The ASF put up a gallant fight on Sunday night and into the early hours of Monday morning. Losing 10 men in 4 to 5 hours is a great sacrifice. The ASF quickly realised where the breach had been made as four of its men manning a post were ‘stormed’ and killed by the militants. They were sitting ducks. Within 2 or 3 minutes these attackers were on the runway. Once inside, they split into three groups – one headed straight across the runway to take control of it, and a second group turned left and made its way to the Ispahani (engineering) hangar, where almost 40 aircraft were stationed, 90 per cent of which were junk. The third group turned right and headed to the cargo hangar.

Serious damage could have been done by this group. The operation thus seemed to be more motivational than rooted in any higher planning, for if all the militants (10-12) had turned right, towards the main Jinnah Terminal, only five minutes away, they could have caused serious damage.

At least one brand new Emirates airliner with over 300 passengers was within range of an RPG launcher during the attack. There were other passenger jets parked here and a hijack could have been engineered. No such plan, it appears, was the objective. Thus I say that the attackers’ objective was to cause embarrassment and confusion. Any losses to life or property were a bonus.

The ASF must be complimented, for they thwarted any movement towards the Jinnah Terminal for 60-90 precious minutes as they waited to receive back up from the army, Rangers and police teams.

The government must immediately revisit the security of such essential installations. A thorough survey of each must be carried out. A perimeter will only deter an attacker but a determined effort will enable a breach. Means of detection, including CCTV cameras, alarms and sensors must be installed with guaranteed power supply. The number of entry points must be limited to very few.

The ATC has a great survey of the space but their attention is focused on the skies and not the ground. The ASF must have an operational Control Room, unlike the present one, where a complete monitoring of the perimeter, all entry points, buildings and aircraft is possible.

No intruder must be able to get to the last line of defence unchecked. The VIP Terminal is a soft spot and its security is only in focus when VIP movement is scheduled here. On that fateful Sunday night, there was no VIP due to travel. The terrorists were thus able to drive straight up to the last line of defence.

The writer is an ex-Director General Airport Security Force

Published in The Express Tribune, June 10^th, 2014.

It was in 1920 when the first international intercontinental football tournament was held, when FIFA and the International Olympics Committee (IOC) joined hands to include the event in the 1920 summer Olympics for the first time.

The first Olympic event was won by Belgium and the next two in 1924 and 1928 were both won by Uruguay. However, it was decided that the 1932 summer Olympics will not feature a football championship due to differences over a few matters between FIFA and IOC and a perceived lack of interest for the sport in the host nation, the United States; it is perhaps ironic then that the US holds the records for the highest average and total attendance of any World Cup when they hosted it in 1994, albeit six decades after that decision.

In its place, FIFA decided to hold the first ever World Cup in Uruguay in 1930. However, the first edition of the tournament was by invitation only, and featured a mere 13 teams, especially since European countries were unwilling to bear the expense of a transatlantic trip.

The first two World Cup matches were played simultaneously; France vs Mexico and USA vs Belgium, with France and USA winning the matches 4-1 and 3-0. The host nation eventually triumphed 4-2 against Argentina in the final, completing a hat-trick of world event victories.

Five biggest World Cup controversies 

1. The deaths of eight Brazilians

Eight workers have died during the hasty construction and renovation of stadiums in Brazil to host this year’s World Cup. As doubts continue around the wisdom of Brazil hosting the World Cup amidst poor living standards, the deaths have come as a stark reminder about what is truly important and has put the game, with all its passion, into perspective.

2. Zinidine Zidane’s headbutt

In the 2006 World Cup final, with the score at 1-1, French captain Zidane headbutted Italian defender Marco Materazzi after he passed some particularly unsavoury remarks about his sister. Zidane was subsequently sent off after having inspired the French team into the final. His retirement soon after meant that the headbutt was his last contribution to the game as a player, a sad ending for one of the best midfielders to ever grace the game. To make matters worse for Zidane and France, Italy would go on to win the championship on penalties.

3. England’s ghost goal against Germany

After a 2-2 stalemate in normal time in the 1966 final, Geoff Hurst’s shot hit the bottom of the upright before bouncing on the line and being cleared. However, Soviet linesman Tofik Bakhramov flagged it as a goal and England went on to win their only World Cup thanks to the decision. To add further controversy to the incident, certain reports suggest that when Bakhramov was asked on his deathbed how he knew that the ball crossed the line, he replied ‘Stalingard’.

4. Diego Maradona’s Hand of God

The famous 1986 quarterfinal between Argentina and England will forever be remembered for Maradona’s telling brace. The first of the two highlighted Maradona’s cheek as he used his hand to guide the ball past Peter Shilton. When asked about the goal after the match, Maradona answered, ‘It was the hand of God’. English fans would never get over the incident and a cross-continent rivalry was born.

5. West Germany and Austria fix the result

In 1982, Algeria pulled off the shock of the tournament by defeating West Germany 2-1. However, in what would later come to be known as one of the worst matches in the history of the game, Austria and West Germany fixed the result of the decider, since a 1-0 win for West Germany meant that both teams went through at the expense of Algeria. A similar incident had occurred in the previous World Cup when Peru lost 6-0 to Argentina, allegedly after being bribed, in order to ensure that rivals Brazil get knocked out. However, unlike the West Germany-Austria incident, nothing could be proven. To make matters worse, since neither team had technically broken any rules, there were no repercussions. Since then, all final group matches are played at the same time to avoid such an incident.

The five funniest World Cup moments

1. Pele’s predictions:

Pele is regarded as one of the best footballers of all time but he is definitely one of the worse pundits. He claimed that Columbia will win the 1994 World Cup but ended up finishing bottom of their group. In 1998, his favourites were Spain, who also couldn’t get past the first round. In 2002, he predicted a France vs Argentina final. As per the pattern, both teams also failed to go past the first round. He also predicted that Brazil would fail to make it out of the group stages in 2002; they ended up winning the tournament.

2. Romania’s hairstyle:

The Romanian team all bleached their hair in 1998 before their group match against Tunisia. Some say that the move was a show of unity, others say it was to spot each other better during a game. The prevailing reason, however, is that they lost a bet to head coach Anghel Lordanescu who shaved his head as a dare.

3. The three yellow cards:

Graham Poll became the unfortunate brunt of many a refereeing joke as he booked Croatian Josip Simunic thrice during the 2006 Croatia vs Australia group game. Simunic was first booked in the 61^st minute, before receiving his second in the 90^th minute. Poll somehow managed to not show him a red and his linesmen and the fourth official decided to not remind him about it. Simunic, however, was nice enough to commit his third bookable offence only three minutes later. And this time, Poll made no mistake.

4. Pitch invasion:

During the 1962 quarter-final game between Brazil and England, a stray dog managed to make its way onto the pitch, causing a brief halt to the game. Jimmy Greaves quickly grabbed the dog in order to take it out of the field. The dog, however, was to get his revenge as he urinated all over Greaves. Brazilian Garrincha was reportedly so amused by the incident that he adopted the stray.

5. Gary Linekar’s accident:

The England striker accidently shat his pants while tackling during the 1990 World Cup game against the Republic of Ireland. In Linekar’s own words; “I was very fortunate that it rained that night so I could do something about it, but it was messy. You can see me rubbing the ground like a dog trying to clean it.”

Top 5 players to never have played the World Cup

Eric Cantona (France)

The controversial Cantona enjoyed a successful career in the Premier League, especially with Manchester United, where he was affectionately known as ‘King Eric’. In his five-year spell at the Old Trafford, Cantona won four league titles and two FA Cups. He was also selected by Brazilian great Pele in his list of FIFA 100 Greatest Living Footballers. However, despite his success at club level and his 20 goals for France, Cantona was never able to represent his country in the World Cup as France failed to qualify for the 1990 and the 1994 editions, even though he was indefinitely banned during the 1990 qualification campaign for having called the then national team manager Henri Michel ‘a bag of shit’. His retirement in 1997 meant that he missed out on the 1998 edition that France hosted and eventually won.

Ian Rush (Wales)

Rush is the highest goal scorer for both Liverpool, with 346 goals, and for Wales, with 28 goals. A cornerstone of the last great Liverpool side that won five league titles, three FA Cups and two European Cups, Rush could have walked into any international team during his era but was unlucky to be in one that failed to qualify despite his best attempts. The prolific number 9 was just as instrumental for Wales as he was his club and scored a brace in a remarkable 3-0 home win against Spain during the 1986 World Cup qualifying campaign. However, Wales would miss out on the play-off spot to Scotland on goal difference, finishing only a point behind leaders Spain. Rush was equally telling in the 1994 Welsh World Cup qualifying campaign, scoring seven goals in 10 matches. Wales once again came agonisingly close but ultimately finished three points behind group leaders Romania.

Ryan Giggs (Wales)

The most decorated player in English football history, Giggs was unable to inspire his national side to the World Cup despite all of his success at club level. With a remarkable 13 league titles, four FA Cups and two Champions Leagues among the multitude of titles to his name, Giggs won all there was to win with Manchester United. However, his performances with Wales never matched those for his club as he only managed to score 12 times in 64 matches for the international side.

George Weah (Liberia)

Voted the African player of the century by international sports journalists, Weah had a long and successful career in Europe with French, Italian and English teams. In 1995, Weah won both the FIFA World Player of the Year and the Ballon d’Or; the only African to have won either of the awards. However, despite his 22 international goals, he was unable to help Liberia qualify for the 1990, 1998 and 2002 World Cups, with the Lone Stars withdrawing from the 1994 campaign.

Alfredo Di Stefano (Argentina, Columbia, Spain)

Having represented three major footballing nations and enjoying perhaps the most successful club career in history, Di Stefano is by far the best player to have never played in a World Cup. Described by many as the complete footballer, Di Stefano won 18 trophies in 11 years, which included an incredible five consecutive European Cups with Real Madrid as he scored in the final of all five triumphs. His 308 goals for Real make him their second-highest goal scorer after Raul. However, he remarkably never played in a World Cup, with Argentina opting out of the 1950 tournament due to a dispute with the football federation of hosts Brazil, and the 1954 edition. After being awarded a Spanish citizenship, he was eligible to play for Spain in the 1958 World Cup but the La Roja failed to qualify. He was part of Spain’s successful 1962 qualification campaign but an injury ruled him out of the finals.

Best ever player in World cups

GK: Dino Zoff, Italy (1970, 1974, 1978, 1982*) 

The 112-capped Zoff is considered by many to be the greatest goalkeeper at international level. Zoff is the oldest player to have won the World Cup, when he lifted the trophy at the age of forty years and 133 days. Having conceded only 17 goals in the four World Cups that he played in, at an average of a goal per game, Zoff was perhaps the safest goalkeeper that the world has ever seen. He also holds the record of having gone the longest time without conceding an international goal – a remarkable 1,142 minutes.

minutes.

Right Back: Cafu, Brazil (1994*, 1998, 2002*, 2006)

Despite spending most of his time in the opposition half, Cafu is regarded as one of the best defenders to have played in the World Cup. He was part of the Brazil squad that won the World Cup in 1994, but the 1998 edition was his first as a regular. He won the World Cup again in 2002, this time as the captain of the side. In the four World Cups that Cafu played in, he was only knocked out twice; both times by inspired Zinidine Zidane performances.

Right Centre-Back: Bobby Moore, England (1962, 1966*, 1970)

If ever England had a natural leader then it was Moore. The captain of their triumphant 1966 home tournament wore the armband for 90 of his 108 international caps. Like all good leaders, Moore often led from the front and it was his quickly taken free-kick that led to the English equaliser in the 1966 final. Moore was regarded as the best defender of his time by players such as Franz Beckenbaur and Pele. In the dying minutes his long field pass found Geoff Hurst, who completed his hat-trick to make it 4-2, earning Moore his second assist of the night and effectively finishing off the contest. Even in his final World Cup in 1970, Moore was the standout player in an English side that was knocked out by Brazil.

