The Other and The Look

She is still there, still waiting

2010-07-12T11:46:00.000-07:00

He left her there, all alone

She is still there, still waiting

Drifting memories keep coming back to her

Acceding her rave with divergence of her past and present

The past carries the cherished days

The days when he loved to be lost in her eyes

There were fights and sorrows

But every fight or pain never lasted longer

As it dissipated in hugs, laughter and joy

Love was life and freedom

Now he is gone with a promise to return

She is alone there, still waiting

Asleep, awake, by night or day

Hours flying by, days pass into months

Waiting for him is a special affair

Reminiscence is her best refuge

A source of happiness for her un-satiated soul

A Reminder of being alive

A hope for her desperate heart

That there will be a day when they will meet again

She awaits for him all day and night

But in her heart, also abode her fears

The fear which is her worst nightmare

What if he does not come back?

Like all those promised phone calls he never made

What if all her wait goes in vain?

Her fear and hope, her past and present

She is still there, still waiting

Traffic Chaos in Lahore– a public policy failure

2010-06-18T19:25:00.000-07:00

Traffic in Lahore city is chaotic, unruly and roads are often jam packed with both motorized and non-motorized vehicles fleet. Due to its magnanimity, rising ‘traffic’ poses a big challenge for all those institutes responsible for planning, devising and implementing transport policies.

Traffic is chaotic because drivers, whether of a bus, a wagon, a car, a rickshaw or a motorcyclist, like driving in their own peculiar way. They are always in such a hurry that most of the time they forget whether they intended to turn left or right. They don’t mind parking their vehicles on sides of congested roads without realizing that their parked vehicle may end up blocking the entire traffic flow. In case of a traffic jam, almost everyone on road, rather than waiting in vain, would worsen the traffic jam by self assuming the responsibility of the traffic wardens and devising a way out for their vehicle only. They also love honking on roads where government has advertised in Urdu “honking is prohibited on this road’.

Perhaps, following no rule is the new rule on roads. Dr. Shabih-ul-Hassan Zaidi thinks that driving license issuing authority is also to be blamed for the behavior of drivers on roads. “Currently, bribing is the standard operating procedure to obtain a driving license. Wanna-be drivers or car owners, who seek a driving license through bribe, do not have to go through the standard test and their driving licenses are delivered at their doorsteps. It is a governance failure”, he added.

Besides people’s behavior on road, there are other multiple issues which are adding up and pointing toward a public policy failure. Firstly, private vehicles (including cars and motorcycles) are increasing at an alarming rate of 12.2% per annum. Dr. Shabih-ul-Hassan Zaidi, a senior town planner was of the view that, for the past six years, the car ownership rate is growing at least five times more than the population growth rate of the country. We have also witnessed the widening of roads to accommodate the increasing number of motorized traffic. “This rapid increase in number of cars is straining the capacity of the existing road infrastructure in Lahore. But widening of roads by reducing the size of green belts is not a viable solution”, pronounced Dr. Shabih-ul-Hassan Zaidi.

One major reason for increase in number of vehicles (cars or motorcycles) is the absence of an efficient public transport system. According to the Lahore Rapid Mass Transit study 2006, there are only 1053 buses for approximately 200,000 regular commuters. In addition to buses, there are 518 mini buses, 475 mini wagons, 34156 rickshaws plying on Lahore roads but still the supply side of the existing public transport system does not match the growing public demand. Secondly, the condition of all public buses, mini buses or wagons is very terrible. Bus services such as New Khan and Daewoo, which started some ten years back, have increased their fare many times but apparently maintenance of these buses is the least priority.

Thirdly, is the role of the corporate sector which has exploited the existing gap created due to the wretched public transport system, by offering easy car leasing options to people. Now anyone with a few months of job experience can lease out a car. Neither the corporate sector nor buyers think for a second the environmental consequences of selling or buying cars. Of course, the former is aiming at more profit and the later their own convenience.

Fourthly, there is the issue of governance or the lack of it, which is exacerbating the problem. For instance, there are number of government bodies responsible for managing and planning traffic and transport issues of the city. Some of these departments include Punjab Transport Department, Traffic Engineering and Planning Authority, City district government, Urban Unit of Planning and Development Department, City Traffic Police etc. “roles and responsibilities of all these departments’ overlap. Additionally, they work in isolation and coordination is completely missing”, says Dr. Ghulam Abbas Anjum, Chairman of City and Regional Planning Department.

A joint-up government is the new approach, which requires involvement of all relevant government departments, has been employed in countries like

Australia

to solve wicked problems such as traffic congestion. Nevertheless, such an approach is completely missing in case of city Lahore. Here, the Transport Department of the Government of Punjab is developing a transport plan of the city but unfortunately, Traffic Engineering and Planning Authority has not been taken on board prior to embarking on any future transport plan. It appears that the introduction of joint-up government concept would take some time in countries like

Pakistan

Similarly, the knowledge of experts, working in various government departments of Lahore, about existing national framework for transport is also a matter of great concern. I talked to Mr. Mohammad Ozair, Senior Transport Specialist of the Urban Unit, Planning and development department and asked whether Pakistan has any national transport policy. Mr. Ozair was completely ignorant about any such policy at the national level even though such a national level policy was formulated through assistance of Asian Development Bank.

But what experts say to resolve the traffic congestion issue in Lahore. Dr. Shabih-ul-Hassan Zaidi thinks that policy planners should adopt the multi-nuclei concept of town planning. This concept entails decentralization of town centers by developing new town centers. This will reduce the traffic congestion by distributing traffic to multiple town centers. By doing so, the average travel time would also be reduced. On the contrary, Dr. Ghulam Abbas Anjum, Chairman of City and Regional Planning Department, was of the viewpoint that the only viable option is to provide an efficient public transport system to the city dwellers. “Traffic congestion would be reduced to a great extent if government considers the option of rapid mass transit bus or rapid mass transit rail system. Lahore Rapid Mass Transit Rail Project (LRMT) is already on the table but there were serious delays due to unavailability of funds”, pronounced Dr. Ghulam Abbas Anjum.

Originall posted at http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/82/traffic-chaos-in-lahore-a-public-policy-failure/

Hate Speech, Our actions and Inactions

2010-06-01T20:36:00.000-07:00

Today, I came across couple of pictures on twitter which was a clear enough evidence of how minorities are treated in Pakistan. The first picture tweeted by Beena Sarwar, a veteran Pakistani journalist, captured a banner displayed outside Lahore High Court with the slogan “Jews, Christians and Ahmedis are enemies of Islam”. The second picture, tweeted by Shahid Saeed, was of a billboard with the logo of Auqaf Department Punjab, stating “Friendship with Ahmedis is a revolt against Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)”. This kind of provocative banners and billboards perpetuate nothing but sheer hatred against minorities such as Ahmedis.

We have already witnessed the resultant effect of this hate speech on May 28^th, in a massacre of two worship places of Ahmedis, which killed at least 100 civilians and left many injured. Ironically, despite such a massive bloodshed of a minority community, the reluctance of the Government of Punjab to order removal of all such provocative banners is outrageous. Rather, Government of Punjab is allowing Auqaf Department to continue sponsoring provocative billboards to win support and avoid wrath of religious parties. By doing so, Punjab government is not only neglecting its constitutional responsibility of protecting minorities but it is also fanning hate speech against Ahmedis. Should not it be called a ‘state sponsored terrorism” against Ahmedis community?

Similarly, there are our so called leaders of religious parties who have been campaigning against Ahmedis for so many years. Recently, these religious leaders have condemned the attacks on Ahmedis but they have also declared these attacks as a western ‘conspiracy’ to build pressure on Pakistan to amend blasphemy laws, to do more for the US led war on terror and to create justification for a possible attack on southern Punjab. It is pertinent to note that these religious parties have been infusing people’s minds with such ‘conspiracy theories’ since ages. Subsequently, what they have accomplished is support from masses to spread the hate speech and also religious bigotry.

But leaders of religious parties did not limit themselves by highlighting the so called conspiracies, some of them pronounced blanket statements on minorities protection. For instance, the attention-grabbing statement by Syed Munawar Hassan, Ameer Jaamat-i-Islami, also surfaced in the media, who said that “minorities are secure in Pakistan”. Such statement seems inane if we look at the history of persecution, indiscrimination, intimidation and gross atrocities faced not only by Ahmedis but also other minorities such as Christians. Pakistan’s treatment of minorities has been called ‘worse’ time and again by the Human Rights Watch and Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. There are innumerable examples of gross atrocities committed against monitories in our country. For instance, Gojra massacre, May 28^th carnage etc. Similarly, displaying anti-Ahmedis banners and hoardings at public places and the inaction of our provincial government is a reflection for us to acknowledge that minorities are neither respected nor secure in Pakistan.

