Pakistan Realog

LAHORE: Parents of students and members of civil society have expressed differing opinions on the Punjab Government’s decision to reopen educational institutions, with parents claiming the security crisis has not been averted and civil society demanding schools stay open in a symbol of defiance against the terror attacks.

Criticising the move to reopen government and private schools and colleges on Monday, parents of students claimed that no security measures were sufficient to completely prevent the threat of terror attacks against education institutions. They said that if the terrorists could stage attacks on military installations, they could easily bypass the security at educational institutions.

Talking to Daily Times, some parents claimed they were confident that the school administration would have sufficient security to protect their children. However, most parents expressed fear and confusion, with many considering keeping their children home from school until the military operation in South Waziristan had been completed. Commenting on the issue, Shama Hussain – the mother of a young student – said it would be better to keep the educational institutions closed for a few more days, rather than reopening them without properly rooting out the terrorists. She said she would not send her son to school because she did not believe in the security measures taken by the government. She said the government should not reopen the educational institutions until the military operation had concluded.

Confident: Zahid Hussain, an A-Levels student, said the new security measures would make the campus far more secure. However, he added, some of his teachers believed it was an uphill task and terrorists with the capability of attacking military installations could easily attack the school. He claimed teachers at most key educational institutions believed the current measures were not sufficient to assure protection from terror attacks. Muslim Iqbal, the student of an elite university of the city, said the youth of society did not fear extremists or terrorists and were more concerned about their education. He said that while his parents were still afraid of the law and order situation in the country, he and his friends were confident that the security measures would be sufficient. Ahsan Waqqar, a 14-year-old attending one of the more secure private schools of the city, said he was afraid the terrorists would attack his school and would prefer to stay at home for a few more days.

Collective resistance: Meanwhile, prominent human rights activist Hina Jillani appreciated the government’s decision to reopen the schools, colleges and universities in the country. She said that while the threats of terror attacks had not been removed, it was not suitable for the educational institutes of the country to remain closed for an extended period of time. She said all the educational institutes should remain open to show a collective resistance against extremism.

Source: Daily Times

KARACHI: A park is being constructed near my house and when it is completed we will play in it, dreams nine-year-old Jibran, as he directs his passenger boat towards Baba Island, a small island in the neighbourhood of Keamari.

Jibran, who has never visited a park or recreational centre, is sharing his excitement with every new passenger who boards his boat. However, the passengers, who are not interested in parks, ignore his story and are engrossed in the sea and the water splashing from it due to the movement of the boat. They see parks everyday and do not understand why the boy is not enchanted by the sea and its magnificence. They do not even inquire as to why the boy is so happy about the park. Jibran, on the other hand, treats the sea just like we treat land. He has been swimming in the sea since he was born and it has long lost its charm for him.

He dreams about feeling grass under his feet, swings and the sun to over look it all. “We will have a park like the rest of the city,” the boy said, with his enthusiasm pouring out. Baba Island has a population of 12,500, according to the official records. While the Katchi people have been living here for the last four centuries and that too without the basic necessities of life. They earn their livelihood by taking people around in boats and fishing.

Jibran is one of the hundreds of children, who have been waiting for the last three years for the completion of the park that the Keamari government started in order to provide recreational opportunities to this deprived island’s children, who have done nothing but swim and fish.

The residents of the area are still hoping that the park will be completed soon, despite the passage of three long years.

The locals belong to the very poor segment of our society and don’t even dare ask why the construction work has been stopped at the park. They are ignorant of the fact that as per the Keamari government’s records, the park has already been ‘successfully completed’.

The project of the park at Baba Island was started by the Keamari town administration after it issued a tender worth Rs 2.5 million to a private contractor about three and a half years back.

According to the sources at the town’s nazim office, the budget for the park ‘was then revised by 300 percent’ and the money spared for the project by the town nazim and issued to the contractor reached an amount of Rs 12.5 million.

According to sources, the town administration not only misused its powers by ‘revising’ the budget by 300 percent but also by declaring the park as ‘completed’ in the documents.