Left Centre-Back: Franz Beckenbauer, West Germany (1966, 1970, 1974*)

Officially a sweeping centre-back, Beckenbauer was so gifted on the ball that he was often the creative fulcrum of the West Germany side and was also handy with the goals, finishing with a return of five goals in 18 World Cup matches. Add that to his legendary man-marking and reading of the game and it is no surprise that Beckenbauer is the most famous defender after Paolo Maldini. Beckenbauer was ever present in all the three World Cups that he played in, finishing second in the first one and third in the second, before finally captaining his side to World Cup triumph in 1974, becoming the first player to lift the new World Cup trophy. Interestingly, Beckenbauer is the only man to have won the World Cup as a player and as a coach, and also the only man to have lost in a final as both.

Left Back: Paolo Maldini, Italy (1990, 1994, 1998, 2002)

Easily the best player to never have won the World Cup, Paolo Maldini is widely considered to be the greatest defender of all time. Just as comfortable at centre-back as he was at left-back, despite being right-footed, Maldini revolutionised defending in the 90s. Holding the record of the most number of World Cup minutes played – 2,217 – Maldini’s Italy were never knocked out in normal time as he faced penalty shootout heartache in 1990, 1994 and 1998 and bowed out to South Korea after extra time in 2002 in extremely controversial circumstances. Despite several attempts, Marcello Lippi was unable to convince Maldini to come out of retirement for the 2006 World Cup, which would have handed Maldini the only trophy that he failed to win in a career that spanned 25 years.

Attacking Midfield: Johan Cruyff, Holland (1974)

Johan Cruyff was the main architect behind the total-football played by the great Dutch team of the 1970s. Even though he played only one World Cup and never won the trophy, losing to West Germany in the final, Cruyff was the standout player of the tournament and earned himself the Golden Ball award as he scored three goals in seven matches. Even though Cruyff was a centre-forward on paper, he often dropped deep to orchestrate attacks, usually ending up playing as an advanced attacking midfielder in the hole behind the striker.

Central Midfield: Lothar Mathaus, Germany / West Germany (1982, 1986, 1990*, 1994, 1998)

Having tasted defeat in the final in his first two World Cups against a Paolo Rossi-inspired Italy and a Diego Maradona-inspired Argentina, Mathaus finally captained West Germany to victory in 1990 in a repeat of the 1986 final. Mathaus’ man-marking, positional sense, tackling and strength were vital as he shielded the back four, while his passing range and stinging shot also helped the team in attack. Regarded as one of the finest midfield generals, the most-capped German also holds the record for most number of World Cup matches played – 25 – and is also the only outfield player to have played in five World Cups.

Striker: Diego Maradona, Argentina (1982, 1986*, 1990, 1994)

The iconic five-minute spell of the England vs Argentina quarter final in 1986 summed up Maradona perfectly as both his brilliance and his penchant for controversy came to the fore. In the 51^st minute, Maradona guided the ball past Peter Shilton with a blatant handball that was somehow missed by the officials. Four minutes later, Maradona skipped past half the England team, carrying the ball from inside his own half, to score a goal that would later be voted as the goal of the century. Argentina would go on to win the World Cup and skipper Maradona would receive the Golden Ball for his exploits. He came close to captaining his side to a second consecutive final but would eventually lose 1-0 in the final to West Germany as Mathaus successfully marshalled him throughout the game. He tested positive for a drug test in 1994 and was sent home after only two matches and his goal against Greece in the top corner would be his last contribution in a World Cup as a player.

Striker: Ronaldo, Brazil (1994*, 1998, 2002*, 2006)

The phenomenon was easily the most devastating attacker since Diego Maradona and his tally of 15 goals in World Cups is the highest by any player. His first involvement in a World Cup was receiving a winner’s medal at the age of 17 when he was selected for the Brazil squad but did not play. At 21, he was the driving force behind the 1998 Brazil team, but lost 3-0 to hosts France in the final. Ronaldo’s name was mysteriously not on the initial team sheet, which sparked wide spread rumours that he had died. However, he played as an amended team sheet followed, but looked out of sorts and so did the rest of the team. In 2002, Ronaldo won his second World Cup, scoring eight goals as he led the line for the Seleção. He went on to score his record-breaking 15^th goal in 2006 when he rounded Ghana’s Richard Kingson in the fifth minute to slot into an empty net.

Central Midfield: Zinidine Zidane, France (1998*, 2002, 2006)

A modern great if ever there was one, Zidane was as lazy and arrogant on the ball as he was humble off the pitch. France had been struggling to score goals at home in the 1998 World Cup, with their only three goals in the knockout stages all being scored by centre-backs, and faced defending champions Brazil in the final. Always a man for the big occasion, Zidane’s headed brace in the final made up for his red card against Saudi Arabia in the group stages, which had made him the first French player to be sent off in a World Cup, helping France to a 3-0 victory. Having crashed out in the group stages in 2002, Zidane dragged France to the 2006 World Cup finals almost singlehandedly; his performance against Brazil going down as one of the best by a midfielder in World Cup history. However, his infamous headbutt on Marco Materazzi was unfortunately his last ever contribution on the international stage as Italy lifted the trophy on penalties.

Striker: Pele, Brazil (1958*, 1962*, 1966, 1970*)

The only player in history to have won three World Cup winner’s medals, Pele was the best player of a Brazilian team that is considered by many to be the greatest the sport has ever seen. The 17-year-old Pele would announce himself at the World Cup by scoring six goals in his first campaign in 1958 – finishing second in the scoring charts behind Just Fontaine’s remarkable 13-goal record tally – and spearheading Brazil to the World Cup. However, he was not as successful in the upcoming two editions as he was injured for most of the 1962 campaign and Brazil were knocked out in the group stages in 1966 as Pele was roughed up by Bulgarian and Portuguese defenders, but not before he became the first player to score in three consecutive World Cups. Personal success would return as Pele scored four in 1970 to claim the Golden Ball along with his third World Cup winner’s medal.

Best goals

1. Diego Maradona for Argentina vs England in 1986

Regarded as the goal of the century, Maradona skipped through the whole England defence with consummate ease before rounding Peter Shilton and scoring into an empty net.

2. Dennis Bergkamp for Holland vs Argentina in 1998

Everything about this goal oozed class. First Frank de Boer’s vision to see Bergkamp’s run and the raking 60-field to find him. Bergkamp then somehow managed to kill the ball that was coming over his shoulder and in the blink of an eye, he played it past Roberto Ayala’s tackle and curled it into the top corner with the outside of his foot.

3. Esteban Cambiasso for Argentina vs Serbia and Montenegro in 2006

An incredible 24 passes saw Cambiasso free inside the box, who poked it into the bottom corner. The move that started from the back slowly gained intensity and culminated in a sublime backheel by Hernan Crespo with the holding midfielder more than happy to slot it into the back of the net.

4. Nelinho for Brazil vs Italy in 1978

A stunning outside-of-the-foot curler from the adventurous right-back somehow managed to curl enough to go in off the post. The Italians were slow in closing down Nelinho, expecting a cross, but were left stunned by the effort.

5. Carlos Alberto for Brazil vs Italy in 1970

One of the most complete goals seen in football by perhaps the greatest team ever. The goal had everything; skill, dribbles, intricate passing and a crunching finish into the bottom corner at the end of it. A goal worthy of the final.

Top five footballers to not play in this World Cup

Radamel Falcao (Columbia)

Falcao was the driving force behind Columbia’s qualification campaign, finishing as joint third-highest goal-scorer with nine goals behind Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi, as they claimed second spot in the CONMEBOL qualifying group. However, a horrific knee injury in January ruled him out for the rest of the season and left his World Cup hopes in jeopardy. Fighting against time to return to fitness for the World Cup, Falcao originally joined the 30-man preliminary squad but failed to make the cut.

Gareth Bale (Wales)

The €100 million man who recently scored the winners in both the Champions League and the Copa del Ray finals will miss the World Cup as Wales failed to qualify. Despite his four goals in the qualifying rounds, the joint highest from the group, Wales finished a disappointing fifth as they conceded 20 goals, including six in one match against Serbia.

Marco Reus (Germany)

The Borrusia Dortmund attacker was of the best players in the German league and was the standout player of a Dortmund side that finished second in both the league and the German cup. Reus was part of an exciting German squad and would have been an almost certainty to start, especially considering his pace and recent form. However, Reus suffered an injury in Germany’s warm-up match against Armenia and has been forced out of contention for the World Cup.

Frank Ribery (France)

The France and Bayern Munich star man finished third in the Ballon d’Or race behind Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo and has been ruled out of the World Cup with an injury. Despite facing a relatively easy group and possibility of a simple Round of 16 knockout match, France’s World Cup ambitions have taken a blow with Ribery being forced to pull out. The winger was France’s most experienced player and had played a pivotal role in their run to the final in 2006.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden)

Having finished second in their qualifying group behind an impressive German side, thanks largely to Ibra’s six goals, Sweden were unlucky to draw Portugal in the play-offs. They lost the first leg in Portugal 1-0 thanks to a Cristiano Ronaldo goal and the Portuguese captain was in inspired form for the return leg, when he scored a hat-trick. Despite, scoring a brace, Ibra was powerless to prevent his side from crashing out 4-2 on aggregate. The cocky Swede famously said, “A World Cup without me is nothing to watch,” after his side’s loss. Even though his statement is not true, the World Cup would definitely have been a better spectacle with the Ibracadabra in it.

Records and numbers

• Hosts and favourites Brazil’s World Cup tally of 5 is higher than that of any other team. History doesn’t favour the Europeans since 0 European teams have won a World Cup in South America.

• A record total of 20 cards were issued during the Round of 16 match between Portugal and the Netherlands, with 16 yellow cards and 4 red cards.

• Ronaldo holds the record of the highest number of goals in World Cups, with 15 goals spread across 3 tournaments. Just Fontaine scored a remarkable 13 goals in only 6 matches in the 1958 World Cup, the highest in a single edition.

• Russian Oleg Salenko scored 5 goals in a single match against Cameroon in the 1994 World Cup, a record for the finals. However, this number is dwarfed by Australia’s Archie Thompson, who scored 13 goals in a single match against Samoa in a qualifying match, which Australia won by 31 goals.

• The fastest goal in a World Cup stands at 10.89 seconds by Hakan Sukur for Turkey against Korea Republic.

• The 1998 World Cup holds the record for the most goals scored, with 171 goals, while the 1930 and 1934 are the joint lowest with only 70 goals apiece.

• The World Cup provides just as much joy to defenders and goalkeepers; Peter Shilton and Fabian Barthez both went a record 10 matches without conceding a goal.

• The 173,850 that officially attended the virtual final – the winner was decided by a final group stage and hosts Brazil needed a draw against Uruguay to claim the title – of the 1950 World Cup at the Maracana Stadium. Uruguay won 2-1 to be crowned champions and the match would forever be known as the Maracanazo [The Maracana Blow]. The lowest attendance, meanwhile, stands at a mere 300 in a Romania-Peru match in the 1930 edition. The highest attendance in a full tournament was 3,587,538 in USA 1994.

• Former Brazil captain Cafu has won the most number of World Cup matches, 16, and also holds the joint record of having been booked the most number of times, 6, along with Zinidine Zidane.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 10^th, 2014.

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On Friday, members of the Steering Committee on Polio Eradication were informed that a total of 76,565 children were vaccinated at the permanent transit points established at FR Bannu, 13,500 were immunised at the transit points at Hangu/Thal while 1,648 children were vaccinated at DI Khan.

Some 3,500 IDP children were vaccinated during a campaign in Bannu and 1,274 children were given Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) during a campaign in Lakki Marwat, the committee was told.

According to an official in the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination (NHSRC), these children are being vaccinated under the Emergency Vaccination Plan (EVP) for internally displaced persons (IDPs) implemented by the federal government.

SOURCE: PRIME MINISTER’S POLIO CELL

The EVP was launched along with the Zarb-e-Azb operation and is being headed by the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (Safron) which is working in collaboration with the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa health department.