How many people protested against and condemned the May 28^th massacre on Ahmedis’ community? Well, there were only 40 people who turned-up at Islamabad press club to attend the protest and same goes with other cities of Pakistan. On the contrary, on May 31, country wide protests were arranged in Pakistan to condemn Israel’s attack on a flotilla of aid ships going to Gaza. Does not this attitude elucidate our double standards? We are in a state of denial and live with our own prejudices. We are intolerant toward minorities (whether Ahmedis, Christians or Hindus); we disrespect them and deny their fundamental rights. We don’t reflect upon our own actions and inactions and blame others for hatching conspiracies against us.

Rehman Malik on Twitter - Is it a news worth reporting???

2010-05-26T22:19:00.000-07:00

Across the world politicians use popular social networking sites such as facebook and twitter not only to mobilize people (particularly younger generation) but also to win their hearts and minds. It is very much normal considering the modern age's information and communication revolution and the advent of technology. Nevertheless, why is it such a surprise if Pakistani politicians, following footprints of their western counterparts, also join such social networking sites? Recently, Interior Minister Rehman Malik has joined twitter after the facebook ban in the country. Surprisingly, ‘Rehman Malik's Joining the Twitter bandwagon” is big news in Pakistan as both print and electronic media reporters have consumed their energies yesterday in reporting this unprecedented holy event. It is pertinent to note that all the news reports, highlighting Rehman Malik’s joining the twitter, point out the same thing such as : Why Rehman Malik joined twitter, how many people are following him at present, what sort of questions followers are asking from him and what replies our Interior Minister has furnished so far.

This news, first reported by Chris Allbritton of Reuter, was also filed by Pakistani journalists with the same vigor (and a little bit of editing as the contents remains more or less same as that of Chris Allbritton’s report). But this raises few questions:

Firstly, Rehman Malik Joining Twitter is really some news worth publishing particularly when there are hundreds of stories (worth publishing) being ignored by Pakistani media. For instance, there was no coverage of PC hotel workers strike in Karachi though it was actively covered by Pakistani bloggers like Dr. Awab Alvi. Similarly, there was no media coverage of Mai Jori Jamali’s election campaign, a peasant woman who contested bi-elections in Balochistan. Likewise, press conference of Dr Awab Alvi and other activists on facebook ban and consequent manhandling of Dr. Awab Alvi by angry mobsters (including some journalists) was also not covered by the media?? Why? Only because all (the cases which I mentioned above) were raising their voice against status quo?
Secondly, why media exert their energies on reporting on non-issues when there is a plethora of real issues? We have always been hearing by our politicians and development workers that media could play a role of a change agent because of its level of influence and reach to common people. In that regard, why women issues are given less coverage? Why corruption in society is not highlighted the way it should be?? Why gross human rights violations are never surfaced??
Thirdly, why media has such an ambiguous stand on certain issues, for instance facebook ban?? Is not this ban anti ‘freedom of speech’ and if yes then why media is not very vocal and express what is rational???

I don’t have any answer to these questions but I would request my readers to shed some light on questions, I underlined above, and enlighten me with their responses. Besides, if you guys would like to read the news of Rehman Malik joining twitter and want to get amused then you can find it here, here and here….

Note: originally posted at http://islamabad.metblogs.com/

Women Employment in Public Sector in Pakistan

2010-05-25T13:22:00.000-07:00

In Pakistan, the popular aphorism is that the concentration of women workforce is higher in education and health sectors compared to other sectors such as engineering, telecommunication etc. Perhaps, women would be working more as teachers, doctors or nurses but at large, proportion of women working at administrative or decision-making posts in education and health departments also present a very dismal picture particularly when the government’s initiative of increasing women’s employment in public sector is concerned.

Women’s meagre participation in the public sector is not specific to one province or locality, but all provincial departments are by large male dominated. In one of the discussion fora in Karachi, I heard Mehtab Akbar Rashidi, former secretary culture, government of Sindh, saying that “out of 28 government departments in Karachi, only two women are working at the decision making level”. Experts quote gender stereo-typing as one main reason for the prevalent gender gap in government offices.

The recently accumulated statistics by the Ministry of Labor and Manpower confirm that a significant gender-gap exists in Pakistan’s public sector. At present, women constitute only 10.7% of the total workforce in the country and their proportion in public sector is even less than 2%. Another study commissioned by the National Commission on the Status of Women reveals the absence of women from decision-making positions in the public sector. In lieu of the situation, NCSW had recommended the government to allocate a 50% quota for women in all public sector jobs. Nevertheless, NCSW’s recommendation has never been adopted by the government due to a lack of political will.

Later on, the Government of Pakistan, as a pre-condition of availing technical assistance from the Asian Development Bank, introduced the Gender Reform Action Plan with women employment in the public sector as being one of the key reform areas. As per the GRAP policy, the government aims to take measures at both pre and post induction stages in order to engender the entire induction process. Proposed with an intention to encourage more women to join public sector, these measures include:

“Establishment of career development centers for young female graduates; affirmative advertisement of public sector vacancies; reservation of employment quota for women in all public sector jobs; inclusion of at least one woman member on every selection or departmental promotion committee; appointing at least 3 women members on the Federal Services Commission and enforcement of code of ethics to protect women from sexual harassment at workplace and so on and so froth”.

The overall picture of achievements of policy measures to enhance women’s participation in the public sector is still very murky. Recent findings of a research study conducted by the Citizens Commission on Human Development highlights that the GRAP has not achieved its key policy objective of increasing women employment in public sector both at the federal and provincial levels. Instead of the proposed 25% quota a meagre 10% quota has been introduced through a directive from the Establishment Division at the federal level. While in key departments women friendly infrastructure( rest rooms, toilets, day care centres) has either been up-graded or developed, where found missing.

In case of Punjab, career development centres in four public sector universities have been established and an internship program is underway too. Even though there is no scientific data available on the success of initiatives being taken, an ADB representative from Punjab opined that career development initiatives have no visible impact so far due to delays in implementation. While in the remaining three provinces (Sindh, Balochistan and Pakhtoon Khawa) the progress is almost negligible due to multiple reasons such as lack of ownership, issues of capacities, inadequate planning and gender partial policy framework.

There is a realization among key government functionaries and parliamentarians about the slow progress in increasing the proportion of women employees in all government offices. For instance, Ms. Tauqir Fatima Bhutto, Minister of Women Development Sindh, in a public debate organized by the CCHD, pronounced that

“Women development department had conducted an assessment of all departments to check whether women employees make-up at least 10% of total workforce and we find out that women were even less than 2%. The women development department has also apprised the Chief Minister time and again about the progress made so far. All departments have been requested to send reports specifying percentage of women but the response is very luke- warm. We can not achieve our policy objective without full cooperation of all relevant departments”.

But this realization is not enough for bringing a transformation in our society. What is needed is a change of men’s mindset, who are responsible for policymaking in majority of cases. If this doesn’t happen, then GRAP and its accompanying set of reforms will be reminiscent of all previously envisaged policies, concerning women empowerment and equality, which were only words and no actions. Women rights activists believe that with a large number of women parliamentarians in national and provincial assemblies, this is the right time to make headways to mainstreaming gender in public institutions, process and policies.

As I let myself sink

2010-05-24T03:16:00.000-07:00

Walking on this never ending dark alley

Do I Know Where I am?

And where are you?

Weren’t you there a while ago?

Standing besides me, holding my hand

Smiling and crying

Promising me to never leave me alone

Or was it just a dream?

What am I doing in this dark alley?

Looking for those lost moments?

Searching for you, your smile and your promises

Drowning myself in my own tears

Where are you? I look again

I close my eyes

I see some light

And I saw you standing there

Saying good-bye

You turned around with apathy, Ah, and I saw you go

Don’t leave me, I hear myself crying

You did not hear that

You are too hurriedly walking away; yes away from me

Something breaks inside me with a bang

Something bleeds too

And I stand like a stone while you disappeared in the dark

Yes, it is dark inside too; I don’t know why

I open my eyes to find hope outside

Ah, I am in that purgatory dark lane again

Guarded by my own tears, and my own sorrow

Numbness creeps inside me

I succumb myself to water

Letting myself sink deep down there

Remembering (Ah, memory)

Once you said

“I am water and you are fire”,

I let myself sink in water

Because water is you…..

No Water Conservation Drive??

2010-05-12T03:28:00.000-07:00

Today, on my way to the office, I had a short conversation with my office driver on hot weather in Lahore and the ‘brilliant’ coping strategy adopted by him for dealing with the heat waves during nights. The driver apprised me that at night he leaves a running water pipe in his room cooler so that water in the room cooler does not finish off in the middle of night. Surprised at his inane approach, I asked him that is not he contributing toward wasting our already ‘depleting’ water resources. My office driver gave an outstanding reply to me saying “No, water is available in abundance in Pakistan. I have installed a water boring machine and a big water storage tank in my house. Every day, I pump water through that boring machine in the water storage tank. The stored water is sufficient enough for my family even if I leave one tap running the whole night”. The bottom line of his message was: My water tank is full and it belongs to me. I have the full authority to use it the way I want .Even I can leave one tap open at night for my own convenience and it is no wastage”.