The park, which according to the documents has been completed, consists only of boundary walls.

When the overjoyed Jibran took this scribe to the park where, according to him, ‘he would soon play’, all that was found interesting for the children was the body of a dead cat, which the children had surrounded. The children, including Jibran, do not know that the park might never be completed. The Keamari town administration has denied offering any comments, while it seems like Jibran’s dreams have been closed with the files in the administration office and sealed tight in its drawers. “Hum raat ko khelengey gey (We shall play in the night),” said an overexcited Jibran.

Source: Daily Times

KARACHI: Gadap Town Nazim Ghulam Murtaza Baloch has demanded the Sindh government to release the outstanding Rs 450 million so that Gadap Town Municipal Administration (TMA) could initiate further mega development projects.

Baloch stated these views while talking to Sindh Local Government Commission (LGC) Director Aga Altaf Nabi and LGC member Public-I Haji Munawar Ali Abbasi.

Baloch, while briefing the LGC inspection team on the completion of various development projects, said that the Gadap TMA had completed development projects worth Rs 750 million in the past four years during its tenure of the City District Government Karachi, while all the union councils were uniformly given their due share.

Baloch added that the Gadap TMA was a poor and non-developed town as compared to other TMAs of the city. Henceforth, it needs special attention to uplift the standard of living of the people of the Gadap TMA.

It has been years since the Sindh government has to settle outstanding dues to the Gadap TMA, so that the money could be utilised for the welfare of the people.

It is pertinent to mention here that Nabi and Abbasi had been on an inspection campaign of all the TMAs in the city, during which they also visited the Gadap TMA for inspecting its performance and their use of budgetary allocations in various development projects.

The team has already completed the inspection of various TMAs and it expressed its satisfaction on the Gadap TMA’s performance.

Source: Daily Times

KARACHI: Inadequate water supply has afflicted the residents of various areas in the city. The shortage of water is claimed to have resulted due to power load shedding during the hours when the pumping stations of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) are scheduled to pump water. Nevertheless, the theft of water from the main lines and through illegal water hydrants is still a major cause of water shortage.

A well-placed KWSB officer told Daily Times that the city’s present need for water was 800 million gallons per day (MGD), but the installed water system could only provide with 640 MGD.

The officer added that the KWSB had proposed a plan for an additional 640 MGD for the city, but neither the federal government nor the provincial government had approved the K-IV water scheme for the city.

The officer also said that the scheme would draw 150 MGD until the target of drawing a total of 640 MGD was achieved by the year 2025. Unfortunately, the federal and provincial governments have yet to approve a feasible water scheme for the city in accordance with the increasing population and industrial load.

The officer further said that the present water system in the city does not have any mentionable water reservoir, while the existing water lines were not suitable for drawing more that 640 MGD of water, adding that illegal hydrants were a major cause of artificial water shortage in certain residential areas, while the KWSB could not take any action against the illegal water hydrant mafia because of lack of support from the police.

The officer admitted that spatial settlements located close to planned residential colonies have widely obtained illegal water connections, which has deprived the actual KWSB consumers from accessing water as these illegal consumers continue damaging KWSB installations on a huge scale.

The officer added that power load shedding of Dhabeji and Pipri pumping stations was causing 50 MGD water shortage, while load shedding of local pumping stations was causing 5 to 10 MGD shortage, adding that although the shortage seemed minor, but it gets multiplied two or three folds when it gets linked with main supply lines.

It is pertinent to mention here that although the KWSB had improved its water lines installation to residential areas that had entirely lacked water lines, such as Mehmoodabad, Manzoor Colony, Baldia Town, Ittehad Town, Nazimabad, North Nazimabad, Garden East, Lyari Town, Keamari Town, Soldier Bazar, New Karachi, North Karachi, Hyderi and many other areas, however, these areas are constantly faced with water shortage.

Source aily Times

Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) has proposed re-creation of the National Commission on History & Culture (NCHC), with academic and cultural organisations as its components.