For this plan, polio vaccines have been provided by the federal Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) from its limited stock for routine immunisation and it vaccination activities are being monitored by the Prime Minister’s Monitoring and Coordination Cell for Polio, said the official.

“The aim of the Emergency Vaccination Plan is to vaccinate all those 250,000 children, who since 2012 have not been vaccinated against polio due to law and order situation,” said the official.

The steering committee during the meeting was informed that according to the emergency plan, in addition to vaccination at PTPs, polio vaccine will be administered at the time of registration to all IDP children missed during transit by the PTPs.

With at-least three rounds of short interval additional doses (SIAD) of OPV, routine immunisation including measles vaccine and vitamin-A will also be administered to all children.

No anti-polio drives were held in North Waziristan since the middle of 2012 and an estimated 2,50,000-plus children in the region had not received a single dose of polio vaccine during this time.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 21^st, 2014.

Unfortunately, police stations in Karachi have taken the form of musical chairs, with SHOs frequently being transferred, not allowed to stay in one place for too long in most cases. These transfers and postings have often been controversial in the absence of a set criterion. In most cases, SHOs are appointed on the basis of ‘recommendations’; these may come in the form of a political ‘sifaarish’ or through payment of a hefty sum, depending on the scale of income the police station offers.

For most police stations in the city, the minimum going rate is Rs500,000. This may vary depending on the area covered by the police station and may go as high as Rs1.5 million in some cases.

The rate is set keeping in mind the law and order situation as well as the level of organised crime in the area. Police stations in more violence-hit areas have lower rates because most officers do not wish to take charge over these police stations. Areas that offer a lucrative source of income in the form of kickbacks from activities of organised crime such as gambling, narcotics, land grabbing and roadside stalls fetch a far higher price.

For instance, police stations in Lyari, Brigade, Mehmoodabad and Shah Faisal Colony are among those where no officer wishes to be appointed as SHO due to the frequent clashes and target killings. On the other hand, the police stations located in posh areas, commercial zones as well as the city’s outskirts are the favourites because of the abundance of white-collar crime, smuggling and land grabbing opportunities. These include Preedy, Darakshan, Mithadar, Docks and Jackson police stations to name a few.

The income from these transfers and postings is so rewarding that private agents such as Waseem Beater, who enjoy good relations with senior police officials, have made it a regular business. The majority of these SHOs are appointed through a ‘tender’, which is the term used for appointment through payment of a fixed sum of money.

“When a new SHO is appointed to a particular police station, the first question his colleagues ask of him is whether he was appointed through a ‘sifraish’ or through a tender,” explained an on-duty SHO, on the condition of anonymity.

Subsequently, the officer is appointed as SHO to the police station of his choice for a ‘probationary’ period of three months. His tenure may be extended if he is smart enough to keep his patrons happy by providing them with a regular source of income thereafter. It is perhaps this very reason that the average tenure of an SHO in Sindh was 28 days during the tenure of the previous government, the CID DIG Zafar Bukhari told a seminar earlier this year.

There is no fixed time frame for the tenure of the SHO’s appointment to a particular police station. “How is it possible for any SHO to understand the dynamics of a particular area if he is only going to be there for a month?” questioned a former DIG who was posted in Karachi. “These SHOs are transferred for any number of reasons, be it political pressure, decrease in kickbacks to higher officials or just because the senior officials are unhappy with him.” He added that there was no shortage of well-reputed inspectors in the police department, yet most police stations were being run by sub-inspectors.

That is not to say that no one ever raised their voice against the corrupt system. Former provincial home minister Zulfiqar Mirza, during his tenure, had publicly criticised the way police stations were being ‘sold to the highest bidder’.

Following these revelations, the then Karachi police chief AIG Saud Mirza had decided to set a written exam through which SHOs would be appointed. The test was meant to evaluate the professional competence of the SHOs and in turn, discourage the practice of ‘selling’ police stations. Unfortunately, Zulfiqar Mirza was no longer the home minister and the new minister, Manzoor Wassan, was not too thrilled with the idea. In the dispute that followed, AIG Saud Mirza resigned from the police department and his recommendations were never followed.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 10^th, 2014. 

For years, Pakistan has also relied on independent power producers (IPPs), the privately run power plants, to meet its pressing electricity needs. Very often that has dragged politicians and bureaucrats into controversy over allegations that they offered undue benefits to crony capitalists. However, this is about to change.

Fatima Energy, a subsidiary of Fatima Group, which has interests in the fertiliser, textile and sugar sectors, has started work on a 120-megawatt (MW) IPP that will sell power directly to bulk customers, eliminating the uproar that surrounds inefficient power producers being allowed to cheat public.

This would be the first time an IPP would not rely on government guarantees, subsidies, tariffs and all the other assorted benefits to carry the business of producing and selling energy, according to company officials and government documents.

“The beauty of this model is that the market will decide the price of electricity,” said Toseef Ijaz, Fatima Energy’s project director. “Customers will choose if they want to buy electricity from us at Rs10 or Rs15 (per kilowatt hour kWh).”

Under a wheeling agreement, which covers the use of national grid by power producers, Fatima will pay Multan Electric Power Company (Mepco) a certain fee to use its transmission lines for supplying electricity to its customers.

Currently, IPPs sell electricity to the government-owned national grid against a guaranteed and fixed rate of return of around 17%. All the fuel cost, be it gas, furnace oil or diesel is passed on to consumers. The returns are even indexed to neutralise exchange rate fluctuation and the effect of inflation.

But, the energy supply system crippled by its high cost, theft and leakages, often leaves the government under a huge debt as it subsidises consumer tariff before struggling to come up with the finances to pay the IPPs on time.

According to National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra), the government ends up owing Rs45 billion a year only as mark up on delayed payments.

Fatima’s project

The power plant, being built in Muzaffargarh, Punjab, is based on co-generation technology. It will use bagasse, a by-product from its sugar mill located nearby, along with imported coal to produce around 118MW, according to the tariff petition it filed in May 2013.

Initially, the company had estimated the project cost at $235 million with a debt component of $175 million. But it recently announced achieving financial close of Rs21 billion, which comes to around $212 million. The company says the cost has gone up due to rupee depreciation.

When the project was conceived, sponsors were hoping to sell half the power to the national grid – National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) – but that was severely criticised by some officials who insisted that Fatima Energy Limited was more like a captive power plant than an IPP.

Now, the company is going to sell the power to bulk customers who are subsidiary companies of the Fatima Group that include Fatima Sugar, Fazal Cloth Mills, Reliance Weaving Mills and Pak-Arab Fertilizer after signing separate power purchase agreements.

“Normally captive power plants are planned to serve a fixed internal customer mostly as backward integration,” said Fatima’s project director Ijaz. “This project is a step into opening the market by tapping to a wider customer base.”

He says the company is in talks with other bulk customers as well. “We are already seeing a lot of interest in this model. It’s a simple equation of someone needing power and us being there to supply it at a competitive price.”

The project will come online in March 2016.

The cost factor

The plant will use 496,000 tons of bagasse and 207,000 tons of coal annually. Coal will be imported and transported on trucks from the Karachi Port Trust. Bagasse will be used for four to five months since a sugar crop period lasts this long.

It is also the largest coal- and bagasse-fired power plant in Pakistan.

In its petition, the company calculated the tariff at Rs11.847 per kWh, less than the IPPs using furnace oil.

But the tariff has gone up since the petition was filed last year because of rise in related costs, the company said, without sharing the exact tariff. However, it said the revised tariff is still less than the industrial tariff, which in Mepco’s system averages at Rs16 per kWh.

Fatima says that bagasse is used inefficiently in the country and its consumption to generate electricity will add to revenue and profitability of group companies.

What it means moving forward

A wider use of wheeling agreements will change the way consumers are supplied electricity. But, this departure from the existing framework, which greatly favours investors over consumers, depends on how the market reacts to Fatima Energy’s initiative.

Former Pakistan Electric Power Company’s (Pepco) managing director Munawar Baseer Ahmad said the free market model works when supply exceeds demand or, at least remains enough to meet existing needs.

“That is when a consumer will have a real choice to decide between multiple suppliers,” he said. “Right now, the situation is such that people don’t have electricity. So they have no choice but to buy it at whatever price they get. I don’t see that as a free market.”

Wheeling agreements could actually force existing IPPs to cut their profits and lower tariff if more power suppliers like Fatima Energy spring up in the future and convince bulk customers to switch over to them.

Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) President Khawaja Muhammad Usman said that IPPs’ direct sale to bulk customers is need of the hour considering incessant power breakdowns faced by factories across Punjab.

“In the Multan region, we deal with load-shedding spread over 14 to 15 hours a day. Now the problem is even worse since the government no longer prioritises industrial consumers over households or commercial entities,” he said.

More importantly, he sees a complete shift from state-run grid to a privately controlled one. “Considering the problems, in a matter of years, businessmen will even be investment in transmission lines to serve bulk customers.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 17^th, 2014.

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KARACHI: The unusually high incidence of motor vehicle accidents in the upscale locality of Defence Housing Authority (DHA) reflects the lack of safety measures being taken for the regulation of traffic by the administration.

According to data collected by the Edhi Ambulance service, at least 19 accidents took place in Phase VIII last month alone. Most of these were not reported to the police as there were no fatal injuries.

The smaller arteries are the most vulnerable in terms of accidents due to the blind corners. However, major roads such as the Khayaban-e-Ittehad and Khayaban-e-Shamsheer are equally exposed. “Most accidents occur around Phase IV, VI and VIII, perhaps due to the high volume of traffic on these roads,” said Abdul Rashid, an Edhi ambulance driver who operates in the area. “Another reason could be that the traffic lights have been out of order since a long time.”

A survey of some of the main intersections at Khayaban-e-Badr, Roomi, Khalid, Iqbal and Qasim showed that almost 80 per cent of the traffic signals were out of order.

Other commercial zones that witness high volumes of traffic such as Khayaban-e-Rahat and Bukhari also pose a high risk for motorists due to the absence of functional signals.

The contractor

The Cantonment Board Clifton (CBC) and the private contractor, who was awarded the contract for the traffic signals in DHA, blame each other for the chaos.

The contractor, Zafar Naveed, told The Express Tribune that they have been struggling with a financial crisis as the CBC has not settled their dues since some time now. “The CBC is apparently engaged in other functions and does not pay heed to the traffic signals that provide them no financial benefit.”

According to Naveed, of the 54 traffic signals in DHA, 42 are partially functional while the rest are out of order. “You can say that around 98 per cent of the traffic signals are malfunctioning,” he said.

“We had advised the CBC to install at least 15 more signals, especially in DHA Phase VIII,” he revealed. “But the authorities have yet to heed our requests.”

Naveed was of the belief that Khayaban-e-Shaheen was the most dangerous street in DHA, in terms of traffic accidents, but the CBC was still deliberating whether to install traffic signals on the street or not.

Due to the area’s proximity with the sea, the traffic signals require a lot of maintenance as the salty breeze and heavy moisture adversely affect their functioning. “The CBC, however, instead of releasing extra funds to renovate these signals, stop paying our dues,” he claimed. “Our staff does not want to do the work anymore because of the constant salary crisis.”

The CBC’s version

For his part, the CBC vice-president, Aziz Suharwardy, refuted all the allegations leveled by the contractor, claiming that the latter had not maintained or installed new traffic signals since the past year and a half. “Why should we pay them when they have not done anything at all?” he questioned.

According to Suharwardy, the company was based in Punjab and did not seem to care for the development in Karachi as they already had plenty of contracts in their home province. He claimed that the company had signed the contract with the DHA, while the CBC had later inherited the responsibility for the care of signals. This legal issue remains a point of contention.

“We have been trying to change the contractor for traffic and will soon issue a tender in this regard,” he said. “Hopefully, the problem will be resolved after that.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 16^th, 2014.