Whether call this attitude ignorance or lack of civic responsibility but wasting water is widespread in

Pakistan

, a country which is declared as ‘water scarce’ in 2009 research conducted by the Woodrow Wilson Centre. In urban centers like Lahore, People would leave their taps running for hours in their houses, or they would wash their houses and streets everyday (though after washing streets they do not mind littering the streets with the same fervor, hence wasting not only water but also their own effort of cleaning the street) or they would wash their cars everyday for hours besides cursing the government for not providing them electricity for 24 hours everyday. Contrarily to this, in remote part of the country people do not get clean water to drink and there women have to cover a long distance to fetch water for drinking and other household uses. But do we know and do we care that water resources are not easily accessible to many Pakistanis.

But do they know that Pakistan has scarce water resources and the rapidly growing population of the country is further exhausting the limited water resources. Or that only 10% of available water resources have been allocated for consumption (for drinking and sanitation purposes) at the household level for the entire population of the country. Or that besides wastage of water by them, there are also system losses or leakages in municipal water supply system. Perhaps they also do not know about the very recent prediction by the Water and Development Authority that the per capita availability of water in

Pakistan

will further decrease from 1,038 cubic meters in 2010 to 809 cubic meters in 2025. Or that in wake of current water crisis, some responsibility also fall on their shoulders to discontinue old practices of wasting of water.

And why the common masses do not know all these facts? Because, our national media (both print and electronic) is busy in selling products ( beverages, shampoos etc) but its role in spreading awareness pertaining to water conservation to the general public is completely non-existent. Meanwhile, in developed countries such as Australia (which is also a water deficient country), electronic media (television) is actively engaged in spreading water conservation awareness (including recycling of rain water) to Australian population. Similarly, our government is also silent on this issue and same goes with the non-state actors or civil society organizations, whose efforts on promoting water conservation in the country are not very visible. In short, a collective approach for water conservation is altogether missing, which requires all stakeholders including policy-makers, civil society organizations, media and common people to strive toward one goal of using water rationally and responsibly.

Pakistan

commemorates World Water Day every year; on this year’s water day, the participating organizations (government and non-government) vowed to raise awareness across the country on water conservation. But that pledge, like many more pledges, has not yet materialized in concrete actions. Perhaps, government and non-government actors are waiting for the next year World Water Day to make the same pledge again of ‘awareness pertaining to water conservation’.

Gift in Kind : A case of 1 MillionShirts

2010-05-02T07:33:00.000-07:00

For the past few days, many international aid workers were tweeting on Twitter about 1 MillionShirts. With an interest in ‘Aid Effectiveness’, I also re-tweeted whatever information I received from the people I follow on twitter. Like my fellow tweepls, my aim was to generate public awareness on effectiveness of ill-thought out gift-in-kind aid projects such as the 1 MillionShirts.

So what is this 1 MillionShirts? Well, a lot has already been written about this specific project by international aid workers which can be found here. But to update readers of this blog, let me provide you a succinct brief on 1 MillionShirts: A guy @iwearyourshirt aka Jason, with no prior experience or knowledge of international development work, one day , came up with the idea of helping poor people living in Africa. He assumed providing clothes to poor people is one of their urgent needs so he should collect used shirts along with US$ 1 (the shipment cost for single shirt) which later on will be sent to Africa for subsequent distribution to people in dire need of clothes. Considering it a novel idea, the guy also applied for registration of his organization as non-profit under 501C3 (simply to avoid taxes as his website suggests) in Colorado and initiated his campaign (on twitter) of collecting used shirts. He also entered into partnership with two relief organizations ‘H.E.L.P. International’ and ‘Water is life’. It is pertinent to note here that these afore mentioned organizations despite their experience of working in international development and relief work, agreed to 1 MillionShirts idea.

What went wrong here?? Well, the guy @iwearyourshirt aka Jason did not bother researching on internet about what sort of aid ideas are worth doing and what sort of aid ( in-kind or cash) would foster what kind of positive or negative impact.

What went well here? A quick response from international aid workers was surfaced, thanks to the advent of technology and internet due to which, these days, information travels as faster and quicker as the speed of light. Some of the development workers (@texasinafrica; @TalesFromthHood; @saundra_s; @Katrinskaya;@Michael_Keizer; @morealitude; @tmsruge; @alanna_shaikh; @meowtree;@IdealistNYC) learnt about this shirt idea and hence a debate began about the issue. International aid workers not only criticize 1 MillionShirts idea but they also furnished some recommendations. And what did they discuss: 1 MillionShirts idea is bad.

And why did international aid worker think it was a bad idea to send 1 millionshirts to Africa. Aid workers furnished a number of reasons: Firstly, according to them providing clothing to needy people in Africa or elsewhere is a noble act but it is not one of the urgent or immediate needs (such as medicine, food etc) that are to be met in the short run. Secondly, Africa has cloth manufacturers and if somebody is that interested in providing clothing to Africans then those clothes which are produced in local markets should be procured rather than the second hand imported clothes. From experience of international development workers, one thing is evident that such a supply of second hand cloths is definitely going to affect the African cloth manufacturers, this has already happened in case of Zambia in 1991(discussed here in detail). Thirdly, there are huge logistics / shipping costs involved which can be avoided if aid commodities are procured locally.

Is 1 MillionShirts idea really that bad? The criticism of development workers is to the point and timely. I will add some thing from my experience of volunteering for October 8 Earthquake in Pakistan, because it somehow relates to this 1 Million Shirts idea. I tell you, many voluntary groups had appealed to people of Pakistan to donate clothes for earthquake victims. People responded generously to the request of voluntary groups and even they had donated their ‘wedding clothes’ which were completely unfit in severe cold weather, hence, majority of such clothes were dumped in heaps despite the fact some shipping cost also incurred on them.

Then question arises, if gift in kind ( such as clothes, shoes etc) are not the right kind of donation then what people can give to help the needy people living in their own country or in some other country. The answer to that question is ‘cash’ because development workers normally conducts need assessments after every disaster (it had happened in case of October 8 Earthquake in Pakistan) and prioritize the needs requiring immediate attention. If donations are given in ‘cash’ rather than in kind than it not only makes the work of development/relief workers much easier but it also contributes in addressing the immediate needs.

Getting back to 1 MillionShirts Idea, when I first heard about this, the first thing which came to my mind was the Paris Declaration on ‘Aid’s Effectiveness’ and I thought since USA is one of the party of the Paris Declaration and the Accra Agenda for Action, then perhaps there would be a proper channel in the USA to streamline or keep a check on private aid flows of non-profits such as 1 MillionShirts. I raised the same question here and got a response from @saundra_s, who is trying to create awareness on ‘donor education and impact of aid’. According to @saundra_s, registering as a non-profit is quite an easy task in the USA; it’s not obligatory on non-profits to follow good aid practices and standards, principles or practices imposed on non-profits are voluntary”.

Now this is another dimension of how bad aid ideas are usually generated [kindly note that 1 MillionShirts is not the first project of this nature, there have been other such as projects as sole for souls]. Should it be mandatory on non-profits to follow certain procedures, practices or standards while planning their projects, then perhaps ideas such as 1 MillionShirts would have been tackled from the very beginning. This reflects the need for more rigorous regulations on non-profits in the USA in order to contribute toward effectiveness of aid and fulfilling the commitment made under Accra Agenda for Action. It also requires educating donors (people who give donations) about in-kind or cash aid and its impact, something which @saundra_s and many other international aid workers are advocating for.

Where is my teacher?

2010-04-30T05:47:00.000-07:00

" I am in school today to study but our teacher is absent for the last two days", says this beautiful little girl who was playing in the school with other girls because their teacher was absent . True, many teachers in remote villages of Punjab either arrive at least two-hours late to school or remain absent without any prior information simply because there is no check and balance in place. Teachers' frequent absenteeism in schools definitely have serious repercussions not only on delivery of education but also on the objective of keeping these girls' students in schools. Currently, poor parents, in remote areas such as Rohjan Tehsil, District Rajanpur, despite their poverty are sending these girls' to school only because they want their daughters to be educated. But teachers' absenteeism could let parents think otherwise. Are we going to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of Universal Primary Education by 2015 with frequent teacher absenteeism in schools of remote areas? Who is accountable here?? Government? School Teachers?

Energy Conservation Drive: Is passing of orders good enough to bring behavioral change??

