sindhi speaking population which gives its mandate to the PPP largely has not availed of this ordinance and wanted the 1979 Local bodies Act to be implemented. This was made anordinance ironically during the Zia ul Haq regime but was initially the Peoples Local Bodies Act as drafted during the Bhutto government in 1976.It was redesigned with small changes to suit the dictator's whims and put in place.The present PPP wanted this to be implemented with its changes.The other coalition partners agreed on this except the MQM which fearing its disenfranchisement & lessening of its power wanted the 2001 ordinance to be retained.
The new politics of Sindh need taking all allies on board and having a reconciliatory stance with stakeholders as too much water has passed under the bridge and Sindh needs massive and urgent  development both in its urban and rural areas. The successful interaction in which the city Nazim got the nullahs and drains of Karachi cleaned when rains wrecked havoc and submerged even the posh areas of Karachi like Defence and Clifton needs to be revitalized. Since the collapse of the local government and its replacement by administrators by the PPP Sindh government all the good work of garbage and drain cleaning has been undone. The encroachments by the rich and powerful over drains and natural waterways in Karachi which the city Nazim so successfully undid with political clout is slowly making its way back again.The staff of the city government of Karachi has not been paid their salaries for many months so all the drains and main waterways inside the city are filled with garbage. The disposal of solid waste has also taken a back bench. This seems like a deliberate attempt to undermine the well bieng of Karachi civic bodies and indirectly affect the MQM votebank but it , infact raise eyebrows on PPP Sindh governments' ability to govern large cities like Karachi .The lack of civic services and their mismanagement speaks volumes on this party's inability to do anything for their own inner cities where they have a large mandate. The sense of urgency to tackle this issue has been cleverly sensed by president Asif Ali Zardari, who being the co- chairman of Pakistan Peoples Party has brought about a reconciliatory local government ordinance.http://dawn.com/2012/09/07/local-bodies-law-for-sindh-ready/

Image(DAWN.COM) shows the drains are blocked causing havoc in recent rains.

 The issues where Hyderabad was divided into areas , which the PPP says was to lessen its hold over the votebank, has also been a bone of contention for the PPP and MQM.
But what about the other cities like Nawabshah, Larkana, Jacobabad where the city problems are massive with bad roads, bad & broken sewerage etc. Here there is the mandate is of PPP. These cities also need a dedicated , honest local government for their massive and urgent development.http://archives.dawn.com/archives/140927
The new ordinance will not only benefit the largely Urdu speaking MQM supporters but also all the other ethnic groups residing in Sindh. The roads & bridges network will help the Pathan, Punjabi traders and transporters with their businesses. The development and housing , building activity will help the Punjabi, Sindhi,Pathan and Seraiki speaking people.There is a need for all the ethnic groups to develop a tolerance towards each other based on the fact that all are here to stay permanently for their economic gains. The racism and hatred based on primitive instincts has to be abandoned for a new beginning.

The politics of Sindh are also showing a new yawning activity of Sindhi nationalists. People like Mumtaz Ali Bhutto who uptil now called Mr Nawaz Sharif (PML-N) a face of Punjab domination have merged his party into this larger party.All other Sindhi nationalists have also taken a reconciliatory stance with the largely Punjabi party.Many say that this has been done on the behest of the establishment.It seems that in Sindh, the nationalists are leaving no stone un-turned to grab power away from PPP and appear on the scene even as a nuisance value.

Ending Hunger.

http://youtu.be/twGev010Zwc
http://www.endinghunger.org/en/educate/green_economy.html

Minorities In Pakistan, A reflection in the mirror?

http://tribune.com.pk/story/180431/a-question-of-faith-repeal-blasphemy-law-or-make-it-flawless/
http://tribune.com.pk/story/422933/hate-crime-legislation/
http://tribune.com.pk/story/407850/visualising-a-tolerant-pakistan/

Today as I write there has been a bomb attack on a bus in Karachi in which one is reported dead and ten injured, on a bus carrying Shia students for a protest rally in favor of AlQuds in Palestine. Who did this horrendous act is unknown as it remains unknown who pulled down the 20 Shia Pakistanis from their bus in Northern Pakistan and killed them in cold blood last evening..Before the Afghan War, Pakistan was a peaceful, tolerant country.Even before that as the Saudi/Salafist influence was relatively less all over the world, Pakistan was a peaceful country. As I read the memoirs of Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar in India, I became aware of how pre-partition Indian muslims were invited by the Saudis to build up their infrastructure including canals and also the Indian Muslim religious scholars to address and educate the students and religious universities in Saudi Arabia. Many a religious scholars from India had great influence on these earlier Muslim clerics in Saudi Arabia. These scholars were tolerant and open to ideas as they had to interact with a Hindu population in India. How this tolerant behaviour and teaching changed into extremely violent/Jihadist mentality so much so that even other sects of the same religion are not tolerated remains a dilemma!
The influx of Saudi funded schools all over Pakistan has its links to the preparation for Afghan jihad but the same massive influx all over Central Asian states describes a very deliberate plan.How much of this is related to US designs is a question which eludes even the most well read scholars of politics.