Officially, the sale and purchase of these petroleum products is banned in Pakistan. The ban, however, has made it even more coveted for the thousands involved in its smuggling, for whom the contraband provides a lucrative income at minimal risk.

Roadside stalls selling Iranian petroleum products set up in North Karachi. PHOTOS: ATHAR KHAN/ EXPRESS

Dealers claim they pay heavy bribes to the police, Pakistan Customs, Pakistan Coast Guards and other agencies to keep their business alive. These agencies have come under fire on several occasions by government officials and members of civil society for their complicity in the illicit trade. The deadly accident of a passenger bus near Hub Chowki, carrying containers of the contraband, which had claimed over 40 lives, had raised much hue and cry among the civil society.

The police jumped into action; the Customs officials struck a few smugglers’ dens and the coastguards claimed to have detained several men trying to smuggle the contraband. A few months later, the noise died down and business resumed as usual.

Roadside stalls selling Iranian petroleum products set up in New Karachi. PHOTOS: ATHAR KHAN/ EXPRESS

In Karachi, the contraband is sold at small roadside stalls or makeshift outlets in the densely-populated areas where there is a huge demand for the cheaper fuel.

Sale and purchase in Karachi

Some roadside vendors mix the fuel with that purchased from the Pakistan State Oil pumps and sell it for around Rs2 above the market rate. Others sell purely Iranian fuel at lower rates. These pumps are located at a fair distance from each other and it is convenient for motorists to fill the fuel at these pumps rather than travel long distances.

“I charge Rs2 extra for providing the facility closer to the area [where there are no pumps nearby]. Motorists can save the money they would otherwise have to spend to get to the nearest petrol pump,” said one roadside vendor.

Roadside stalls selling Iranian petroleum products set up in Surjani Town. PHOTOS: ATHAR KHAN/ EXPRESS

Some of these vendors, particularly in Manghopir, Surjani, Orangi Town, SITE, Lyari and Ibrahim Hyderi have installed standardised dispensers at the stations.

The popularity of Iranian petroleum products can be gauged from the fact that Tara Chand Road in Keamari boasts more than five road vendors, besides dozens of stalls selling the contraband. Each one of these enterprises pays a bribe to the area police.

A survey shows that hundreds of people are involved in the business in the city. “The death of 40 people has snatched the bread from the mouths of hundreds of people associated with the business,” said Imran Khan, who was a wholesaler of Iranian fuel before the Hub accident. “Business has resumed but the profit margins are less as you must pay more to keep the police and others silent.”

While Iranian products are harmful for engines, their main advantage is the low rates. Depending on the area, pure Iranian petrol and diesel is between Rs20 to Rs40 cheaper than the standard petrol and diesel. “I do not know about the quality and the purity of the Iranian petrol but I do know that if the city shuts down or the petrol pumps go on strike, these road vendors run our vehicles,” said Kashif Naeem, a resident of Orangi Town.

Transporters’ profits

For the transporters, however, the contraband has provided a much-needed break.

The owner of a logistics company, Khaled Niazi, complained that they had been forced to use Iranian diesel in their trucks to make ends meet. The rates for hiring goods carriers vary each day, depending on the demand. “On Saturday, for example, a truck carrying 30 tons from Karachi to Lahore costs between Rs128,000 to Rs130,000.”

On average, a truck carrying this weight consumes around 750 to 800 litres of diesel from Karachi to Lahore. At Rs112 per litre for standard fuel, the cost of fuel alone would come to Rs89,600. Other costs including toll taxes, tyre punctures, food for the drivers, salaries and bribes for the police come to around Rs35,000 per trip. The total cost of a trip for the truck from Karachi to Lahore would come to around Rs124,600. This gives a profit of only around Rs4,000 to Rs6,000 per trip. At Rs90 per litre, the Iranian diesel provides a suitable alternative for these truck owners. According to Niazi, the only way to stop the truck owners from using the Iranian diesel is for the government to fix the rates of hire and alter the rates with the fuel prices.

Route

The goods carriers that transport cargo to Balochistan and even Iran bring back the fuel drums on the way back to Karachi. They use alternative routes to avoid the main check posts but largely travel along the Coastal highway, RCD highway, Quetta Seryab Road and Lasbella Road, reaching Karachi’s precincts at the Hub Chowki.

From Hub Chowki, they leave the conventional route, turning towards the Hub Bridge from where they head towards the Hub River. The largely unpaved roads at this site stretch for about one mile and connect to Mochko, Manghopir and Surjani.

Thus the vehicles enter the city through these katcha roads, and empty the contraband into underground storage tanks at Surjani and Manghopir. From these storage tanks, the fuel is supplied throughout the city in small vans and tankers.

Business is good

On average, approximately one million litres of Iranian fuel is smuggled into Karachi each month. A large share of the profits goes to the Customs, police and political parties, depending on their area of influence. The police, in each area, record the number of tankers and vans transporting the contraband and then charge the dealers accordingly. “Until and unless, there is demand for the cheap Iranian fuel, no one can stop it from being smuggled into the city,” an officer of the Pakistan Coast Guards told The Express Tribune.

Pakistan Customs is re-launching surveys of illegal petrol pumps operating in Karachi. “The aim of the survey is to gauge the quantity of the contraband being sold in the city,” the Pakistan Customs spokesperson told The Express Tribune. “The question is how are they able to smuggle the contraband to Karachi and sell it here,” he said. The official cited the example of a time when the Customs officials had stopped an entourage of trucks carrying the contraband near the Hub Chowki. The personnel of a security agency had intervened and ordered the officials to let them go.

“From the police constable to the ministers, all are involved in this illegal business,” remarked the Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Association chairperson Sami Khan. “I have been struggling against this menace since the last 10 years but have not been able to convince the authorities to implement the embargo properly.”

The police have the main responsibility to stop the illegal business that has mushroomed over last decade or so. “The lower ranking policemen are directly involved in the business,” explained a senior police official, requesting anonymity. Even the higher ranking officials are involved, but their connection is indirect.”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 9^th, 2014.

“The application will be tested on The Mall in November, Cheema told The Express Tribune.

The CTO said traffic police had recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the University of Engineering and Technology’s Khwarizmi Institute of Computer Science (KICS) for designing the application.

He said the technology would not only benefit traffic wardens and road users, it would also help him monitor the wardens. He said android phones would be given to wardens for uploading thetraffic situation in their area.

He said information provided by wardens would be available on a map. “This will help commuters plan their journey accordingly.”

The CTO said the application would monitor location and movement of wardens from the control room.

KICS Technology Commercialisation and Incubation Centre head Ahsan Khan said they would give a presentation to the CTO on October 23.

“There will be several applications designed for the project. One of them will be for traffic wardens to provide information about traffic volume. The information will be disseminated to traffic police’s helpline and the map.”

He said another application would update commuters about the status of traffic.

“If a road is blocked, the application will mention it on the map. In case of VIP movement, road userswill be able to choose another route.”

He said the application would also allow road users to update the map.

Khan said the information given by commuters would be uploaded after validation by the warden concerned.

He said motorists using the application would initially be assigned yellow colour. “If information given by them is correct, they will be considered responsible users and will then be assigned green colour. Updates given by them in the future will be immediately uploaded.”

Khan said those providing wrong information would be assigned red colour. He said an application introducing ‘e-challaning’ was part of the project.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 19^th, 2014.

This staggering figure is the number of children who have not been vaccinated each year over the past few years for a number of reasons.

According to EPI National Manager Dr Rana Safdar, these children reside all over the country and unless they are vaccinated, Pakistan stands no chance of eliminating polio.

Remapping strategy

“Some 450 union councils (UC)—10% of the country—are a challenge for vaccinators due to inaccessibility and pose a threat to the entire country,” said Dr Safdar.

He explained the federal government is planning to conduct a micro-census in these UCs to register children under the age of five. Subsequently, during vaccination drives, these children will be called by name to get immunised.

WHO Emergency Coordinator for Polio Eradication Elias Durry told The Express Tribune, “Pakistan is going through an explosive polio outbreak with 217 cases reported so far this year. This represents nearly a four-fold increase in the number of cases reported till this time last year.”

Sources: Data from WHO, EPI and news reports.

With more than 85% of the world’s polio cases, Pakistan stands as the largest threat to global polio eradication, said Dr Durry. However, the WHO official maintained the country has the capacity to work toward a polio-free Pakistan by the end of 2015.

“The upcoming six to nine months are critical,” said Durry.

Saying no to health

One of the major hurdles Pakistan faces in eliminating the virus is the lack of public trust.  Parents’ refusal to vaccinate their children is a big contributory factor to this year’s outbreak in Balochistan which so far has six cases.

Balochistan remained polio free for nearly 20 months, from October 2012 to June this year, when the outbreak began in July.

Three cases each have been recorded from Quetta and Killa Abdullah and all three cases from the latter had a history of vaccination refusal. According to Unicef, during the latest polio drive, at least 19,933 children were not vaccinated because their families refused the polio drops.

Quetta-based Communications Specialist for Unicef, Dr Jawahir Habib said, “People ask questions like ‘Why are the government and NGOs more interested in polio and not in other diseases?’”  The other reason is the misconception that the drops are a conspiracy against Muslims, added Dr Habib.

As the WHO environment surveillance has found nine positive samples—the virus has found a foothold in the region.

Testing for the virus

The latest WHO environmental surveillance reveals 23 samples collected from Punjab tested positive for the poliovirus, 17 of these were from the provincial capital Lahore.

One case each has been reported from Chakwal, Bhakkar, and Sheikhupura. The cases from Chakwal and Bhakkar were genetically linked to Fata, however, the one from Sheikhupura is genetically linked to Lahore.

Lahore has now been added to the list of the country’s poliovirus transmission zones, said an official of the health department. Dera Ghazi Khan, Lahore, Mianwali, Multan, Muzaffargarh, Rajanpur, Rawalpindi, Rahim Yar Khan, Sahiwal and Toba Tek Singh are among the high-risk areas vulnerable to a polio outbreak.

For more stories on polio attacks, click here

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2014.

Once he collects enough disposable syringes and other used plastics, Sadiq heads to Shoba Bazaar where he then sells these hazardous items. Sadiq is one of hundreds of children who deal with hospital waste for a pittance.

All three tertiary hospitals in the city do have incinerators for hospital waste. However, the ever-growing number of small private health facilities do not possess the capacity, or the knowledge, to safely dispose any of their waste and dump it as ‘municipal waste’.

At times, the waste is left inside roadside collection garbage containers, though on many an occasion, it is just left in a pile or buried without any consideration to groundwater or other health hazards.

Even with incineration facilities, the profitability of selling the waste plays a significant role in skipping the official guidelines which exist in black and white. Under the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act of 1997, Hospital Waste Management Rules, 2005 provide clear guidelines on how to collect, separate and dispose hospital waste.

Categorising hazards 

The rules define the word hospital as anything like a clinic or dispensary or blood bank to a mortuary or veterinary hospital. “All disposable medical equipment and supplies including syringes, needles, plastic bottles, drips and infusion bags shall be cut or broken and rendered non-reusable at the point of use.”

The rules categorise the various forms of waste generated by hospitals into non-risk waste which includes paper, cardboard, packaging, food waste, etc and risk waste which is the umbrella term for infectious, genotoxic, pathological, pharmaceutical, chemical and radioactive waste.

Waste contaminated by pathogens such as bacteria, viruses or parasites during surgeries and autopsies of infected patients or equipment contaminated by coming into contact with such patients is called infectious waste, while genotoxic waste is defined as outdated cytotoxic drugs (generally used to treat cancer), human waste of patients treated with cytotoxic drugs as well as equipment used to prepare and administer these drugs.

Similarly, organs, blood, bodily fluids, aborted foetuses and body parts are categorised as pathological waste, while chemicals from diagnostic and experimental work, housekeeping and disinfecting procedures, mercury waste from broken clinical equipment and cadmium waste from discarded batteries are termed chemical waste. And as the name suggests, radioactive waste refers to waste generated from the use of radioactive material for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.