According to a summary by Fakhar Zaman, Chairman PAL, NCHC was established in April 1994 under the directive of the then prime minister Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Shaheed with a prime objective to check the duplication and overlapping of activities of its institutions in the fields of culture, literature, performing arts and publishing.

Benazir Bhutto intended to provide a platform with a broad spectrum in order to coordinate the work of various cultural, performing art, history and literary organisations, and wished to ensure an integrated approach to avoid duplication and overlapping of activities between those institutions.

During the short period of its existence, NCHC succeeded in bringing out the first ever Cultural Policy of Pakistan and get it approved by the competent authority in 1995.

The summary says that the Cultural Policy is still lying unattended without implementation for the last 14 years due to non-continuation of NCHC, and it is imperative to review/reactivate the Commission with academic and cultural organisations such as PAL, National Language Authority, National Book Foundation, Urdu Science Board, National Documentation Centre, Pakistan National Council of the Arts, National Institute of Folk & Traditional Heritage (Lok Virsa), Central Board of Film Censors, National Academy of Performing Arts, Iqbal Academy, Quaid-e-Azam Academy, Urdu Dictionary Board and National Institute of Historical & Cultural Research as its components.

NCHC was inoperative, as the later governments ignored the importance of academic and cultural activities to build a healthy society. The ever-changing scenario has necessitated the revival of NCHC as a supreme body to oversee, supervise, assess, review and coordinate the activities of those institutions that are working in isolation.

Source: The News

Uncertainty prevailed on Sunday regarding the reopening of educational institutes, despite claims from the government, stating that all public and private schools and colleges will reopen from Monday (today).

Earlier this week, the education ministry had announced that all public and private education institutions would reopen on Monday after a gap of a week, owing to threats of terrorist activities. Several private schools and universities, however, have announced that classes will not resume today.

A student from the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST), on the condition of anonymity, shared a text message which she had received from the ZAB Desk Server. According to this message, SZABIST will remain closed on Monday and Tuesday. The message further said that students would be informed via SMS about when the institute will reopen.

Similarly, the Centre for Advanced Studies, the Karachi Grammar School (KGS) and Bayview Academy have also decided to remain closed on Monday. KGS students were told to not come to school on Monday. The teaching staff, however, are supposed to report on duty.

Many other schools located in the Defence Housing Society, Phase-V, have preferred to remain closed, despite government directives, and have informed parents to not send their children to school on Monday.

On the other hand, classes at Beacon House and The City School are expected to commence from Monday, and parents and students have not been notified of any further holiday.

Earlier, students of The City School were told that all branches of the school would remain closed on Monday. The decision, however, was changed on Saturday, The News learnt.

Only the senior sections at Cambridge school systems such as Froebell’s will open on Monday, owing to ongoing examinations. The junior section will remain closed till further notice.

Similar decisions were taken by many other Cambridge system institutes in order to facilitate students who have to appear in ‘O’ and ‘A’ Level exams. The junior sections were kept closed owing to security concerns, a principal of one of the schools told The News. “We are working on how to overcome the issue. There are serious security concerns but we cannot leak any information at this stage,” she said.

Meanwhile, Private Schools’ Management Association Senior Vice Chairman Sharaf Uz Zaman has appealed to the Sindh home secretary to beef up security at government and private schools in populated areas of the city. He also requested authorities concerned to issue arms licences as soon as possible to the management of schools, so that school administrations can ensure the safety of their students.

Source: The News

Huma Akram, the wife of former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram, has died on Sunday after developing heart and kidney complications. She was admitted to the Apollo Hospital in Chennai last Tuesday after her condition deteriorated on board an air ambulance flying from Lahore to Singapore, where she was due to be treated at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital.

She breathed her last around 9:45am, hospital sources informed. Huma, 42, is survived by two children, Taimur and Akbar, and arrangements are underway to fly her body back to Pakistan. A trained medical practitioner herself, she had stints with some of the leading hospitals in Pakistan as a psychologist and a hypnotherapist. In the mid-1990s, during her husband’s second stint as captain, Huma also worked with the Pakistan team for a while as a psychological counsellor, helping players such as Saqlain Mushtaq. Wasim also regularly credited her for helping him mentally, especially in the aftermath of the players revolt against his captaincy in 1993-94.