Pre- Afghan Jihad, some later Muslim Salafist teachers were sent to Afghanistan like maulvi Azam, to teach in universities and pave way for a force of religious teachers which will inculcate a sense of Jihad amongst the religious seminary students all across Afghanistan and Pakistan's tribal and northern areas. This plan was masterminded by the US security establishment and was implemented by the Saudi Royal rulers.What happened in the Afghan Jihad and what happened after the US left this area is there for all to see. My dilemma is that who supported the spectre of Usama Bin Laden and what is the reality of this spectre?
 Pakistan is imploding and will continue to do so for quite some time till natural forces of balance of existence take place as happens in history.Now that Usama Bin laden is killed we as a nation that is tearing apart its own innards, needs to really answer and introspect these questions:
How many of us 180 million people want to stay as a federation in Pakistan?
Is Pakistan a reality? or is it a farcical ideology?
Can we separate the artificial establishment/pseuodo religious overarching thrust to our ideology from the modern statehood principles and requirements?
Can Pakistan survive as a confederation?
What can be the clauses of the new social contract?
The taliban culture (which is the artificial culture that resulted from Afghan Jihad) is doomed to fail. It does not nurture a society where women and children are not exploited. Eventually it will be wiped out but a massive damage to the inhabitants will be done before that. all educational institutions and infrastructure like roads , bridges that the army built in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa are destroyed.
The present killings of Shias, the migration of Hindus to India and the religious persecution of Ahmedis and Christians is part of this implosive process. The average common man of Pakistan , whether literate or illiterate is loving, God fearing, kind, hard working and un-prejudiced. If he is saved from the clutches of the vested interests be they of religious actors, establishment, corrupt officialdom,he can perform his duties better. After the response to any natural disaster in Pakistan , my belief in the average Pakistani has become that of confidence and strength.Only a free political process where he is truly made to make his choice ,he will choose education, health services, access to justice,dignified labor
and freedom as his priorities.
Religion and violence is not an issue with the Pakistani citizen. It is being thrust upon him with full force since the Afghan Jihad. The only hope is with the  renewal of the new social contract that is Pakistan. The establishment must find its own soft belly. The Pakistani citizen must have the right to make his choice. There is no other way forward for Pakistan.

Controlling Narcotics In Pakistan.

Controlling Narcotics in Pakistan.
By Dr Meher Zaidi.