Collective waste

According to data collected by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 15 to 20 tons of hospital waste is generated daily in the provincial capital alone. Of this, 65% is organic waste which is compostable and 35% is non-compostable or inorganic.

Moreover, dental hospitals also contribute to medical waste in the form of amalgam, a type of alloy of mercury and other metals used in filling cavities. Around 3 .2kg of amalgam waste is generated every year by three dental hospitals of Peshawar.

According to a 2013 research of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, a dental amalgam contains 50% mercury, 30% silver and 20% other metals such as copper, zinc and tin. When released into the environment, amalgam waste can pollute water bodies, soil and air and lead to a range of health complications.

Effective disposal

Under the Hospital Waste Management Rules 2005, the responsibility for waste management lies solely with those who generate it. The rules entail that the medical facility draw up a waste management plan to establish points of waste collection, decide frequency of collections and storage facilities.

According to the rules, all risk waste should be incinerated within 24 hours of collection, the residue from the incineration should be sent to the designated landfill site, while all liquid infectious waste should be discharged into the sewerage system after proper treatment and disinfection. Radioactive waste must be disposed of after it has decayed to its required background level.

An EPA official told The Express Tribune the authority has sent a written notice to the health directorate asking it to properly dispose medical waste. However, the rules of hospital waste management continue to be flouted across the city.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 26^th, 2014.

There is one golden rule at the two slaughterhouses in Karachi — the animal should walk into the facility. If it falls or falters on the way, it will be sent back. This is the principle which governs the thriving meat business in the city that officially consumes at least 1,200 cows and buffaloes and around 3,000 to 4,000 smaller animals, such as goats and sheep, on an average each day. There is, however, a long arduous process that these animals go through before they end up as a succulent piece of meat on your plate. 

Know your food chain

Officially, there are two slaughterhouses in Karachi — the City Abattoir Cattle Colony in Landhi and the New Karachi slaughterhouse — which are also referred to as kamailas. While both slaughterhouses are primarily run by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), the Landhi slaughterhouse is being run by a private contractor — the Multix International Corporation — for the past 15 years. Under the contract, KMC receives 60% of the collected revenue while the rest goes to the private firm.

A loader washing chopped meat with water inside the slaughterhouse. PHOTO: ATHAR KHAN 

According to Dr Ashfaq Ali, the KMC director of veterinary services, the abattoir in Landhi, spread over 31 acres of land is the largest in the country and employs 130 KMC personnel. The New Karachi slaughterhouse, which is much smaller, takes up only two acres and has 30 staff members. Both the kamailas are closed on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays to control the shortage of animals in the country. The Landhi slaughterhouse, from where most of the meat is supplied to markets and retailers, works in two shifts. The night shift, in which buffaloes, cows, goats and sheep are slaughtered, operates between 12am to 9am. The day shift, which only deals in buffaloes, operates between 12pm to 6pm. Meanwhile, the New Karachi slaughterhouse only operates during the night. 

Where do the animals come from?

Both slaughterhouses procure their supply from all over the country, mostly from Punjab and Upper Sindh, which arrive in trucks carrying up to 35 cows and buffaloes at a time. Within walking distance from the Landhi abattoir is the Perhi Ground where the animals exchange hands from the vendors to the traders who buy the stock to be slaughtered. The market is set up twice every 24 hours — in the evening before the night shift and early in the morning for the day shift. The traders who buy these animals then hand them over to the local marshals who look after the animals until the gates of the kamaila open.

Mini-trucks waiting outside the slaughterhouse to transport the meat pieces to Clayton Market, Guru Mandir. PHOTO: ATHAR KHAN 

The nearby cattle farms also sell their animals at the Perhi. “If a buffalo or cow gives milk [whose market value is] less than its daily food expenditure, it must go to the slaughterhouse,” explains Muhammad Moosa, a resident of Sajawal who works at a cattle farm near the abattoir. Moosa and his three other colleagues milk 300 cows and buffaloes at the farm, three times a day. “The owner cannot afford to keep the animal if its milk production drops. It just has to go,” he says.

Slaughter and examination

When the gates are opened, people take their animals inside the slaughterhouse after paying the government-prescribed fee of Rs65 for each buffalo and cow and Rs13 for goats and sheep. “Although healthy animals are slaughtered in the kamaila, there should be some veterinary doctors to examine the animals,” suggests Mohammad Ahsan, who gets five buffalos slaughtered daily. A medical examination of animals and meat is a pre-requisite according to the KMC by-laws. However, Dr Ali shares that there are only two doctors stationed at the city abattoir in Landhi — one for each shift — whereas there should be at least 12 of them. There is no post-slaughter examination of the animals either. Similarly, since there is no laboratory at the slaughterhouse, the vets take liver and blood samples of randomly selected animals for examination at the laboratory in Bhains colony during the outbreak of a virulent disease.

A loader carrying a leg-piece to load it in the mini-truck. PHOTO: ATHAR KHAN 

The room where the actual slaughter takes place is a long, wide concrete hall with steel pipes fixed along its pillars that help the kamaildar or head-butcher and his assistants chop the animal into four pieces. The pipes have strong iron hooks on which legs are hung to be washed. The KMC provides an annual licence to butchers for a nominal fee of Rs100, most of whom have acquired the skill from their forefathers. The kamaildar charges Rs200 per cow or buffalo, a price that can be reduced to Rs150, depending on the number of animals that are to be slaughtered.

Loaders tying meat pieces in a Suzuki van. PHOTO: ATHAR KHAN 

“It takes 10 minutes to slaughter the animal, peel off its skin, and cut it into four pieces,” says Sohail Qureshi, a butcher at the kamaila. After the slaughter, the KMC employees stamp the meat with a special ink in three different places, marking the meat as legal and fit for human consumption. These stamps increase the market value of the meat and relieve the businessmen from paying bribes to the police on the way to the market.

Loading and transportation

The labourers who load the meat on the transport vehicles, rinse it with clean water before hanging it onto the mini-trucks and Suzuki vans and charge Rs200 per animal. The meat is usually hung because it helps improve the flavour by allowing the natural enzymes to break down. Once upon a time, the KMC ran its own refrigerated vehicles. Now, they have been replaced by simple trucks run by private transporters. There are 35 mini-trucks and 13 Suzuki vans in the abattoir to transport the meat. The trucks leave the abattoir at a prescribed time and reach the market in less than an hour. “All the vehicles leave the abattoir at the same time so that the meat reaches the market at the same time and prices are maintained,” says Ali. Almost five hours after the animal has been slaughtered, the meat reaches the shopkeepers from where it may be purchased by consumers.

A 10-wheeler truck carrying buffaloes is entering the Pehri ground where the buffaloes will be unloaded. PHOTO: ATHAR KHAN 

The side-products, including the intestines, stomach, siri paye (legs), blood, bones and fat is sold inside the abattoir. Each item has its own dealers, including skins. Collectively, these side-products sell for Rs8,000 per animal. “All these side-products are already sold before the animal is slaughtered,” Ali elaborates. In the end, only the dung is left behind, which is flushed out with water. KMC sweepers stationed in the drainage canal push it along the drainage channel with their spades and direct it towards the sea. With the end of each shift, the slaughterhouse is taken over by the sweepers who clean up thoroughly before the next shift begins. Nevertheless, the conditions in which these employees work are appalling. For instance, even though there is enough supply of water to the abattoir, the labourers and butchers drink and bathe in the same water that is used to rinse the meat.

The wholesale market and its butchers

The Clayton market is the main meat wholesale arcade in the city. Meat from the day shift reaches the market around 2:30pm, where it is eagerly awaited by hundreds of scavenger birds and flies in addition to the wholesalers and shopkeepers. Though the official price of meat is set by the KMC, there is a slight difference between the price of meat with white fat and that with yellow or reddish fat. According to the businessmen at the market, buffalo meat is sold at Rs8,000 to Rs10,000 per mund (40 kilogrammes). Meat of a young bull can fetch up to Rs11,000 while the most coveted meat, that of a young cow, usually sells for over Rs12,000 per mund.

A mini-truck loaded with heading towards the wholesale markets. PHOTO: ATHAR KHAN 

At this market, the slaughtered meat is rid of unnecessary fat and bones and also squared into smaller pieces for the hotels. The fat is sold for Rs1,500 per mund and has its own dealers. Each dealer at the Clayton market has his own stall where the meat is hung off the hooks for processing. “We pay Rs6,000 to the government annually for each stall,” says Ikram Qureshi, who followed his father into the business and has been running his stall for the last 25 years. “There is, however, no system to clean the market and we do it ourselves. Every butcher has to clean his own stall and the area in front of it before leaving the market every day.” Ikram and his peers supply the meat to retailers and roadside establishments across the city.

Each butcher is paid Rs1,200 per week and most work for more than one dealer. The market closes for business at around 5:30pm once the meat reaches the shops who sell it to the consumers. The New Karachi slaughterhouse and the night shift of the City Abattoir Cattle Colony in Landhi directly supply meat to retailers across the city, including those at Saddar’s Empress Market, Laiquatabad No 2, Soldier Bazaar and Sitara Market in Ranchore line.

Illegal slaughter and pressure meat

Despite the ban on slaughtering animals outside the two government-run abattoirs, hundreds of animals are slaughtered across Karachi on the streets and at cattle farms, mostly during the night. In Bhains Colony, horses and donkey carts can be seen pulling loads of animals with sliced throats. KMC officials, who are responsible for controlling the practice, admit to this blatant violation of rules and blame it squarely on the local police and political parties.

“In every area, animals are slaughtered in the backstreets but we can’t take action because the police do not cooperate with us,” complains Dr Ali. “Sometimes we confiscate the animals and meat, which is later sent to philanthropic institutions or to the zoo, after examination. He narrates the example of a raid at Anda Mor where their team found themselves surrounded by armed activists of a political party.

Pressure meat is also associated with illegal slaughtering, but all the butchers in the market and the smaller shops prefer to keep mum about it. According to Ahsan and Sohail, the butchers who slaughter their own animals in the streets, put water pipe into the urinary ducts of the animal and let it absorb the water. “The water increases the weight of the meat by up to 40kg in a single animal,” he explains. “More often than not, the water in such cases is contaminated and the meat becomes harmful for humans.”

“We slaughter the bachiya (young cow) ourselves, but we have to hang a leg or two transported from the kamaila to show the police or deputy commissioner who sometimes raid the shop,” shares a local butcher at Keamari, on the condition of anonymity. He, however, denies selling pressure meat or the meat of sick or dead animals, saying that they only slaughter the animals in the street to meet customer demands. It is no secret, however, that as long as the city has a steady appetite, legal and illegal sources who feed on it will not sleep on empty stomachs either.

Sohail Khattak is a correspondent for The Express Tribune Karachi desk. He tweets @razakhattak

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, November 16^th, 2014.

In today’s tech-savvy world, avoiding social media isn’t just difficult — it’s virtually impossible. We are all well aware of how social media websites like Facebook and Instagram have changed our social interactions forever. As a generation of oversharers, we document our daily lives via pictures and status updates on these media portals. Breaking news reaches Twitter faster than the speed of light. And with Smartphone apps like Snapchat being the new cool thing, it’s no wonder that the officials at Oxford Dictionaries made ‘selfie’ the Word of the Year for 2013.

Unfortunately, in the fervour of publicising our experiences online, we often forget that everything we display or say online is permanent. Deleted tweets can be retrieved, pictures once uploaded but taken down remain lost somewhere in cyberspace and worst of all, glimpses of our personal lives — including telephone numbers and residence addresses — are often open to public. Considering this, it’s hardly surprising that organisations across the world have started to screen potential employees by looking at their online presence.