2010-04-30T04:56:00.000-07:00

Recently the incumbent government, as part of its energy conservation drive, has announced two weekly holidays and 9:00am-8:00pm market timings across Pakistan. The logic behind this hasty policy decision is that by implementing these steps the government will be able to reduce consumption of electricity / fuel and overcome the worsening power shortage in the country. Some people (of course government officials) are cherishing this decision while others (traders and common consumers) are criticizing it. This made me think: are we civilized enough that we will change our behavior by mere governmental orders?

I was in Multan the day when this decision was notified by the government. The next day (Saturday), I had a visit scheduled to few basic health units in Muzaffargarh. At around 8:30 pm on April 23^rd, I received a telephone call from a district officer informing me “Please plan your visit on some other day as Saturday’ is an official holiday and hence all the basic health units would be closed on April 24^{th “.}

The district officer appeared quiet excited on the prospect of getting two days off each week and simply said ‘We have to follow the government’s decision government” when I asked him perhaps there is some misunderstanding in interpreting the government’s order as how the government could order closing down of health facilities for two days each week?

I was amazed at how swiftly this decision was implemented by the government officials, despite the fact that their source of information was TV and they had not received anything in written. It is also pertinent to note that these government officials do not work the whole day and their normal practice every day is arriving one hour late and leaving one hour early. I asked the district official why all the government officials don’t follow government’s timings with the same enthusiasm. In response, I heard ‘laughter’ and I felt as if I was hitting my head against a wall. Let me add something ironic here, health centers remain closed on April 24^th and later on I read in the newspaper this ‘Saturday’ holiday was not meant to be implemented in government hospitals and health centers.

The same night, I received many telephone calls from the government officials (health and education departments) I liaison with on daily basis. The crux of all such telephone calls was ‘Woohoo, we’ve also got two weekly holidays’. I was utterly amazed at the welcoming of the ‘two weekly’ holidays by the government officials particularly when we all know the productivity of these government officials.

Let me give you an example of how serious they are when it is about ‘work’/ or to what extent work is their prime priority. Yesterday, I had a meeting scheduled with two of the government officials, X and Y, of the education department in my office. Mr. X did not attend the meeting and continued furnishing one lame excuse after another when I called him to inquire whether he is going to attend the meeting or not. Later on Mr. Y informed me that Mr X was busy dealing with his ‘family’ issue during office hours. Mr Y had shown up for the meeting but he was completely un-prepared. Consequently, I had to push him to agree on certain deadlines and apprise me by Friday of the progress. Before leaving my office, Mr Y informed me that he would be visiting his sister now instead of going back to office. Well, yes one meeting a day is too much of a work for the government officials and despite getting one more holiday they will not deliver what is expected from them.

On the other hand, traders and consumers appear very concerned on new market timings of 9:00am-8:00pm. Traders have shown their reservations quiet blatantly and have demanded the government to take remove this time limit. I know from my experience of living in

Australia

the normal market timings are 9:00am-6:00pm and there I never saw neither traders nor customers complaining about narrow market timings simply because they are organized and follow rules and regulations.

Nevertheless, here in Pakistan 9:00am – 8:00pm market timing limit has made both traders and consumers unhappy. Traders are not following the newly introduced timings and small market shops remain open as late as 11:00 pm. I talked to few working class women to get their views on early closure of markets and get their response as “After office, it is too hot to go outside and shop.

The option of shopping at night suits us more and also we are used to it now. Why government is making such a ‘stupid’ decision’. Irony is that neither the traders are willing to logically think that if they open their shops at sharp 9:00 and close them at sharp 8:00pm then by hook or by crook their customers will get used to it and hence it won’t have any impact on their sale. Similarly, the working class also fails to see that they are already getting ‘ Saturday’ as a holiday which they can utilize for ‘shopping’ and it is only that they have to organize their daily routine .

Certainly, behavioral change is not that easy. Introduction of two weekly holidays for government officials does not mean that government will do away with their other ill habits such as not following official timings and not delivering when it is required. Similarly, we are not sure whether the new market timings will be implemented in true spirit because people who are responsible for getting them enforced are themselves ‘government officials’.

At the end I really would like to ask a question from the government: Should we expect three days off per week next year if the power crisis continues at the same frequency?

We measure crop in bodies (b)

2010-04-20T06:06:00.000-07:00

Struggling Below the Poverty Line

2010-03-29T09:42:00.000-07:00

Life is not easy for millions of people living in urban and rural areas of

Pakistan

. The country is witnessing a worse energy crisis of all times, which has resulted in low industrial productivity, down turned economy, high inflation rate and high incidence of poverty. Similarly, unemployment is on the rise and more and more people find themselves trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty.

According to the State Bank of Pakistan’s Annual Report 2009, approximately 70 million people live below the poverty line in

Pakistan

. This implies that their daily earning is less than one dollar a day (80 Pakistani Rupees). This incidence of poverty is at least six times higher than that of 1999. This is also reflective of the fact that

Pakistan

is far behind in accomplishing the millennium development goal of reducing the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day.

Less rainfall and the continuous drought like situation in the country is also adding to this high occurrence of poverty. The aftermath of less rainfall is the reduction in the yield of the agricultural produce such as wheat, which is the main staple food of the country. Consequently, this year the price of essential commodities, such as flour and sugar, has increased at least 80 % and 152 % respectively.

Despite this price hike, there is no rise in people’s monthly income. The escalated food prices have a severe impact on people’s buying capacity of essential food items. People’s purchasing capacity has decreased manifold as compared to the past. According to an estimate; today people spend more than 50 % of their monthly income on buying essential food commodities. As a result of sky rocketing food prices and low buying capacity of people, the food insecurity is also on rise.

Based on the prevalent food insecurity in

Pakistan

, the International Food Policy Research Institute has ranked

Pakistan

at number 61, out of 88 countries, on Global Hunger Index 2009. This ranking suggests that in Pakistan, the number of malnourished children, calorie deficient people and child mortality are ‘alarming’ with widespread food insecurity problems ( hunger, poverty, malnourishment, undernourishment etc) prevalent in 95 districts ( 79 % of total 121 districts) of Pakistan.

In such a scenario where people spend a major portion of their meager income on buying food items or when they do not have enough money to feed themselves and their families, other basic necessities such as education and health needs of the family, particularly of girls and women, are completely ignored. Instead of investing more on food insecurity, health and education; the government has downsized its Public Sector Development programs by 40 % to address its growing security needs resulting from the spread of terrorism in the country.

Rather than cutting down Public Sector Development Programs, the Government of Pakistan needs to invest more on programs and projects with a focus on poverty reduction, food insecurity, health and education. Additionally government should also provide appropriate safety-nets to the poor and vulnerable to help them mitigate the negative impacts of soaring food prices and poverty.

Given the grim picture of state of affairs pertaining to increase in poverty and food insecurity, the role of organizations such as World Food Programme becomes crucial. In partnership with the government and its various other cooperating partners (NGOs), WFP is not only addressing the short-term hunger needs of the poor and vulnerable communities but its food assistance is also contributing toward increasing girls’ primary schools enrollment as well as promoting safe motherhood across Pakistan.

However, to help those struggling below the poverty line in

Pakistan

and across the world, WFP needs your support and action. To find out how you can help WFP, please click here..

Pakistan’s Poli-tricking (Reality) Show

2010-03-27T14:05:00.000-07:00

The political arena of

Pakistan

mocks all Pakistanis in their faces, for their decision of electing and giving power to all the incumbent politicians, who these days are busy showing ridiculous poli-tricking to all ordinary Pakistanis. Pakistani citizens have witnessed numerous stints of our elected politicians since the day of the first session of the incumbent parliament. This poli-tricking show is like the famous reality show, True Man Show , which is broadcasted live 24 hours a day. We, the ordinary citizens, can not escape any of its episodes, no matter wherever we go, whatever we do, and how bad are the performing politicians.

Most of the time, this live poli-tricking show also gives us a taste of Indian Soap Dramas, where various political parties would be either in some love-hate relationship or seen as playing roles of ‘Saas and Bahu’ . Audience (we, the people) can easily guess who is ‘Saas(mother-in-law)’ and who is ‘Bahu(sister-in-law)’. Let us not forget that in making this poli-tricking show a ‘reality’, ‘Establishment’ worked untiringly and provided back the stage support to all the elected cast, and also continued adding various spices and missing ingredients to it.

To recall, the very first episode of the poli-tricking show was a love-love relationship when the major political parties, for the first time in Pakistani history, formed an alliance to run this country which is now considered as one of the most dangerous state of the world. Though appreciated by the general audience, this love-love relationship was very short lived and as said and written time and again by both the print and electronic journalists, ‘came to its logical conclusion’. The bone of contention between various political actors was the issue of reinstatement of deposed judges and the repeal of the notorious 17^th Amendment.