Ministry of Narcotics control, government of Pakistan writes in its advertised section in newspaper today that it has devised a National Anti- Narcotics Policy and the 5 year drug Control Master Plan will be implemented. Mr Javed Iqbal  emphasizes that all this will be done with international and local stakeholder support.organisations like UNODC,UNAIDS,SAARC will be actively approached and a regional cooperation with Afghanistan, Iran will be initiated for success.
The strategy is three pronged:
1.Supply reduction through invigorated and strengthened law enforcement.
2.Demand reduction through accelerated initiatives.
3.International Co-operation.
Let us first discuss the supply reduction scenario.
As the conventions in UN drug control says that there is to be increased seizures of drugs components and raw materials from the origins countries and their supply routes.http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/drug-trafficking/index.html  This is where the international organisations come into play.Pakistan has a very limited and ineffective Anti- narcotics Support Force. This new initiative with the approval of  the prime minister boasts of new national anti-narcotics policy,5 year master plan with road map, inter agency task force, make Lahore drug free, strengthening law enforcement  & expeditious judicial proceedings and stern action against drug trafficker and smugglers among other  initiatives.
It seems that the write up due to limitation of space does not elaborate on this major aspect of drug control in Pakistan.
There is apparently a criminal lack of justice in drugs control in Pakistan. No drugs supplier at any level, of any magnitude is ever caught in Pakistan.The aspect of catching big fish and making an example out of them is very important for a country like Pakistan.As seen in the failed drug war in Columbia, despite increased force to control this trade, alternative economic opportunities are most important. There has been activity of distribution of seeds for sustainable crops in Khyber Pakhtunkhuwa with supply of hydel projects but these initiatives for lucrative crops and economic advantageous activity need to be expanded.http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2009/01/02/the-truth-about-plan-colombia.html
I may not say this but I must that  the narcotics control operates at the level of just slapping this criminal charge on a very small person when other charges cannot be put to implicate a person in a criminal case. So a guy can be slapped with possessing 1kg heroin just to keep him in lockup for any other reason. Also to show some activity by the local police station. Never a big fish in narcotics trade has been caught and his case brought on trial. This issue of non-seriousness to tackle the actual menace of drugs in Pakistani society has to be finished.
All the input routes are freely operated by trucks and the goods are smuggled into major cities like Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi.Very seldom are these drugs confiscated.There is very dire need of strengthening this aspect of narcotics control.Various aspects of precursor narcotics control by the Narcotics Control Force like registrations, issuance of no objection certificates etc are important but more intelligence and surveillance of shipments and logistics is needed for effective confiscation. More equipment and training for vigilance is required. 
The ordinary police has to be strengthened and made aware of drug confiscation and some perks & incentives have to be given to them. The false accusations procedures have to be strictly discouraged and abandoned in order to bring the real culprits to justice.
Demand reduction through accelerated initiatives is a very large and difficult subject. It has to be addressed through multiple thrusts. First and foremost is education. Clearly the increase in school enrollment and reduction in drop out rate is among the most effective means of reducing this demand. awareness about the damaging effects of drugs, breaking the habit , reduction of peer pressure, religious thrust and enticement all lead to reduction in demand. Intense media campaigns is a very effective tool in addition to campaigns by pop stars.
In Pakistan direct criminal activity is linked to selling of drugs at street level. The role of police in catching the drug peddler at street level is very important which is totally being ignored due to rampant corruption at this level. Most fights against criminal gangs by the police are now given a political flavor due to which larger actions against criminal gangs are not undertaken or postponed.This lethargy or inability to tackle drug control has to be removed and the ANF has to be strengthened for its role at street level also.The upgrading and strengthening of the Anti-narcotics Force is also an important initiative.Without this effective force this war cannot be won.

A key initiative given is a national survey on the extent of drug abuse and addiction should be the first priority to get a real picture. This will define the population to be targeted both in prevention and treatment. It will also give us the socio-economic makeup in addition to the causes of falling into drug addiction.

Pakistan Happenings..Who Will Bell the Cat Species.

"I'm not okay and you're not okay, and that's OKAY" 
 Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
As I fall down into the abysmal abyss of the Pakistan politics and pseudo-media world I hear voices all around. My head spins as a viewer, spectator and a mere female thing. "In a crazy world, it's only your insanity that will keep you sane" 
 Leo Buscaglia

So to keep sane I try to see in front in a straight line.

"To see what is what's in front of one's own nose is a constant struggle." 

 George Orwell 

No this is not a treatise on cynical qoutes. It is an exercise to put your thoughts and words in clarity. As Asma Jehangir questions in her lucid article (Ah, not Luciforacious) in Dawn today http://dawn.com/2012/06/19/democracy-under-threat/ ,there are many fine lines, red lines and gray lines that we as Pakistanis need to see, cross, mark and define.Well we may see our canvas as we want to and are taught to as Frank Zappa says; "Information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is not truth. Truth is not beauty. Beauty is not love. Love is not music. Music is the best." 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKgK91zCq44&feature=related
What will you do if a country that is bursting at its seams with hungry,illiterate, poverty ridden 180 million people is adjudged by a group of  men who are running a venerable institution like a power house.The common man cannot find a lawyer because he is poor.His trial will never see justice. His grief will be his fate, destiny and judgement. The rich man cannot find a lawyer because the legal fraternity has turned into a moral police brigade. Where the ostracism is judgement itself. Condemnation by a group of men who are the guardians and custodians of law. The law of land does not hold supreme. The men who are the custodians hold supreme their egos and judgments. It is a sad month for Pakistan.There will be trials and tribulations. There will be un-addressed issues. How will the new faces deliver justice? How will the justice reach the common man. The prime minister falls. Another will come. There will be the same issue and the question will remain. Who will bell the cat?

Pakistan's Ostrich People.