According to a survey conducted by online recruitment giant Jobvite in 2012, nearly 92% of recruiters in America now actively participate in ‘social recruiting,’ i.e. searching for talent over social networking websites. The phenomenon may not be as common in Pakistan yet and many like Samia Zuberi, an HR professional might even oppose the idea. “Frankly, I don’t think there is much to be gained from viewing peoples’ personal lives and activities on social media,” she says, calling it an invasion of privacy. “Employers are looking for specific job skills and general competence. These are not related to any applicant’s personal life!”

Nonetheless, Jobvite also revealed that recruiters thoroughly scrutinise an applicant’s online activity, noting that more than half of them would have an unfavourable reaction to spelling or grammar mistakes in the social profile. Pictures, comments, ‘likes’ and group memberships we innocently share might end up depicting us differently from what we would like potential employers to think of us and hence, cause serious impediments in our professional growth. “I think surveying an applicant’s online presence tells much more about them than a regular health and credit history ever can,” says fresh HR graduate Muneeza Maqbool. “Even the way one types online speaks volumes about them and employers have the right to know who they are letting in. This is even more important in Western firms where company image and corporate mission statements are of great importance!”

Look smart on LinkedIn!

The purpose of LinkedIn is to help potential employees get noticed by potential employers, providing a platform for them to connect. As it is strictly professional, your LinkedIn profile must be crisp, organised, relevant and error-free. Be sure to pick a profile picture that is professional and shows you at your best formal self.

The best part about LinkedIn is that it allows you to showcase your skills and achievements to others. Recruiters make their first judgement call based on how well information is presented. Therefore, it is imperative that you read whatever you upload multiple times to ensure there are no mistakes. LinkedIn also allows users to share examples of their work, such as research papers or articles, etc which are futile if not organised and relevant. To spark the interest of recruiters, your work experiences and samples should be listed chronologically and preceded by a brief background to help the reader understand better. Filter out all samples which are not relevant to the career field you have chosen as recruiters are unlikely to read unnecessarily long resumes. Be careful whatever you say online. In a recent interview with CNN, LinkedIn spokesperson Lindsey Pollak said, “Remove complaints about your job or boss, any confidential information and photos of yourself acting in a way that could be constructed as inappropriate.” Remember you want to be an asset to the company — not someone they could be embarrassed by in the future.

Clean up your act! 

The survey conducted by Jobvite listed LinkedIn as the most preferred social networking forum for online recruitment, followed closely by Facebook and then Twitter. While the former is meant for this very purpose, the other two are much more personal and therefore, need to be maintained lest an employer be reviewing them.

•  Privacy settings: You might not agree with the idea of social recruitment and wish to keep your personal and professional profiles separate but you can’t stop recruiters from peeping in. In such a situation, it is best if you utilise the privacy tools available on most social networking sites and hide your uploads from strangers and even specific people.

•  Re-evaluate your contacts: A man is as good as the company he keeps. Employers are likely to examine your online contacts to get a better understanding about your personal life. Therefore, it is advisable for you filter out your list of contacts that might ruin your virtual image, such as those with quirky pseudonyms or questionable online activity. You never know one of your ‘friends’ might be your future employer, judging you on that humour article or meme you shared a few weeks ago!

•  Re-evaluate your virtual interests: The same policy applies to the profiles you follow online. Virtual memberships of professional organisations, career-related groups and sharing information regarding corporate projects one has undertaken are likely to attract more employers than posting on movie forums and other, casual topics.

•  Proof read: As suggested by Jobvite, minor typos can discourage a recruiter from reading your profile further. Hence, you must remain careful about grammar, spellings and punctuation to create a more professional impression.

•  Say no to negativity: Not only should one look out for typing errors and spelling or grammar mistakes, they must also be vary of posting any racial, political or negative comments on their profiles lest a recruiter be viewing it. This is extremely important when it comes to large, multinational organisations who are particular about corporate image and wouldn’t hire someone with contradictory values.

Published in The Express Tribune, Ms T, November 16^th, 2014.

The sixth session of the Second Karachi International Conference, titled ‘Citizenship and the Emerging Socio-Political Realities,’ began with a few hiccups on Saturday: the previous session ran over and one of the speakers – architect and planner Christophe Polak, who was meant to discuss the city’s ‘intangible heritage’ – was unable to attend. Luckily, though not much could be done about the delay, the conference organisers managed to secure Sindhi writer Gul Hassan Kalmati as its third speaker.

“Most people know what Karachi’s basic problems are and what they are caused by,” said urban planner Anwar, starting the session with his paper on ‘Rural Karachi: Facing an Existential Threat?’ “It’s when we try to think of solutions that we flounder.”

‘Rural’ is not something that comes to mind immediately when you think of Karachi – what in Pakistan could be more urban than this mega-city? It turns out, however, that agricultural land covers quite a bit of the northern side of the city – even if they are, as Anwar says, threatened by illegal land-grabbing and the ever-increasing urban sprawl. This sprawl, according to him, is a ‘no-no’ in modern planning paradigms that focus on compact, sustainable cities and food security. And if food security is important, then so are the lives of those who produce the food: the rural citizens, who seem to have few rights in Karachi.

“If we look at the older master-plans of the city, they envisioned a clear organic link between the urban settlements and the rural hinterlands,” explained Anwar. “Now, there is no mention of rural Karachi. Its citizens have no voice, they are living like slaves entirely dependent on their MPAs.”

He pointed out that throughout history, revolutions had always been triggered by land reforms: if the common man has land, he will be empowered. The plight of Karachi’s rural hinterlands, in his opinion, could be addressed by the development of a formal agro-industrial zone – ideally with the involvement of the private sector to create employment, because “the government of Karachi is on its knees. The city government doesn’t exist in a city of 20 million people!”

Mumbai-based social anthropologist Sarover Zaidi, meanwhile, moved the conversation along from rights to the question of identity as she talked about ‘Tracing Karachi in Bombay’. Although her fieldwork was not supposed to examine the link between the two cities, fragments of Karachi and Pakistan kept cropping up in what she termed ‘the Muslim cosmopolis within Bombay’ until she could no longer ignore them. It was these fragments that she discussed, explaining that there was no other way to describe the chaotic coherence of the cities’ connection.

“Yeh Karachi se mangwatey hain (we get these from Karachi),” a shopkeeper in this neighbourhood, traditionally the home of Bombay’s Shias, Ismaili Khojas and Bohras, told her as he handed out a pack of Nauha CDs. Another shopkeeper waxed lyrical about Karachi solely on the basis of a map he had inherited from his father. In Muharram, residents of the area watched special screenings of majalis happening in Karachi.

“The evacuee properties of those who migrated to Karachi are spread across Bombay, tales of Ruttie Jinnah abound on the streets, and the resemblance between the ‘roza’ (mausoleum) of the Sayyedna in Bombay and the Mazar-e-Quaid in Karachi, built by the same architect, is impossible to miss,” Zaidi went on.

“There is nostalgia for an impossible homeland in the Muslims of Bombay, a sort of exile that is not physical but lies within the heart,” she explained. “It is the same for the Muhajirs of Karachi.”

Closing the session, Kalmati touched upon what Karachi’s citizens had done for the city, focusing upon the history of the Deepchand T Ojha Institute of Chest Diseases and the recognition of such institutions. “What happened to the Karachi that was built on the fervour of so many of its citizens?”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 23^rd, 2014.

KARACHI: For the last couple of weeks, the residents of Keamari and Shireen Jinnah Colony have been quite busy.

They have been working together and have started a campaign against the transportation of coal from the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) to upcountry areas. The residents believe that the way coal is transported is seriously hazardous to their health. To make sure they get their point across, they have put up banners and wall chalking in Jackson Bazaar and other areas of the neighbourhood.

“Oxygen is the only thing in this country that is free,” said Ashfaq Qureshi, the general secretary of the alIslah Mashra Welfare Trust, a local area committee. “My wife and daughter have been suffering from eye infections frequently as the coal dust blows into our house every time they load the trucks.”

Qureshi, a portly man, was talking to the residents of the area and other members of the committee at the Qurtaba Masjid in Shireen Jinnah Colony. These men met a week ago for 30 minutes after Isha, where they were trying to come up with a plan to put pressure on the KPT to take measures to stop the pollution caused by taking the coal from one place to another.

While talking to The Express Tribune, Qureshi said that they had taken the matter to the Sindh High Court, adding that they will be holding protests outside Karachi Press Club. Qureshi said they had written to the KPT, Karachi Metropolitan Corporation and the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency regarding the problems they were facing because of the tons of coal being kept in an open area next to their homes. So far, he said, no one had responded. He asked the committee to wait till the next hearing at court – which was supposed to take place on Wednesday. The court, however, changed the date of the hearing to December 4. The committee will now have another meeting today and will decide on what to do then.

Muhammad Arshad, a resident who was also at the meeting, advised the committee’s chairperson, Maulana Mattiur Rehman, to gather residents and block the road used by the coal transporters.

“More than a hundred trucks leave the coal terminal in Shireen Jinnah Colony and barely any of them cover the coal,” he said. “The coal’s dust and powder keeps falling out and causes more air pollution. The only way to solve this problem is to relocate the yard.”

KPT responds

The port trust’s PRO, Shafiq Faridi, said that they cannot stop handling the coal because of protests. “We have to look at the whole country not just a few people,” he said, talking to The Express Tribune. “Coal is an essential commodity and is used to generate power. In Pakistan it is imported and brought to the KPT, from where it is dispatched to the rest of the country.”

He added that they were addressing the residents’ issues and will try to minimise the pollution by covering the truck and sprinkling water on the piles of coal in the yard. He claimed that they had constructed a wall and had also planted trees along the Groyne yard – the KPT yard where it keeps the coal.

According to Faridi, they handled coal the same way it was done all over the world – it was stored in the open and could not be transported in containers or any other form of packaging. He said that the Groyne yard had a capacity of storing around 700,000 tons of coal and usually kept a maximum of 500,000 tons at all times.

KPT transports the coal from the vessels to the Groyne yard via trucks to store it while the trailers carry the coal upcountry. Faridi claimed that the KPT was constructing two coal handling berths at the deep water container port where the coal will be transferred directly to the yard through a conveyor belt.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 29^th, 2014.

Over the past couple of decades, the corporate world has undergone a number of changes and come a long way. Gone are the days of uniformity and completing the average, monotonous nine-to-five routine — it is all about personal creativity and proving oneself within the organisation.

One of the key changes that have occurred is that the general working environment across the world is much more efficient now than ever before. Not only are workplace conditions, employee safety and corporate social responsibility major concerns, but the corporate world has also opened its doors to female employees who — in some countries — enjoy the same opportunities as their male counterparts. Unfortunately, when it comes to positions of leadership, what corporations fail to do is hold these employees in the same regard as men.

According to a 2013 poll conducted by Gallup Incorporated — an American performance management consultancy — 35% of American preferred to be employed under a male boss rather than a female one with only 23% desiring a female boss in their new job. Ironically, a greater number of working women preferred male bosses over their own kind, with 95% of them admitting to have been undercut by another woman at least once in their professional lives. While a study conducted by the Wall Street Journal in 2008 substantiated this widespread preference by proving that employees with female supervisors experienced much more stress than those who were led by men.

Keeping these figures under consideration, one can conclude that while women are actively contributing to the growth of businesses around the world, there still exists a double standard which prevents them from breaking through to managerial level. Things are similar — if not worse — in Pakistan where the male-dominated society discourages women from working in the first place, let alone acquiring leadership positions. “I believe there is a difference in the general attitude towards women who work that manifests itself in the form of such discrimination,” says 30-year-old Faryal Gohar who works as a Human Resource professional at a German multinational in Dubai. “Working women in Pakistan are often viewed as ‘fast’ and negligent of their homes and domestic life. Denying them ranked positions is but a way to send them back to their kitchens!”

According to 25-year-old Hira Inam, an analyst at a leading telecommunications firm in Pakistan, there is a deeper explanation for gender bias in the corporate sector. “In my experience, male bosses are definitely more qualified and reliable,” she explains. “Men are aggressive which allows them to counter risk better and make sound business decisions. Female employees can be aggressive but their aggression stems from emotions so they tend to be indecisive and risk-averse.”

