By Zubeida Mustafa
Professor Hamza Alavi has recently been in town. The suave, soft-spoken scholar, who says he developed a social conscience and became a socialist even before he had ever heard the word, has lived abroad for over three decades in pursuit of his academic career. Now he plans returning permanently to the city of his birth. That is, if he does not change his mind at the eleventh hour as he has done before. Continue reading A new look at old freedom movement myths
By Zubeida Mustafa
HOW would one describe the state of the publishing industry in Pakistan today? Some feel that it has picked up, with a variety of books seeing the light of day. But others, especially those in this trade, are not so optimistic about its prospects and say the future of books in the country continues to be as grim as before, suffering as the industry does from utter neglect at the hands of the government.
The answer to the question, thus, would depend on how you look at the matter and what yardstick you use to measure success or failure. But there are no two opinions about the fact that the political climate has never been so good for book publishing as it is today. The advent of democracy has made it easier for writers to express their opinions freely and many historical events have been recorded which was not possible when the Continue reading Book industry in the throes
By Zubeida Mustafa
ABDUS SATTAR EDHI has been in the news ever since television brought him into the limelight with a programme on him in 1988. Pictures of him standing on the roadside to collect alms (bheek, to use his own word) are quite familiar to newspaper readers. Unfortunately, the maulana (as he is fondly called because of his shaggy beard) was forced to leave the country recently when he felt threatened. His statements accusing unnamed agencies of trying to eliminate him politicised him, which is not something good for his work. One only hopes the row will blow over.
The fact is no one has ever questioned this old man’s love for thpoor. His work for the destitute has not only brought him recognition and laurels (including the coveted Ramon Magsaysay award). It has also won for him the confidence of the people. The faith the public has reposed in him is central to his work. For Edhi’s huge network of welfare organisations depends entirely on voluntary donations worth over Rs two billion. According to the same calculation, the maulana needs another 210 million to invest and bring returns to meet his day-to-day expenses. But he has other ambitions too. He wants to set up a chain of welfare centres 25 kilometres apart all over the country.
For a semi-literate person with hardly any political or social clout to mobilise massive amounts through voluntary donations, at times by simply standing on the roadside collection box in hand, is so remarkable. More so, because the donations come from a society so notorious as ours for tax evasion. It is difficult to believe that people who go to all extremes to cheat the government can be so generous when it comes to giving donations for a charitable cause.But the army of beggars which subsists on public philanthropy, the langars set up outside mazaars and other congregation spots to feed the poor, and the scores of appeals for assistance (which are presumably answered) from organisations is working for public welfare are testimony to the generosity of the Pakistanis. Continue reading An unemotional look at Edhi
New general manager looks forward to the Taranaki challenges
S (STOS) has been an established company in Taranaki since the Kapuni field was first commissioned during the late 1950s.
Despite the organization having this stable relationship with the province it does not mean that the “hand on the helm” has remained constant as the policy of the company has been for the post of general manager to be filled as an assignment for a number of Shell International personnel.
Consequently when Renny Snell completed his term in New Zealand earlier this month he was replaced, as general manager, by another man of international experience in the oil and gas industry.
Mahdi Hasan brings with him a wealth of managerial skills from a multitude of facets within the industry. Continue reading Taranaki challenges
By Zubeida Mustafa
The state of the social sector in a country is an accurate measure of the value it attaches to human life. For howsoever strong a state might be in terms of military power and rich in economic resources, its institutional greatness will be judged by the quality of life it ovides its citizens.
This is basically determined by the social policy of the government, that is, the priority it gives to providing education, health care, housing and family planning facilities to the people. Pakistan’s performance in this context has not been one of which one can be overly proud. Of course, it depends on how one defines progress. If it is simply a matter of moving forward in terms of absolute numbers from a given baseline — a very low one at that — the country’s achievements over the decades since 1947 might appear to be very impressive. Continue reading The price of neglecting social sectors