In the next episode of this famous reality show, deposed Judges were reinstated and this action was commemorated as the ‘Independence of judiciary’. The Judiciary became so ‘independent’ that our reinstated Chief Justice had taken ‘Sou Motu Notice’ many times including that of the National Reconciliation Ordinance. The much ‘applauded’ step of our Herculean Chief Justice was of making the National Reconciliation Ordinance null and void.

The Chief Justice also had a tough wrestling match with the presidency on the issue of appointment of judges, which by the grace of Establishment and the PML-N was won again by our Herculean Chief Justice and ‘independent’ judiciary. Till-to-date, the Chief Justice has got his own ‘wanted’ judges appointed to the Supreme Court and yes as goes the saying ‘ Judiciary is more Independent now as compared to the past in the history of Pakistan’. But ironically, despite its touted ‘independence’ the judiciary has not yet been able to clear the backlog and pending cases, consequently, ordinary citizens are still denied the due ‘justice’. But, it does not matter if the judiciary is inept and lazy but let us not forget that it is ‘Independent’.

And coming to the current episode, the political stage is all set for the ‘Constitutional Reforms’ package. Besides, our two heroes, General Ashfaq Kiyani and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, have recently been to Uncle Sam’s land for playing a ‘strategic dialogue’ with their shopping basket / wish list in their hands. Though our heroes have returned back home with a few carrots but how many sticks they have received is yet to be seen. In the next episode of ‘strategic dialogue, game play will be resumed again in coming months in Islamabad (perhaps not from the very beginning).

Nevertheless, the current episode is equally entertaining with ‘Constitutional Reforms’ taking a new twist. When a couple of days back, Nawaz Sharif of PML-N in one of his (foolish) stunts , has surprised everyone by expressing his reservations on the Constitutional Reforms package prepared by the Raza Rabbani’s Constitutional Reforms Committee. The hallmark of Nawaz Sharif’s action was two hurriedly called press conferences to express his ‘principled stand’ and show his love for ‘democracy’.

But throughout this whole two years poli-tricking show, the general audiences were comfortably numbed by the suicide blasts, the electricity and water shortage and the rising food prices. We, the people still do not know the future of this ‘reality show’ as some ‘hidden hand’ is busy in planning and staging the next episode for us. Yet, this reality show has confirmed the notion that ‘democracy is the best revenge’ and all the political actors of our reality show are busy taking revenge from each other in their own defined ‘(un)democratic way’.

Violence, fraudulent voting, rigging –Elections and Pakistan

2010-03-25T08:58:00.000-07:00

In 2008, I got an opportunity to work with the Victorian Election Commission, Australia. The task assigned to me (and many other hundreds like me) was to enter the votes casted in various constituencies in a specifically designed database for the 2008 Local Government Elections of Victoria, one of the states of Australia. Let me describe here a few things which I observed while feeding the ballot papers’ results into the computer database. Firstly, candidates and their authorized campaigners were present in the building to oversee the whole election results compilation process.

Secondly, to my surprise, neither the candidates nor their supporters chanted slogans, or had a fight or exchange of bad words with each other. Thirdly, the whole process was very smooth and transparent for the reason that each candidate’s authorized campaigners were allowed to stand beside each data entry operator to better gauge the vote entry process. Fourthly, the Election Commission’ staff was treating all candidates equally. The election results were accepted by all candidates and no complaint of unfairness or rigging were heard from the losing candidates. To me as an outsider to Australian system of governance and voting, the whole process seemed very democratic, free and fair. But then the question arises what is free and fair election process?

An election process is termed as ‘free’ if it does not breach fundamental rights and freedoms such as: freedom of speech, expression, association; freedom to register as a voter/candidate; freedom from violence and freedom of access to the polls by electors, party agents and accredited observers etc. Similarly, the electoral process will be ‘fair’ if all parties, elector and candidates are provided with a level playing field. Other important components which are needed to organize ‘fair’ elections include: a non-partisan electoral commission / organization, equitable treatment of electors, candidates and parties by elections officials, the government, the police, the military and the judiciary, an open and transparent ballot counting process. As a matter of fact, the Australian election process reflects what I have already described as ‘free and fair’.

Since ‘free and fair’ has become an international yard stick to judge the quality of elections anywhere in the world, let us discuss whether the election process in Pakistan is free and fair? Not really, elections in Pakistan are always hallmarked by fraudulent voting and unfairness. The losing political party / groups are always alleging the winning party/group of rigging in elections. Violence and intimidation are common tactics employed to harass the opposing political parties and their electors. Police is deployed to tackle incidents of violence at the polling stations but still due to intolerant culture of political parties such incidents are unavoidable. For counting votes and compilation of results, the same outdated manual counting system is used which lacks transparency. To cite as an example, the case in point is the yesterday’s by-election of PP-111 in Gujrat, where there was a tough contest between PML-N (the ruling party of Punjab) and PML-Q.

As reported in today’s Dawn, The PML-N’s candidate has won the by-election in PP-111 with a very thin margin (3000 votes only). Nevertheless, PML-Q leadership is accusing the ruling party of attacking the women’s polling stations, torturing the presiding officers and also of damaging the polling material. A preliminary report issued by the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN), an independent election observer group comprising 30 leading civil society organizations, also confirms that Gujrat by-election was marked by fraudulent voting and interference by unauthorized persons particularly police officers appointed at the polling stations. FAFEN observers have also highlighted that the supporters of the contesting candidates were sloganeering and canvassing within the limits of the polling stations, which in reality is a sheer violation of the rules set under the election laws.

FAFEN observers have also pointed out other important shortcomings particularly pertaining to the electoral rolls and use of CNIC for voting. According to the observer group, the same 2008 general elections’ electoral rolls were used in Gujrat by-election. Additionally, voters were allowed to cast vote without the CNIC. It is pertinent to note that this is not the first time FAFEN has underlined massive anomalies involved in elections in Pakistan. The question is whether the responsible government institutions i.e. election commission ever took notice of the observations and recommendations of independent election observer groups such as FAFEN to further improve the electoral process?

A number of reasons can be pronounced about inability of the election commission of Pakistan to take into consideration the recommendations of the independent election observant groups. For instance capacity constraint issues, bureaucratic sluggishness which is the hallmark characteristics of all government departments and impartiality of the election commission itself. Certainly, Election Commission is suffering from capacity constraints issue as most of the funding provided by the international bilateral organizations such as USAID, focuses on providing material support (ballot boxes, security seals) and raising public awareness on vote casting etc.

Similarly, Election Commission’s impartiality has also been questioned time and again by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. In a situation like ours where Election Commission is not independent and impartial, should we assume that real democracy or democratic values can be promoted in Pakistan? Critics such as Jennifer Windsor argues that elections alone cannot promote democracy when the existing institutions lack transparency. In such a situation elections in fact become the vehicle for politicians who seek to protect their position and gain access to power. This has happened very frequently in Pakistan in almost all elections. The question is should the government or its institutions or key political parties continue doing business as usual or is this the time that we adopt democratic values of free and fairness and develop a culture to promote real democracy in our country?

Equal Rights and Equal Opportunities: Progress for All

2010-03-05T23:21:00.000-08:00

International Women’s Day (March 8) is just a few days away. Marked as a global day for almost a century, this day is meant for celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women. Theme for this year’s International Woman’s Day is ‘Equal Right and Equal Opportunities: Progress for All”. Irrespective of the common women’s awareness regarding the significance of this day, civil society organizations and women’s rights activists groups will commemorate it across

Pakistan

. Everybody with some awareness of human rights will acknowledge the importance of this day regarding the women’s rights groups’ struggle for the emancipation of women allover

Pakistan

. However, on this auspicious day, there is a need to specifically analyze the progress

Pakistan

has made throughout last year on the gender front or the steps the Pakistani government has taken for the emancipation and progress of Pakistani women.

Let us begin with the policy matters first. The incumbent government has proved itself as progressive and has received applause and appreciation from the women’s rights groups after having passed two Bills: The Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Bill and the Criminal Law Amendment Bill. Both of the Bills are meant to redress sexual intimidation faced by women at work places and would definitely play a pivotal role in making workplaces women friendly if the women folk have the awareness about the existence of such laws and if the prescribed redress mechanisms are made available for working women in letter and spirit. On the contrary, the government has been criticized for letting the Bill on domestic violence lapsed, only because of the criticism of one member of the Senate who stated that banning violence against women would increase the divorce rate in the country.

The status of those institutions responsible for dealing with policy issues concerning women was in dismal last year. Even though

Pakistan

has a ministry of women development the office of the minister of women development has not yet been handed over to any member of the parliament. Likewise, there is a National Commission on the Status of Women mandated to analyze policies from a gender perspective. Nevertheless, the women’s commission, which in reality is supposed to act as a watchdog on women issues, is struggling with institutional capacity constraints, limited funding, and autonomy issues.