Ijaz Butt, the PCB chairman, also expressed his grief over the demise. “We are with Wasim and his family at this hour of need and pray to God to give them strength to bear this irreparable loss,” he said. “All the management of PCB and fellow cricketers have also extended their condolences and prayed eternal peace for the departed soul.”

Source: The News

CHENNAI: Huma Akram, the wife of former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram, has died on Sunday after developing heart and kidney complications. She was admitted to the Apollo Hospital in Chennai last Tuesday after her condition deteriorated on board an air ambulance flying from Lahore to Singapore, where she was due to be treated at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital.

She breathed her last around 9:45am, hospital sources informed. Huma, 42, is survived by two children, Taimur and Akbar, and arrangements are underway to fly her body back to Pakistan. A trained medical practitioner herself, she had stints with some of the leading hospitals in Pakistan as a psychologist and a hypnotherapist. In the mid-1990s, during her husband’s second stint as captain, Huma also worked with the Pakistan team for a while as a psychological counsellor, helping players such as Saqlain Mushtaq. Wasim also regularly credited her for helping him mentally, especially in the aftermath of the players revolt against his captaincy in 1993-94.

Ijaz Butt, the PCB chairman, also expressed his grief over the demise. “We are with Wasim and his family at this hour of need and pray to God to give them strength to bear this irreparable loss,” he said. “All the management of PCB and fellow cricketers have also extended their condolences and prayed eternal peace for the departed soul.”

Source: The News

LAHORE: President Asif Ali Zardari may agree to scrap Article 58-2(b), amend Article 243(3) and incorporate the Charter of Democracy (CoD) in the proposed 18th Amendment if the PML-N adopts a positive role regarding the NRO without compromising its stand in the upcoming deliberations in the National Assembly, The News has learnt.

Monday’s meeting between Nawaz Sharif and President Zardari is expected to end all political and constitutional differences between the two political giants for the time being by focusing on terrorism.

The PML-N’s seven-member delegation will be led by Nawaz Sharif. Other members include Senator Raja Zafarul Haq, Senator Ishaq Dar, Senetor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, Khawaja Asif, Makhdoom Javed Hashmi and Ghaus Ali Shah aiding the party chief. President Zardari will be accompanied by Senator Raza Rabbani, Minister for Power Raja Pervez Ashraf, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Babar Awan, Minister for Trade and Commerce Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Minister for Information Qamar Zaman Kaira and presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar.

It is learnt that the joint communique on the meeting would have an announcement vis-a-vis tabling of the 18th Amendment in parliament. Article 58-2(b) would be scrapped and Article 243(3) amended, giving the prime minister the power to appoint the Army chief. Apart from this, amendments to the Constitution envisaged in the CoD may also be incorporated. It is learnt that both the parties have already agreed to the proposed changes in the Constitution as Senator Raza Rabbani has already done homework on the subject. It is further learnt that all major political parties’ proposals have also been taken into account, and little brainstorming would be required before bringing the matter before the House in near future.

On the other hand, the PML-N has assured the government it will help in defusing tension between the two parties as far as it could, including the former’s serious concerns over the NRO. However, the sources revealed, the PML-N will not be much flexible on this controversial ordinance. The PPP has pinned high hopes on its allies with regard to the fate of the NRO in parliament.

The meeting is the outcome of hectic external activities. Top US, British and Saudi leaders and officials have been in constant touch with Pakistani political and military leadership for avoiding political unrest in the country at a time when the war on terror has entered a decisive phase. This meeting is an attempt to evolve a general consensus among all political forces for rallying their support against the biggest challenge Pakistan is facing at this juncture.

The big international players would be the custodian of the agreement between the two leaders for minimising the chances of deviation and delay in the implementation of the agreement between these two leaders. These external players have already worked on the rest of important political players in Pakistan for evolving political harmony. It is important to note that the establishment had also been taken on board before the bid to end political crisis.

Source: The News