A study entitled ‘Attitudes towards Women in Managerial Position in Pakistan: A Comparative Study’, published by a team of psychologists in 2013, supported Hira’s reasoning with its findings. It highlighted deep-rooted stereotypes held by men in the country towards working women and showed that men hailing from joint families had negative gender-role stereotypes towards female bosses. “Considering how the greater half of our population feels about ambitious women, it is no wonder that the highest ranks in corporations around the world are dominated by men,” says Gohar. “These stereotypes must be shunned completely for women to achieve successful careers.” The study also found that men residing in nuclear families were neutral towards women of power.

Nonetheless, there is undeniably a lack of faith in female leadership across the corporate world and this may well be a result of negative perceptions associated with working women. In fact, not only is a woman’s ambition undesirable for a Pakistani man, any assertiveness a woman might express — be it at home or in the workplace — is considered wrong. “Women in our society are expected to be demure and prudish and maintain etiquette at all times,” explains 24-year-old Areej Fatima, an analyst at another leading telecommunication firm in Pakistan. “We are perceived to be too weak, emotional and indecisive for the practical world.” These expectations are challenged when a woman attempts to break the stereotypes. “If a man expresses aggression in the workplace, we accept it and assume him to be passionate about his work,” explains Gohar. “But a woman behaving the same way will be dismissed as emotionally unstable or uncouth by her colleagues.” Fatima goes on to admit that she consciously tries to keep her behaviour in check, while at work, lest her colleagues judge her wrongly. “Even when I disagree with something someone has said, I do it tactfully,” says Fatima. “For example, I calmly ask probing questions rather than making a loud, sweeping statement. If I don’t like something, I will make subtle suggestions to improve the idea instead of dismissing it completely.”

According to Faryal, one of the key contributors to these gender stereotypes is the concept of the ‘horrible lady boss’ often depicted in the global media. The portrayal of a female boss as a ‘Dragon Lady’ perpetuated by movies like The Devil Wears Prada and Horrible Bosses simply reiterate the unfair notion that women are and will always be unsuitable for leadership. Nonetheless, there are many like 28-year-old Ali Aftab, a production engineer working with a local fertiliser company, who believes that some degree of aggression is necessary in both men and women if they wish to be successful professionally. “Aggression and ambition are needed but one must learn how to manage other people’s egos if they wish to get somewhere,” advises Aftab. I believe this applies to both men and women. I have to make conscious, diplomatic decisions at work myself.” Tughral Turab, a director of operations in Africa for MicroEnsure dismisses the idea of male vs female aggression entirely, suggesting that gender plays no role in determining one’s progression through their career. “Perhaps gender does influence your behaviour and personality to a certain extent,” says Turab. “But ultimately, it is an individual’s competency and ability which carries them forward in their careers.” According to Turab, an employee ought to be judged on the basis of his or her merits and performance as opposed to gender.

During the 1950s, when Gallup actually began its research the influence of gender on corporate leadership, just 5% of the respondents voted in favour of female bosses while 66% wanted to work for men. However, thanks to forward-thinking men like Aftab and Turab, the results are gradually increasing in favour of female bosses. “Slowly and gradually, women like Marissa Mayer (CEO of Yahoo!) and Indra Nooyi (CEO of Pepsico) are redefining female leadership for the rest of us,” says Gohar. “Nonetheless, there is still a long way to go before female authority is given its due respect.” One can assume that the liberal-minded younger generation will alter the current corporate trends but the statistics issued by Gallup agree with Gohar: There is still a long way to go before male and female bosses are held at par with one another.

Published in The Express Tribune, Ms T, November 30^th, 2014.

Unlike the average 20-something of today, Misha isn’t one to rush her career. In fact, taking things in her stride has truly worked in her favour. The journalist, documentary filmmaker and Emmy-winner chats with MsT about working in the Pakistani media.

“One of my professors once told me that journalism is like making chicken salad out of chicken bits,” says Misha when asked what her career means to her. “You have to take a total shot in the dark with whatever you have and somehow, make it work.”

I wonder if it was this rush that attracted Misha — an engineer from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign — to the world of news but the 29-year-old seems like anything but an adrenaline junkie. Cool and composed, Misha narrates the story of her foray into journalism. “I was the average undergrad, desperately seeking employment in an industry that favours qualified post-graduates,” she says of her initial career struggles. As destiny would have it, however, the Pakistani media underwent an overhaul just around the time of Misha’s return from the US, with the television industry burgeoning more than ever before. “I happened to meet an individual who was in the process of establishing his own news channel at that time,” she recalls. “Strangely enough, he offered me a job based solely on the fact that I was fluent in English. Voila! I suddenly became the associate producer on the international news desk, writing, editing and delivering news pieces daily from four to 12.”

The time spent on her first job helped Misha realise her passion for journalism.“Reporting provided an all-access pass for me to ask questions, talk to different people and write stories others could relate to,” she says excitedly. “It sort of satisfies the natural curiosity in me.” Eager to learn, Misha began taking informal lessons from her colleagues at work to stay at par. Soon, curiosity propelled her to join the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism to get a real taste of reporting. “It was an eye-opener returning to the US as a journalist,” she reminisces. “During my studies, I interned at CNN and was fortunate enough to be hired by Thomson Reuters soon after graduation.”

Just a year after joining Reuters, however, unprecedented circumstances forced her to return home. “Pakistan is an amazing, crazy country to be a reporter in,” responds Misha when asked if she resents having to move back from New York. “Upon returning, I joined the Reuters office in Islamabad which kept me on my toes for a while, until the Bhoja Airlines plane crash in 2012.” The unfortunate incident proved to be a turning point in Misha’s career and made her question the type of journalism she wanted to pursue. “I was supposed to be on the flight which went down,” shares Misha. “As I was already at the airport when the news of the crash broke, Reuters asked me to report from there. But it was extremely depressing to see the passengers’ families and friends in such trauma; it truly shook me up.” The incident made Misha realise daily reporting was no longer her cup of tea. “Life is too short to waste on something you don’t love. Therefore, I decided to change my beat and retired from reporting.”

The Emmy-winning team of Outlawed In Pakistan.

Since then, Misha has been working as a freelancer, choosing her projects as she pleases. “The internet has revolutionised journalistic discourse everywhere,” she explains. “In Pakistan, there is a growing appetite for good, human stories. People want to know about what’s happening here.” It was this desire to share human stories which encouraged Misha to partake in the making of Outlawed in Pakistan, a documentary depicting the struggle of teenager Kainat Soomro who claims to have been gang-raped at 13. “Outlawed is but a critique on the Pakistani judicial system — or lack thereof,” says Misha. “We aimed to highlight what happens when a woman claims rape in Paksitan, from the perspectives of both the alleged victim and the accused.” Although the documentary — lead by American television giant Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is yet to be released in Pakistan due to legal issues, it has been well-received in the West. It also won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Research in early October.

“One of the greatest challenges in Pakistani journalism is the inability to verify information,” explains Misha when asked about the obstacles she had to face during filming. “Getting the subjects to open up remains a tall order as most of them can’t articulate their feelings. They are afraid of the media and it is virtually impossible to authenticate what they say.” Considering the challenges, winning an Emmy in the Research category was a pleasant surprise, Misha admits.“It is always great to be recognised for your work, no matter what you do.”

Kainat Soomro, the protagonist of Outlawed.

Misha appears unfazed by her Emmy and attributes it to her team and prominent female journalists before her. The past few years have indeed been unforgettable for Pakistani women, who have proved their mettle in the international realm, time and again.  “Pakistan has always had a legacy of strong women,” she states vehemently. “Our elders have paved the way for us and changed the way Pakistani women are perceived. She cites the political struggles of Fatima Jinnah and journalistic prowess of Zubeida Mustafa as examples of how women can achieve whatever they dream of. Misha is currently filming a documentary revolving around the medical staff at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and how they operate following a bomb blast in Karachi. “The craziness of the city is contained in the emergency ward at JPMC,” she says. “The staff there is the real heroes of Karachi. They work tirelessly and go through daily trauma without even batting an eyelash!” The unnamed documentary focuses particularly on Dr Hakim Daad and his experience during the 2010 bombing of JPMC.

Misha simply laughs when asked if she hopes to change the world with her work? As journalists or documentarians, our job is to get the discourse running,” she says. “We aim for our stories — good and bad ones — to have an impact.”

Published in The Express Tribune, Ms T, November 30^th, 2014.

For centuries, women have been enamoured with the concept of jewellery. From the Egyptian queen Cleopatra, known for her elaborate jewellery collection, to the women of the Indus Valley Civilisation who fashioned clay bangles — there is plenty of evidence for women’s timeless love affair with jewellery. Solitaire rings, charm bracelets and dazzling earrings etcetera, are everyday wardrobe staples for today’s average woman who uses them to stand out and symbolise her power and authority.

However, of late, the trend seems to have shifted from wearing multiple pieces of jewellery to one, bold item that stands out against a simple outfit. Usually, this item is an exquisitely-crafted necklace bearing a unique design which allows the wearer to make a statement without speaking a word. Big, small, real or fake, these statement necklaces not only lift our spirits but our entire look as well. The colourful beads, metals, precious and semi-precious stones that these pieces comprise of are just the thing to make an ordinary outfit outstanding. If you love jewellery, read on for tips on how to wear statement necklaces.

How to wear a statement necklace?

When it comes to signature neck jewellery, there are so many options that getting the right look can become daunting. From simple chains to a band of pearls or wide, beaded and bedazzled bibs, statement necklaces can take any form — you just have to choose the best one for you. In some cases, loading up on sparkly accessories is a great way to accent an outfit but one must know when to stop. This is particularly important when it comes to desi wedding wear which tends to be heavily-embroidered and brightly coloured in general. A shiny, ruffled top, for example, could look great with a small chain but not a big, ornate number as together, the all the shine can make you appear cheap.

“Simplicity is beauty,” says Kiran Aman, designer and founder of Kiran Fine Jewellery. “Regardless of ongoing trends, a necklace should complement the overall look of your outfit which, to me, is the most important thing.” Of course, investing in a gorgeous, designer neck number will make you want to get noticed. “If you want to draw attention to your necklace, it is best to stick to a simple and classy outfit, preferably of one colour,” says jewellery enthusiast and collector, Farrukh Qamar. “The cleaner your clothes, the more noticeable your statement necklace will be.”

The best part about a statement necklaces — and costume jewellery in general — is that no matter how plain your outfit is, the jewellery automatically becomes the focal point of attention. If you are dressing down in a plain t-shirt with your favourite pair of jeans, just a glistening metal necklace and a dab of lipstick will give you the perfect, casual-chic look. On the other hand, you can enhance formal, evening attire by pairing your statement necklace with a matching clutch or stilettos.

“Personally, I think only one piece of statement jewellery should be worn at one time to create the right effect,” advises Kiran. You can also wear your hair in an up-do to give your necklace unobstructed attention. Layering up necklaces of different shapes, colours and sizes looks great too, provided that you wear less than five strands to avoid looking too weighed-down.

Different types of statement necklaces

To satiate the jewellery enthusiasts, there is a seemingly endless variety of necklaces available in the markets today. Different lengths, materials, sizes, styles and adornments are available in local shops, catering to individual tastes. High-end fashion houses like Oscar De La Renta and Chopard design ornate items for those who can afford their hefty price tags while lower-end clothing giants like Forever 21 offer a cheaper range of beautiful pieces, some of which are exact replicas of the designer ones.

The key to sorting through the different styles is to know the look or vibe you are aiming to give out. Although jewellery is often a personal thing — often a gift from your significant other, parents or family heirlooms, etc — it should always showcase your personality and style spirit. Some women love to adorn themselves with necklaces while others prefer the sleek, band of pearls popularised by Audrey Hepburn. Whatever your preference, make sure each jewellery item reflects your desired look. For example, multicoloured, beaded pieces are ideal for a beachy, bohemian look while silver is the way to go for a grungy, rockstar vibe.