In respect of women’s participation in politics,

Pakistan

has made good progress over the years and the present provincial and national parliaments shows a good number of women parliamentarians on board. However, the level of awareness of these women parliamentarians on women issues is doubtful. To what extent our women parliamentarians believe in women emancipation can be gauged from the recent suggestions put forward by Ms Samina Khawar Hayat, a member of Punjab provincial assembly. She proposed amending the existing laws thereby allowing men to re-marry without the consent of their first wife rather than increasing 18 % job quota for women aged 30 and above. Indisputably, with such women representatives in the parliament reluctant to raise their voice in favor of women, the struggle for emancipation and gender equality is getting hampered severely in

Pakistan

Besides these legislative and institutional issues and irrespective of how strong or weak they are, let us have a look on our women’s momentary status in the economy and education sector. According to the federal bureau of statistics, women’s participation in labor force is 6.2 % in urban areas and 17.88 % in rural areas as compared to men’s labor force participation of 49.88 % and 49.08 % respectively. The average monthly income of working women both in urban and rural areas is half of the average monthly income of their male counterparts. Keeping in view the women’s labor force participation and average monthly income, it can be inferred that the percentage of women employed at decision-making level is negligible as compared to men. As part of the Gender Reform Action Plan the government had reserved a 10 % job quota for women employment in the public sector for encouraging women to join government institutions. However, the progress on this policy directive is moderate so far.

Similar tendencies can be observed in the education sector. The women literacy rate is 41.75 % and total female enrolment is 44 %, which is comparatively less than other South Asian countries. Despite such bad literacy rates insurgent groups are blowing up girls’ schools in FATA every other day where education for women and girls has a major importance. Having said that,

Pakistan

’s disappointing rank among the bottom ten listed countries on the 2009 Gender Equity Index doesn’t come as a surprise. A lot has yet to be done by the government to reduce gender inequality in the country. The status of women can only be improved if the government takes substantial measures. Rather than allowing women related laws to be lapsed it has to create equal opportunities for women. Otherwise, another international women’s day will come and pass without any substantial progress or even a deterioration of the women’s situation in this country. It is time to focus on the development of women since it will lead to a ‘Progress for All’.

The bad and the ugly plagiarism – the case of The News

2010-02-18T10:57:00.000-08:00

On February 14, 2010 a column “Smokers’ Corner: A herd of sheep?” by a veteran columnist Nadeem F. Paracha was published in Dawn, a leading Pakistani English newspaper. However, four days later on February 18, 2010 the same write-up, by a different catch line and a different author, appeared in the Opinion section of The News, another widely read Pakistani English newspaper. The catch line of the article published in The News is ‘Our Middle Class’ and the contributor’s name is Agha Haider Raza, who happens to be a blogger.

It is not clear yet whether Agha Haider Raza has tried playing some prank with The News but certainly it is a clear case of plagiarism and a breach of copyrights. The word plagiarism as defined in dictionary is literary theft and any writer can be accused of committing such a thievery if he/she copies any other writer’s language or idea without giving proper acknowledgment to the original writer.

This news has stirred a reaction on twitter, which is a social networking website. Nadir Hassan, who writes for the Newsline Magazine, broke this news first on tweeter and he appeared surprised that how any one could think of plagiarizing Nadeem F. Paracha aka NFP with a supposition that such an act would go un-noticed. Kulsoom Lakhani, who blogs at CHUP was amazed and questioned why Agha Haider Raza had sent that particular piece as his own write-up to The News, despite the fact that he had written NFP’s name as the author in his own blog.

Another famous blogger Tazeen, suspected the judgment of the editors of The News that they had published such a plagiarized article without any verification. But Agha Haider Raza’s plagiarism case is not the only one in the history of Pakistani media. Earlier on January 15, 2009 Owais Ehsan of Pro-Pakistan blog had criticized Geo TV for copying two paragraphs of his article ‘‘Shakeel Siddiqui Pakistani Comedian Beaten Up in India’. Similarly, on February 13, 2009 Kashif Aziz of Chowrangi had also registered his protest of Daily Times’ copying one of his post about a school in Karachi.

It is worth mentioning, that earlier the blame of plagiarism was generally placed on Pakistani students and academics. However, with the surfacing of the information of plagiarism of NFK’s article by Agha Haider Raza and few other cases cited above, it can be inferred that even the Pakistani media is not free of such ills. But the question remains that what impact would such news carry for The News. Certainly, with the wider circulation of this news on social networking sites such as twitter and facebook, the readership of The News would e reduced to a certain degree. Another possible affect could be a case of infringement of copyrights by NFP (if he wants to claim his copyrights) against The News and Agha Haider Raza which would impinge on The News’ reputation and integrity. Hopefully, The News would learn a lesson after this case under discussion and avoid breaching of copyrights in future.

A Picture Worth Thousand Words: A Primary School in Rural Punjab

2010-02-16T07:29:00.000-08:00

The picture above shows the dismal state of primary education in rural Punjab. This primary school is located in Durkhani Wala, Tehsil Choubara, District Layya. The school neither has any boundary wall nor any black board. In extreme weather conditions, nearby bus stand is used as an alternative. There is no permanent teacher appointed in the school and a temporary teacher is responsible for teaching students. Apparently, with such primary schools, Pakistan aims to achieve its goal of achieving Universal Primary Education by 2015.

Judicial Crisis and the Missing Good Governance

2010-02-14T12:20:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, the clash between the judiciary and the government was surfaced once again despite the fact that on various occasions earlier both the Prime Minister and the Chief Justice denied publicly of a confrontation between the judiciary and the government. As this drama unfolds, the Chief Justice of Pakistan, in a sou motu action, has suspended two Presidential orders pertaining to the elevation of Chief Justice of Lahore High Court Khawaja Sharif to the Supreme Court and of appointing Justice Saqib Nisar as Acting Chief Justice Lahore High Court.

The prime reason for this suo motu action is that the presidency has not ‘consulted’ Iftikhar Chaudhry, Chief Justice Supreme Court prior to the issuance of aforementioned presidential orders and therefore is a violation of Article 177 of the Constitution of Pakistan. Nevertheless, the government’s stand is that the formal consultation was held with the Chief Justice and judges’ appointments were as per constitution. So far, government has failed to provide a documentary proof of any such ‘consultation’ on the issue of appointment of judges of the superior court.

The above-stated news has already become the ‘lead’ story of all the Pakistani national newspapers. Different newspapers have used different vocabulary to the nature and severity of this incident. For instance, one English daily newspaper calls the Supreme Court’s verdict as a ‘stinging rebuke’; another English newspaper discusses it as ‘dangerous escalation’ and an international newspaper calls it as a “simmering power struggle”. Undoubtedly, it is a worrisome development for the nascent elected government in

Pakistan

, who presently is also confronting the looming security threats within the country and a Taliban insurgency on country’s western border. Many political parties have already reacted strongly by categorically calling the presidential act as “unconstitutional”. However, some opposition leaders such as Mr Nawaz Sharif (Chief PML-N), is using it as an opportunity to pressure the government, particularly Asif Ali Zardari. The News on Sunday reports PML-N Chief as saying:

“It is the biggest disservice to the democracy by a person who claimed to be a democrat and happens to be the elected president”.

PML-N Chief has been very vocal for the past two or three years on ‘independence of judiciary’ despite the fact that in 1997 in his term as Prime Minister, he also made a disservice to democracy by ordering an assault on Supreme Court building. Certainly PML-N Chief’s above stated comment elucidates that he is using a different yard stick to check incumbent government’s performance relating to independence of judiciary.

This whole judicial crisis highlights the need for a crucial missing element which is called ‘good governance’. Good governance which as defined by the OECD is “the management of government in a manner that is essentially free of abuse and corruption, and with due regard for the rule of law”. But do our institutions comply with the principles of good governance? Our history suggests that good governance is either used in elections to win people’s votes or the term appears in political speeches of opposition leaders, meant to destabilize the ruling political party.

One of the slogans of our elected government was certainly ‘good governance’ in February 2008 elections. But the current situation of the country (price hike, electricity shortage, security situation etc) has already nullifies the claims made during February 2008 elections by of our elected representatives. The worse of it is that the elected officials and appointed officials, legislatures and executive, at the moment are at war against each other. The recent politico-judicial turmoil is a clash between two personalities, Asif Ali Zardari Vs Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry’, which has been shaped up by now as a clash between the ‘executive and the judiciary’, and as rightly said by Asma Jehangir in her article dated December 19, the clash which began after the Supreme Court’s NRO judgment, has resulted in disturbing the equilibrium of power and an imbalance has been created in favor of judiciary.