Akhtar Ali's writes in his "Mirror Mirror on the Wall article" http://www.brecorder.com/articles-a-letters/187/1198747/ that

"Three steps could reduce budgetary deficits, theoretically speaking; reducing military expenditure, taxing agricultural incomes and reducing waste, inefficiency and profligacy in government. It is the last one which government could have done with relatively lesser threat although it may annoy bureaucracies, political and influential leaders and many other beneficiaries of such waste. Finally it robs the ruler of the only pleasure it enjoys; pomp and pleasure bought through spending free money. It is the easiest and also the most difficult job requiring discipline, expertise and self-sacrifice. Waste reduction requires a lot of technical expertise as well in addition to the political will. It is not reduced by showy acts. 

Military expenditure has remained a permanent burden and drain on national economy and resources. The FY Budget 2012-13 has allocated formally a sum of Rs 545.3 Billion towards Military Expenditure (MILEX). Reportedly, it is a 10% increase over the last year without the asking of the defence sector. A good 42.1% (Rs 229.5 Billion) go towards payroll and employment related expenses, another 26.23 %(Rs 143.5 Billion) go towards operating expenses and Rs 120.5 Billion (22%) go towards physical asset, some kind of PSDP for the defence sector. It used to be a one line budget in early days. Happily, slightly more is known now about it. There are other declared and non-declared expenditures which have been excluded from the formally declared allocation. A sum of Rs 98.2 Billion for military pension comes out of civilian budget due to an innovation in understatement techniques. Several organisations of military nature are either budgeted from civilian sector or are simply not declared. It all adds up to an estimated figure in the range of 800-1000 Billion Rupees. This should be compared with a total outlay of PSDP of a mere Rs 360 billion and net revenue receipts of Rs 1774 billion. 

On the other hand it is argued by military circles that MILEX has come down, if measured with respect to the percentage of GDP or the total budget. It is high time that transparency is brought about in this respect. That should be the first step in bringing reforms in this sector so that useful and objective discussion takes place on the subject devoid of self-perpetrating logic or emotionalism. It is often considered unpatriotic or even immature liberalism to talk of reducing MILEX. There are political parties in the countries often encouraged if not propped by the establishment, who make a strong case for a national security state, high foreign policy agenda, wresting Kashmir from the clutches of India and the like along with a welfare state and subsidised energy and food prices. To top it all, these forces and the establishment have apparently turned against the Samraj which used to be milked to finance high military spending and import of weapons"

This shows the double faced and almost bonkers mentality of the so called pseudo- religious parties like the Jamaat -e -Islami who have always benefited by this double faced stance.How can you take high end agendas like the victory of Kashmir, spending billions on clandestine, misdirected organisations like Lashkare Tayyaba (LOIT) and also give cheap electricity and other welfare state benefits to its people at the same time?The Difa -e -Pakistan Council is one such Nauveau folie. 

Elaborating on the issues of Energy Deficiency he gives the cause as 
"Oil prices hurt the economy in many ways, especially because Pakistan has become very dependent on it. All economies are dependent on oil and energy but either they produce energy or consume less of it. Most countries consume oil only for transport needs as there is no other alternative to Internal Combustion engines used in the automotives of today. It is a gift of Musharraf regime which installed or put into pipeline many oil based power plants neglecting investments in gas discoveries and putting Thar coal on a back burner. Unfortunately, he and his coterie did not know, as is usual when going is good, that he was digging a grave for Pakistan's economy. Thus high oil prices, dependence of power sector on oil and low capacity of people to pay for real energy costs resulting in theft and low energy tariff result in unpaid subsidies and circular debt; a vicious cycle that has to be broken somewhere. This can be done if a government is spared of challenges in other sectors extracting and diverting the resources from powerful sectors. A besieged government cannot do that. And all other governments which don't manage to extricate themselves from blackmailing will continue to suffer and will end up as failures in the dustbin of history. The present government had its share in adding to the crisis. It has failed to act swiftly and decisively towards the development of indigenous energy resources like Thar and local gas. It has instead tried to take soft and urgent courses. It indulged in much defamed Rental Power only to know later that the crisis was not of capacity but was of energy resource. Rental Power, through inferior efficiency would have only worsened the crisis and would have contributed to the circular debt. Fortunately, it could not be implemented in full as originally planned. And they have been wasting time and energies in pursuing LNG projects that the economy could hardly support. Already, the government has defaulted on IPPs and has been threatened of international litigation. This would not send a good message to international investors who alone are capable of financing the capital intensive energy projects. On the other hand, energy bureaucracy has been left alone to decide on its own without central policy co-ordination. Bureaucrats are enhancing and showing their personal efficiencies at the expense of the total sector's performance. This is like somebody polishing the furniture of a ship that is sinking."