DAWN - Cowasjee Corner; 08 November, 1998
The loose cannon
By Ardeshir Cowasjee
TO call our prime minister a loose cannon would be to do him great injustice for one would be underestimating his propensities.
Having made a right royal mess and, for reasons that can never be justified, sequestered our dollars after he exploded his bomb on May 28, on October 12 we read a front-page headline in this newspaper informing us that he had declared in Lahore on the 11th that he would unfreeze our foreign exchange accounts when the situation improves.
How can you say that, one asks, we have no dollars, we are heavily in debt, home remittances have dwindled, we are earning no foreign exchange? Well, says he, I did not say that I would unfreeze tomorrow. I will pay back when I have the dollars. Next month? one asks. No, says he, when Allah wills it so.
Then, on October 16, came the headline: "PM unveils Rs.24 billion uplift plan for city."
He had announced that, firstly, the single-track Karachi 68 km circular rotting railway project would be renewed and turned into a double-track system, with many more stations, at the cost of $ 150 million (Rs.7.5 billion), so as to ease the city's transport problem. Bids would be invited within a month, and the railway made operational in two and a half years.
Can this be done? Yes, tracks can be laid but more money would be needed for fencing, for automatic signalling and level-crossing equipment, for locomotives and carriages. Is the PM aware that the country's existing railway system is in a shambles, that the replacement of over 60 per cent of locomotion power and an equal percentage of rolling stock, plus the country's main track renewal, are long overdue, that the carriage factory capable of manufacturing 270 carriages per annum is now only making 27, and all for lack of funds? Has someone told him that the Spezand-Zahidan line laid in 1943 during WW2 using second-hand rails is about to become dysfunctional? No, all had nodded agreement. All had applauded.
Secondly, a 136-km six-lane motorway between Karachi and Hyderabad (M-9) is to be built at a cost of some Rs.7 billion and completed also in two and a half years. Is this motorway necessary? Is not the four-lane Karachi-Hyderabad super-highway more than sufficient for our needs? Can we afford duplication, waste? Irrelevant. The PM is programmed to come to unveil the foundation stone at the end of this month.
Has our PM counted the number of marble plaques that he and Benazir Bhutto between them have unveiled in this past decade for various hare-brained projects that have not taken off? Can we not encourage him to economize by removing all such plaques, having them re-engraved and used for new impossible projects?
One is reminded of the time Benazir Bhutto laid the foundation stone of a children's hospital to be constructed on a playing field. When I complained to the provincial health secretary, he assured me I should not worry; the children could be assured that they can continue to play their games. The promised aid from Japan had yet to come, and even the money needed for the stone and the ceremony had been borrowed from some other allocation.
Third in the PM's package was the 63-km six-lane Northern Bypass (M-10) at a cost of Rs. 6 billion, again to be completed in two and a half years.
For these three projects the inauguration dates have optimistically been fixed for April 14, 15 and 16 respectively in the year 2001, when he intends to be with us in the same capacity together with his 2010 minister, Ahsan Iqbal. No disclosures were made as to from where the funds would come.
That same day that these startling pronouncements were made he laid the foundation stone for a 400-bed general hospital and kidney centre to be constructed by the Workers' Welfare Board at Landhi at a cost of Rs.300 million within three years. Will this, plus the existing hospitals in Karachi, suffice for the growing needs of the city?
Is the PM aware that from 200 to 300 million gallons per day of raw sewage comprising untreated industrial and domestic waste water is dumped into the sea at Karachi? This is more than massive pollution for atmosphere and man. What does this do to the marine creatures that feed on it and then what it does it do to us when such creatures end up on our table and we ingest intestinal bacterial pathogens?
Untreated industrial and domestic waste water is also used in certain areas of Karachi for the irrigation and growing of vegetables and fruit. This ad hoc system causes many diseases varying in severity from mild gastroenteritis to often fatal dysentery, cholera and typhoid. The waste contains carcinogenous and mutagen metals and non-metals which cause loss of energy, gastro-intestinal, renal and neurological disturbances. A high concentration of chemicals can even cause fatal kidney damage, birth defects and damage to the central nervous system.To give the layman some idea of the volume of toxic sewage dumped into our sea each day, one day's outflow would fill to capacity two of the largest super-tankers ever built, Globtik London and Globtik Tokyo (each of: 213,894 GRT; 184,541 NRT; and 483,933 dead weight Tons).
Now for attention to the problem at hand - our dying city. That its administration now rests not solely with the corrupt and the terrorist-friendly political government has to be an improvement on what it was. People have faith in the fairness of the governor, but he sadly has little faith in the law enforcement agencies or in the chiefs of these agencies thrust upon him by the federal government without consulting him. For instance, the newly appointed IGP of Sindh and the DIG, Karachi, both selected over the heads of scores of their seniors, by the PM himself, report directly to him, thus undermining the governor's authority.
Then, under orders from the federal government, those accused of having committed grave crimes and granted parole simply for political considerations have not been reapprehended. The rounding-up of alleged criminals has so far been highly selective, depending on the exigencies of the PM and his government. The people fear an impending kiss-and-make-up scenario.
Equally unsettling is the fact that politicians of various hues are straining at the leash to be appointed 'advisers' to the governor. Fatal. If there are to be 'advisers' they must be men and women who have no political affiliations, are neutral citizens, genuinely disturbed by the province's plight, those with the will and ability to advise wisely and, most importantly, fearlessly.
Terrorism will not end overnight. Peace, law and order will take at least a year to stabilize into some sort of permanency. Thereafter, we may have a climate of safety suitable for industrial and commercial investment, for development.
There are too many guns, too many automatic weapons in the hands of those who under no conceivable law should be allowed to handle them. There are too many stray bullets flying around, targeted or otherwise. As I stood burying my friend Khwaja Rahman on Friday, I wondered how many of those standing beside me knew that he was going to his grave with a bullet embedded in the muscles between his shoulder blades, a bullet that had found its target way back in the days of his and my friend Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, when the gun and bullet culture was born.
Before Bhutto came to power, he and Mana (for that's how Khwaja Rahman was known to his family and friends) had an exchange of words at the Sind Club (in the days when it really was a Club and qualified as such). Mana was riling Zulfikar for his stupidity, his blind ambition, and a high and swinging Zulfi spat at him. "You wait, when I become president I will see you." Mana laughed, " But wait, if you do become president, I will not see you."
The wait was not long. Bhutto became president. One day in the early 1970s as Mana was driving home along Queen's Road, the tyres of his car were shot, the car swerved and overturned, but Mana emerged unscathed. A second attempt was made another day when Mana was in the Boat Club. He was called out on some pretext and government gunmen lying in wait outside the Club House fired at him.
Fortunately, he was so well-padded that the bullet did not get to any vital organ, but it was lodged in such an awkward place that the doctors decided it would be safer to leave it alone. May Mana's jolly soul rest in peace.
For the time being, Karachi remains moribund. The citizens and the civil servants must help the governor's administration.