Regardless of Prime Minister’s assertion that the country’s institutions will work within their respective domains, political experts of the country view it as “escalating political tension’ in the country which could have dangerous consequences for the incumbent elected government. Mr. Hussain Haqqani, Pakistani Ambassador in the

has been reported as saying that

Pakistan

would experience massive economic set-back if the democratic process is derailed in the country. This implies that to prevent

Pakistan

from going through another series of crises, both the legislatures and the judiciary should focus on constitutional provision, responsibilities and institutional integrity.

Traditional Neighborhoods - A Humane Environment?

2010-02-07T07:20:00.000-08:00

A few days back, I called an ex-colleague of mine to touch base with her. Surprised to hear my voice after three-year gap, she inquired about my whereabouts and what am I up to these days. I told her that I have returned to

Pakistan

and at present, I am living with my mother in our old house located in one of the oldest localities of Lahore. Upon hearing the name of the neighborhood where my house is situated, she said “wonderful, these are the places which still are more humane then the posh and newly built localities”.

I am quiet uncertain about the “more humane” character of the old neighborhood of Lahore; I am living in these days. Nevertheless, like any other Lahori residential locality situated in the oldest part of the city, the residents of my neighborhood also encounter numerous problems on day-to-day basis. Some of these problems are common to all old localities such as frequent power and gas outages, bad sewerage system, no solid waste management system, worsening law and order situation, lack of recreational facilities for children, eve-teasing and harassment, broken roads and streets etc whereas some of these problems are locality-specific.

The occurring frequency of these problems is so high that the populace of such localities including my own neighborhood is not left with no other way to deal with them other than ignoring such problems altogether. In doing so, they also forget that they should avoid becoming nuisance for their fellow neighbors. The same is the case with few of my neighbors, who at the moment are source of utmost annoyance for me and many other neighbors. The problem is that those neighboring houses seem very much found of Indian music. Now many readers of this blog would probably think how fondness for Indian music by my neighbors becomes an issue for me?

Certainly, liking Indian songs or music is not a problem but playing those songs at full volume whenever one feels like listening is definitely a real problem. Just imagine the scenario that it is 12:30 am and you are fast asleep and suddenly you woke-up because of the silly noise of music entering your ears without any sort of hindrance, would not you feel like banging your head in the wall at that time? Also visualize in your mind that you have an old and ailing family member at home who is advised by the doctor for complete bed rest. But your old ailing family member finds it hard to sleep because your neighbors are entertaining themselves by listening loud music. Also think that your youngest of brother has an exam the next day but he is unable to prepare for his exam because of the loud music being played by your neighbor. What are you going to do in such circumstances?

To deal with the situation described above, my brother and myself discussed the issue with other neighbors and we decided to visit the houses of those neighbors who were fond of playing loud music at odd times, to request them if they could turn-down the volume relatively low while enjoying their favorite music because their loud music is disturbing other neighbors. However, to our surprise our effort to resolve the issue remained counter-productive. Our humble request has not yet been granted by those neighboring houses and they continue playing music at full volume and at odd times. I wonder if I should consider this behavior of my neighbors as “more humane” or as something depicting sheer “ignorance” or “lack of civic sense”. Perhaps, people living in old neighborhoods like mine would be “more humane” and more considerate of their neighbors some twenty years back or so but things have changed considerably today.

Implications of Lower Dir's Blast

2010-02-05T09:14:00.000-08:00

Like me and my colleagues, many people in Pakistan would have spent a major part of Wednesday in tweeting and retweeting Wednesday’s bomb blast in Lower Dir which killed “three US marines”, four school children and a Pakistani soldier. The blast had also left at least 131 wounded including two US marines, two Pakistani reporters and dozens of school children. The news stirred a lot of confusion and initially, it appeared as a puzzle with some missing pieces because the identity of the people killed particularly of the

soldiers was not acknowledges from the very beginning. Firstly, it was reported that three US journalists were killed, later on it was speculated that three USAID workers had died and then the final confirmation of the death of three US marines came from Pakistani Military spokesperson Major Athar Abbas and the US Embassy’s press statement. The ambiguity regarding the identity of the

soldiers probably arise because one Pakistani journalist overheard a Pakistani military man as saying “foreign journalists have arrived” and hence the journalist assumed that the dead US personnel were foreign journalists and spread these words.

The confusion also prevailed regarding the type of attack. Earlier it was reported that the convoy was hit by a roadside bomb but later on, it was reported that it was a remote-controlled bomb. This confusion still prevailed till Thursday morning as Dawn has still reported it as a suicide attack whereas the BBC and The Wall Street Journal are reporting it as remote-controlled blast. This is not the first time the Pakistani media has spread news as “breaking news” without going into actual verification. Nevertheless, amidst all this utter confusion of who the dead people were and what sort of an attack was it, Taliban has already claimed responsibility of Wednesday’s blast in Lower Dir. Taliban have alleged that the killed US personnel were not soldiers but members of the controversial US military contracting agency ‘Blackwater”. However, Halbroke has rejected Taliban’s claim calling it “Taliban’s Propaganda”.

The fact of the matter is that the news of Wednesday’s blast was really attention-grabbing because the death of the

soldiers has for the first time revealed the presence of the

marines in

Pakistan

. According to AP report, at least 60-100

marines are present in

Pakistan

with a mission to train

Pakistan

’s ill-equipped “Frontier Corps”. However, there are few crucial questions which require further explanation. Firstly, why the

soldiers were introduced as “journalists” and why the identity of the killed

marines was kept so secretive by both the Pakistani government and the US Embassy? One possible reason for that as is reported in the Wall Street Journal is the widespread anit-american sentiments prevalent in

Pakistan

Secondly, the question arises what the

marines had to do with the inauguration of a school located in one of the strongholds of Taliban? The statement issued by the US Embassy sates that the

soldiers were in

Pakistan

to conduct trainings at the request of the Frontier Corps. Nevertheless, the

soldiers would not be training Frontier Corps on building schools but probably on counter-insurgency techniques. Surely, there was no training of the embattled Frontier Corps organized at the school inaugural. The possibility that the

soldiers were partaking in managing the

development assistance in

Pakistan

can not be ruled out altogether. As it has already been reported by the NY Times that the “Americans’ involvement in training Frontier Corps recruits in development assistance was little known until Wednesday’s attack”.

Thirdly, the question arises whether “the militarization of the

aid” has also started in

Pakistan

and it has not made public yet in

Pakistan

? This militarization of aid has already happened in case of Haiti, Afghanistan, Iraq and Africa where the US soldiers are managing a large part of the US humanitarian assistance. Militarization of aid is partly due to the wider belief within the

United States

’ foreign assistance bureaucracy that the development workers can not perform well in insecure countries. Consequently, USAID has also militarized and the Office of Military Affairs (OMA) has already been established at the USAID’s
Bureau of Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance which is meant to act as a regular coordination platform between the USAID and the Department of Defence.

However, the news carries with itself obvious implications. Firstly, the humanitarian assistance work in Lower Dir which was initiated after halting of the military operation would come to a stand still. The poor households which were displaced and then repatriated as a result of the military operation would not receive any assistance at least for some time. Secondly, Taliban can also exploit the situation and can also recruit more people into their camp after their claim of the killed “

personnel” as “Blackwater representatives”. Thirdly, the anti-government forces have another weak point of the government in hand to exploit and use to heighten anti-government and anti-American sentiments among common Pakistani masses.

Assault of a Professor at the National University of Modern Languages

2010-02-05T06:05:00.000-08:00

Across the world, Universities are a place where anything can be debated at length and professors are respected due to their scholarship and grasp of the subject matter. But is it the case with the Pakistani universities? On February 4, 2010 in Islamabad, the registrar of the National University of Modern Languages beat-up a university Professor Tahir Malik at a students’ reception ceremony organized by the International Relations Department of the university.

The registrar of the university is an ex-military serviceman who got maddened after hearing the criticism on General Musharaf’s role in power brokering deal with the PPP through the National Reconciliation Ordinance. The registrar also got enraged when Professor Tahir Malik questioned the registrar’s appointment which was made without any advertisement or following the prescribed selection criteria. The registrar is neither guilty of his act nor the university administration has taken any disciplinary action against him as yet other than calling for an inquiry of the incident.

According to “The News” this is not the first incident at NUML where a University professor has been assaulted because of criticizing army. At another such incident, Azaz Syed, a journalist teaching in the NUML’s Journalism Department, was sacked from his job because of criticized ISI’ chief. The News also reports that after these two incidents the tension between NUML’s civilian and military staff (retired army officers) has grown to a great extent.

Surely, NUML is one of the many military businesses or “MILBUS” in Pakistan and as Dr Ayesha Siddiqa Agha discusses in her book “Military Inc.”, the purpose of these MILIBUS like NUML is to ensure a very dominant social presence as well as gain political and economic control. Besides, the recent incident of assault of a professor by the NUML administrator also suggests that criticizing army can not be tolerated by any means if you are being employed by any of the MILIBUS. But then where goes the fundamental constitutional guarantee of “freedom of speech and expression”? Or probably freedom of speech and expression is only limited to books and it has not yet been accepted by the masses and institutions. Or probably we are not that democratic yet and therefore freedom of speech and expression has not become a norm here.