Get the right inspiration for the right necklace

If you are still unsure as to what type of necklace will look best with your outfit, you can always browse the internet for inspiration. Ever since statement jewellery was introduced to the global fashion world a few years ago, trendy necklaces have become a regular feature of catwalk shows and red-carpet events from Hollywood to Lollywood. Popular celebrities like Emma Stone, Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Middleton, Sonam Kapoor and Deepika Padukone, etc, are unofficial brand ambassadors for statement jewellery which they flaunt at international events. For ideas on how you can look as great as them, try browsing celebrity style magazines and online fashion portals on Facebook and Pinterest. Who knows, you might end up pulling of an elaborate, unique necklace better than your favourite celebrity.

Meesha Shafi — The Queen of Statement Accessories

Why seek inspiration from international celebrities when local ones like Meesha Shafi are turning heads with their own statement accessories? The sultry singer, artist, fashionista and mother of two is known for making each public appearance count, thanks to her unique and edgy sense of style. Her collection of statement jewellery, bags, belts and other accessories is simply divine. In a nutshell, Meesha is living proof of the ideology of Yves Saint Laurent: “Fashion fades but style is eternal”.

Published in The Express Tribune, Ms T, November 23^rd, 2014.

Almost each and every one of us has that one, effortlessly thin friend who subsists on a diet of cheese and bread without gaining even an ounce of weight. They avoid the gym like the plague, always order non-diet sodas and wouldn’t even know what the word ‘carbs’ meant had it not been for us, weight-conscious fools. Admit it, ladies! We are all guilty of secretly envying this person’s ability to look like a million bucks, no matter what they eat or drink, thanks to the extremely high metabolism they are apparently blessed with. But appearances can be deceiving and your skinny fat friend may be at risk of major chronic illnesses.

Throughout our lives, we have grown up believing that excess weight and obesity are the root causes of many medical conditions, such as high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, strokes, cardiovascular and metabolic problems and even cancer. While this is indeed true, medical advances have proven that underweight or overly thin people are just as vulnerable to these ailments, owing to a condition called ‘Skinny Fat’. The term represents a large proportion of people, who seek assistance for various medical conditions associated with weigh gain but don’t look fat or out of shape. Keeping this in mind, one can safely conclude that being thin doesn’t always equate to being healthy. In fact, in some cases it is by far much more dangerous to be underweight than obese.

In most cases, a skinny fat person is thin but with excess fat around some parts of their body. Medically speaking, this layer of flab is called visceral fat as it surrounds the organs in the abdominal region of the human body, such as the stomach, liver, pancreas, intestines and ovaries. Generally, men tend to have more visceral fat compared to women and are therefore, at a greater risk of related ailments. The extent of visceral fat can be measured through various body fat analysis and genetic profiling methods but it often takes too long as the patient appears ‘deceptively healthy.’

On the contrary, however, the patient may be far from it. Excess visceral fat exposes patients — especially those with a Body Mass Index of 30 or above — to lethal illnesses. According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, nearly one in every four skinny persons are pre-diabetic and ‘metabolically obese’ and therefore, face a higher risk of death. Diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular and metabolic problems, as mentioned earlier, are just some of the possible outcomes of the skinny fat condition. Many patients also suffer from sleep apnea — a sleeping disorder that constricts the patient’s respiration during sleep — which ultimately causes headaches, high blood pressure, strokes and even depression.

What happens is that inactivity, even amongst thin people, causes visceral fat to accumulate around the organs. The fat doesn’t always manifest itself externally, all the while wreaking havoc internally. On the other hand, a person with evident excess weight problems may maintain a healthy level of activity and store less visceral fat. This means that we can’t judge how healthy a person is simply by looking at them.

Unfortunately, the idea that a person is unhealthy only if their fat is visible and that a thin person is good to go remains too deeply embedded in our minds for us to realise just how critical the skinny fat epidemic can get. Being skinny is, nowadays, an obsession without which one does not feel they can look good. Models, celebrities and even the average person is so warped in trying to become skinny that they don’t always realise they might be hampering their health. The most dangerous phenomenon is when youngsters try to emulate the skinny celebrities they look up to and begin dieting during their developemental years.

Nonetheless, prevention is better than cure. Medical officials across the world are now urging thin people to have themselves checked regularly to prevent problems. If you feel that you might be at risk of becoming a skinny fat person, you should start by reviewing your lifestyle and most importantly, improving your diet. A balanced diet plan — one which includes the right amounts of proteins, carbs and all other food groups — will help you bulk up, keep your digestive system clean and eliminate toxins from your body. Sodas, artificially sweetened products, processed meal and canned food items should be avoided as they are all rich in unhealthy fats that add to the visceral fat in the body. Most importantly, however, one must incorporate as much physical activity into their daily schedules as possible. Not only will this help a thin person build muscle, regular exercise also melts away visceral fat, improves blood flow and keeps the vital organs healthy. Being skinny fat isn’t a disease in itself and can easily be rectified — all it takes is a little bit of determination and hardwork.

You can take the following medical tests to find if you are skinny fat

•  Lipid profile

•  Blood pressure checks

•  Blood sugar level testing

•  A complete body fat analysis, which shows your muscle percentage, fat percentage and visceral fat levels.

Published in The Express Tribune, Ms T, December 21^st, 2014.

The year 2014 was as eventful in cyberspace as it was off it. While Twitter played a key role in shaping events and conversations in a majority of the cases, here are some of the tweets that made their writers wish they had put a little more thought into the 140 characters.

1. In 2000, a young American Adnan Masud Syed was convicted of strangling his teenage girlfriend Hae Min Lee. A component of the prosecution’s case stated that Syed made a phone call from a payphone at a Best Buy parking lot after the crime. However, there is only one problem with that: Best Buy does not have a payphone in its parking lot. After a popular podcast, Serial, brought the inconsistency to light, Best Buy made light of the situation over Twitter which quickly resulted in a backlash.

2. Just like most of us, supermodel Naomi Campbell also fell victim to the autocorrect feature. In her congratulatory Instagram post to Malala Yousafzai, she unintentionally referred to her as ‘Malaria’ instead. To make matters worse, her post was automatically shared on her Twitter account where it spread like wildfire.

3. The New England Patriots are arguably the most popular football club in America. When they became the first National Football League team to reach one million followers on Twitter, they held a contest to give away their jersey to one lucky fan. Unfortunately the winner had a racist twitter handle and when he was congratulated in a tweet it was instantly retweeted far and wide.

4. Today, Kim Kardashian is a successful entrepreneur, but she rose to fame initially after a leaked sex tape with African American rapper Ray-J. Unfortunately for Kim, she had to relive her embarrassment after her sister Khloe poked fun at her relationship with African American men and at the white supremacist group KKK in a tweet.

5. The Jewish lobby is apparently quite powerful in the American music industry. How powerful one may ask? Well, it took exactly eight minutes for Rihanna to delete the following tweet after a massive internet backlash.

6. Unlike Rihanna, some celebrities stuck to their pro-Palestinian guns and stood tall in the face of Twitter abuse. One such celeb was One Direction singer Zayn Malik, whose following tweet broke many pro-Israeli hearts.

7. The only problem with the following tweet by UKIP, a British political party, is that the building they were referring to was a cathedral and not a mosque. What followed were countless amusing tweets to UKIP with images of cultural buildings that weren’t mosques. One of the funnier #ThingsThatAreNotMosques tweets was a pair of moccasins.

Noman Ansari is a freelance writer and regular contributor to The Express Tribune magazine. He tweets @Pugnate

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, December 28^th, 2014.

2014 was full of such instances from news about a potential Junoon reunion to reports that Saad Haroon finished as runner-up in the first ever Laugh Factory Funniest Person in the World Competition. This year comprised of a lot.

This year saw several Pakistani actors make their Bollywood debuts with Fawad Khan being the lone one able to hold his own in his first Indian outing. Imran Abbas and Humaima Malick, however, did not deliver much to brag about, especially with their weak performances and the low box office collections of their movies.

With 2015 ready to be braced, it’s time to start looking forward to the New Year with the hope that our celebrities and members of the local industry learn from the mistakes made in 2014. We anticipate that the New Year brings more game-changing moments that elevate the status of our entertainment industry. Here are some of the most unforgettable moments of the year gone by.

Game changers

Saad Haroon

For a person who has been performing stand-up comedy in Pakistan for more than a decade and that too in English, Saad Haroon deserves an award. The comedian secured second position in the first ever Laugh Factory Funniest Person in the World competition. Haroon is known as the creator of the comedy troupes Blackfish and Shark and also as the brains behind the English comedy sketch show The Real News.

Na Maloom Afraad

For a film made on a budget of under Rs3 crores, Na Maloom Afraad raked in Rs13 crore. The film proved that if a movie is made with a proper business plan and framework it can prove to be a commercially successful venture. Additionaly audiences would pay to enjoy a film that provides wholesome entertainment.

Tehzeeb Foundation of Pakistan

At a time when Pakistani music is in a downward spiral, efforts of the Tehzeeb Foundation of Pakistan should not go unnoticed. Tehzeeb Foundation is working for advancement and promotion of music, literature and fine arts (including Muslim Arts) in Pakistan. A feat worth lauding was that the Tehzeeb Foundation’s music compilation Indus Raag: Beyond Borders has was long listed in the Best World Music Album category at the 2015 Grammy Awards.

Cinestar IMAX

This was the year that finally saw the launch of an IMAX theatre in Pakistan with CineStar in Lahore having the honour of becoming the first cinema to do so with the Transformers: Age of Extinction. Hopefully 2015 will see many more cinemas follow the suit in other cities. Cinestar Cinema has currently single largest screen in Pakistan and has also acquired exclusive rights for IMAX theatres across the country.

Fawad Khan

The Humsafar actor multiplied his fan following with his Bollywood debut in the film Khoobsurat opposite Bollywood actor, Sonam Kapoor. Not only did he made a major impact on the silver screen but also on the television sets as well with Humsafar being broadcasted in India for the very first time. The actor is all set to appear in another Bollywood with the same Khoobsurat team.

Grease

Nida Butt’s musical Grease despite receiving mixed reviews became the first licensed play to be ever performed in Pakistan. It was nice to see Pakistani theatre developing by acquiring theatre rights to a show as phenomenal and global as Grease. Speaking to The Express Tribune earlier in the year, Nida Butt said that it took her quite a while to contact the right people to acquire the rights to the musical.

Zindagi TV

Despite having such a huge soap opera industry, Indian audiences seem to be falling in love with Pakistani dramas courtesy the efforts of Zee Zindagi, an Indian channel dedicated to airing only Pakistani dramas. TV serials like Humsafar and enjoyed success in India as well after having been equally well received in Pakistan.

Amir Zaki’s return

Though he keeps on performing at places like the MAD school it was a great gesture on part of Strings to invite the guitar maestro to be a part of the latest edition of Coke Studio. Especially after his earlier friction with Rohail Hyatt who rejected him after calling him for an audition. Not only was his appearance one of the highlights of the show but was also a reminder that Coke Studio still remains one of the best platforms to honour the greats of Pakistani music.

DJ Butt

He is the one and only person who provided the music to Imran Khan’s anthem of Inquilaab and Tabdeeli. The man who was bequeathed the title of “official sound designer” for the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI). The DJ has had his own run-ins with the law as he was arrested on the charges of inciting violence in the city of Islamabad only to be released later.

Maheen Khan

She set the runway ablaze in the FPW’14 grand finale. Khan’s collection titled ‘To Karachi with love’ featured pieces made of fabrics, such as organza, silk and velvet dominated by bold shades of black, gold and red. The line showcased sweeping cocktail dresses, skirts and capes and set new trends for the winter season. What stole our hearts was the tomato-red silk ensemble with a loose turtle neck which was a total knockout.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 1^st, 2015.

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