Update: The President of Pakistan who is also the Chancellor of the NUML has ordered an inquiry into the incident. More Details can be found here http://thenews.jang.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=27097

originally written for http://islamabad.metblogs.com

Superstitious Zardari

2010-01-27T19:42:00.000-08:00

I read a hilarious news report in today’s Dawn. The news report pronounces President Zardari’s superstition and the adopted measures to protect Mr. President from ‘black magic’ and evil eyes’. According to the news report, the measure taken to protect our dear President from black magic is an everyday slaughter of a ‘black’ goat. Sure, currently, our President is confronting some harsh criticism from political parties particularly PML-N, nevertheless, I really wonder if Zardari is really taking this criticism as ‘black magic’? But this news item really shows how progressive Mr Zardai is. Holy cow, if we made rough calculations then probably at least 600 goats have already been slaughtered so far.

originally written for http://islamabad.metblogs.com

Harassment by the long arm of the law

2010-01-27T08:19:00.000-08:00

Within approximately the last two weeks I have observed an over deployment of police on the major roads of Lahore, particularly on Mall Road. One major reason of this excessive showcasing of police in Lahore could possibly be the potential of suicide attacks in Lahore, growing security threats, and consequently the maintenance of the law and order situation in the provincial capital, especially when the President of Pakistan was visiting the city. Although it is only the policemen on-duty who can tell to what extent they were successful in fulfilling these tasks, I can narrate about at least two occasions when I was harassed and intimidated by the police of Lahore due to reasons, which can hardly be linked to security issues.

It is my everyday routine to get dropped by my office car on canal road-Mall Road junction. From there I walk on foot to Lawrence Garden. Even though this walk is always refreshing for me, the vulgar comments passed on me by the on-duty policemen there are an everyday annoyance. The hostile and insensitive attitude of the police towards women is a well-known fact. However, what astonished me the most was, that even those public servants who are responsible for people’s safety and security seldom miss an opportunity of teasing a woman. In Punjabi this is also called ‘phoondi’.

Last weekend, while walking with a foreign friend of mine on Mall road, we were stopped by four policemen. They took my friend to a corner and interrogated him for quite a long time. When I was inquiring the purpose of this police interrogation, I got an ironic laughter and a ridiculous reply in Punjabi “Taun Bari Toup Cheze hai (What a big gun you are!) in return. Initially, I thought that the interrogation might be a routine check and probably the police is ordered to keep an eye on foreigners, particularly after the arrest of a group of US students in Sargodha.

However, later on I had to find out that my initial speculations about the main motivation of the police’s interrogation was completely wrong. My friend told me that the main emphasis was “my friend’s relationship with me”. One of those policemen went even so far as to say to my friend that the woman accompanying (which was myself) him would be pregnant. My friend’s response to that policeman was “You must be kidding. How could you dare to say that?” They also told him that it is ‘unlawful’ in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to walk on roads with a non-married female friend and as a consequence both of us could be detained in jail according to Pakistani law. Upon hearing these details from my friend, I realized that these policemen only had the courage to say such things, because we were walking in the open street and were appearing to be an easy ‘target’ to show their ‘authority’. I am sure they would never have dared to interrogate a woman accompanying a foreigner in a big land cruiser; apprehensive of losing their jobs.

On both occasions, the behavior of the ‘men in uniform’ was shocking for me to a great extent. On the first occasion, the ‘men in uniform’ behaved like foolish teenagers amusing themselves with chatting up a passing-by woman for their personal ‘enjoyment’ therewith considering a passing-by woman as a mere ‘sexual object’. In the second incident the ‘men in uniform’ behaved like a ‘religious police’ who takes it as their moral obligation to intimidate people to ensure that ‘Islamic’ laws are being followed, at least by those who apparently do not possess any authority. After all, one thing which I can hardly comprehend is, why the police, rather than looking into very real security threats for the city, was wasting its time and therewith taxpayers’ money with intimidating innocent couples on the street in order to stop them from hanging out together, because it is ‘unlawful’. I wonder under which Pakistani law walking together on the street becomes a crime and why the deliberate harassment of women is not considered as such; the same goes for ‘phoondi’. If we have not yet moved away from the Stone Ages, then why we are resisting the Taliban and their plan to impose ‘Islamic Sharia’ so hard at all?

Pakistan’s First Annual Blog Awards

2010-01-19T00:15:00.000-08:00

Blogging is becoming a popular medium of expression in Pakistan. In recognition of this fact, Google Pakistan and OIC Pakistan in partnership with Dawn News are organizing Pakistan’s First Annual Blog Awards. The news about annual blog awards was announced in Lahore and Karachi Tweetups 2009 by Mr. Badar Khushnood, Pakistan Country Consultant Google Inc. At present, a website by the name Pakistan Blog Awards is functional where Pakistani bloggers can submit or nominate their blogs under any one of the listed categories. There are three broad categories namely general categories, topic area categories, and arts & letters categories. Each of these categories is further divided into at least nine or more sub-categories. Additionally, rules of game have also been articulated as ‘entry guidelines’. Till to-date, Pakistani bloggers have either nominated / submitted 120 blogs to the first annual blog awards. However, neither the closing date of the competition has been announced yet nor there is any information available regarding the date by which blogs/bloggers for each listed category will be selected and announced as winners. But still, the competition is on. So guys and gals, if you have an active blog and you want to compete then rush and nominate yourself for the blog awards here, here and here…

originally written for http://islamabad.metblogs.com

Whats is going on around us?

2009-12-08T23:00:00.000-08:00

In today’s unprecedented times when the world’s attention is focused on Copenhagen’s Climate Change Conference and its outcome, we in Pakistan, whether in safe havens of our drawing-rooms or online social networks such as Facebook or Twitter, are discussing bomb blasts which took place on Monday in Peshawar, Quetta and Lahore; provincial capitals of NWFP, Balochistan and Punjab respectively. Many more such blasts have already occurred during the last few months and many more are yet to come. Being exposed to the danger to the maximum we are left alone to deal with the biggest catastrophe of our times: Terrorism as the world calls it. Undoubtedly, Pakistani people are terrorized and paranoid by the an increase in the number of blasts taking place around them to such an extent that they have started fearing that the next blast will kill anyone of their dear family members or friends. Confirming with friends and relatives whether they are safe after every bomb blast is becoming a norm. And, why people should not be worried particularly when the Military’s Headquarter of the country, police stations, check posts, mosques, a university, the UN WFP office and various market places have been targeted for the past two and a half years killing more than 2,600 people.

Paranoid by the current security situation, a number of people are seriously considering the option of migrating abroad in order to provide their kids with a safe environment. “We have a particular life style in Pakistan. However, the present scenario in Pakistan has made our mobility very limited and the place has been transformed into a living hell. We are unable to provide our children a safe and healthy environment for their personal growth. Therefore, the best available option in given circumstances is of moving abroad “, said Faiqa who works as a school administrator in Islamabad.

Nevertheless, there are people who are of the opinion that the situation needs to be fixed because not everyone has the necessary resources in order to migrate to another country. Nevertheless, who is ready to deal with this monster of widespread terrorism? After every blast, we hear nothing from our President, Prime Minister and other elected leaders other than ‘condemnation’. The leadership of the country is busy in deciding the fate of other more “pressing” issues such as the National Reconciliation Ordinance because their fate is dependent on NRO. The woes and sufferings of the electorate have been ignored because politicians do not need people’s vote and there is still time left till next elections.

The prevailing security situation in the country has not only resulted in killing scores of people but even it has worsening impact on livelihood of people. ‘Laying off’ of staff is a common complaint in the private sector these days because the investor is not willing to invest in Pakistan. The country’s economy is sinking with ever passing day and we have seen an incredible devaluation of Pakistani currency that was not witnessed before. This dismal sate of affairs has led many foreign policy experts calling Pakistan “as the most dangerous country in the world”. This week the Foreign policy Magazine in a recent survey has also enlisted Pakistan as an option to choose as answer to the question “What is the most dangerous country in the world? The global hegemonic America has decided to deal with this “most dangerous country” by authorizing an expansion of the C.I.A.’s drone program in Pakistan despite the fact that such strikes have also caused hundreds of civilian casualties. We cry, we die but there is nobody to pay a heed to our sufferings, We, The Living of this “most dangerous country” do not know what is going to happen to us and our friends and families in coming days . But, do we matter ? The International Human Rights Day is approaching and I wonder if we are entitled to all those rights as enshrined in Universal Declaration of Human Rights and do our rights really matter ?

originally written for http://islamabad.metblogs.com