On 8 March 2013, the Provincial Assembly of Sindh unanimously passed a Bill against domestic violence which subsequently became an Act. On 30 March 2013, Aurat Foundation held a meeting of all stakeholders and those who had contributed towards the passage of this Bill. Poet Fazil Jamili dedicated this poem on this occasion to the women of Pakistan.    

Time is the best court of justice

and in this court

I confess my crime today

we have walked together

in the long journey of life

you held me dearer than life

and I kept killing you

from Adam down to this day

all the blood that I have spilt

has flowed out from your body

I buried you alive

when you were born

suffocated you by building walls around you   

and hanged you from the gallows

we built a house together

in which you live like a domestic slave

and I live like the master of the house

I used to sing your praises

just to satisfy my lust

but now I can recall

how much I lied to you

my past is a history of deception

and my present is repentance

before this remorse

drives me some day to suicide

rebel my partner

and take control of your own life

Translated from Urdu by Dr. Masuma Hasan (President of the Board of Governors, Aurat Foundation and Chairman of The Pakistan Institute of International Affairs). 

The history of Muslim civilization, if defined in terms of ‘search for a common identity’, has passed through several phases. The initial concept of a Muslim Ummah, having survived through a phase of Arab nationalism, was translated into pan-Islamism in the 21^st century. In the post-1980s period, the Shia-Sunni strife has witnessed a major upturn; particularly in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria and Bahrain. Many explain that the tensions are caused by well-coordinated conspiracies by outsiders, such as “the forces of hegemony and Zionism which aim to weaken [Islam]”. Others lay the blame for the strife at a very different source, the unintended effects of the Islamic Revival. According to Vali R. Nasr, as the Muslim world was decolonized and Arab nationalism lost its appeal, fundamentalism blossomed and reasserted itself.

It is important to mention here that despite ideological differences, Shias and Sunnis have set remarkable examples of cooperation. The Khilafat Movement swept South Asia following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the seat of the Caliphate, in World War I. Shia scholars “came to the Caliphate’s defence” by attending the 1931 Caliphate Conference in Jerusalem. This was despite the fact they were theologically opposed to the idea that non-Imams could be Caliphs or successors to Muhammad, and that the Caliphate was “the flagship institution” of Sunni, not Shia, authority. This has been described as the unity of traditionalists in the face of the twin threats of “secularism and colonialism.”

At the core of the sectarian rivalries in the Middle East, lies the Saudi-Iranian cold war. The rivalry has exacerbated sectarian tensions in various countries. Apart from the pre-existing sectarian disputes in the region, some analysts and commentators are also citing ethnic and sectarian divisions to be a major cause of the mass revolts in Bahrain and Syria. These analysis are evident in the statements of prominent scholars, such as Vali R. Nasr who claims, “Syria is not just about support for democracy – it’s really about management and redistribution of ethnic and sectarian power.” Other analysts, such as Marc Lynch, rather dismiss the sectarian angle to the mass protest in Syria and Bahrain as an “obvious reality” and tend to think of it as a “deliberate regime strategy”.

According to Lynch:

You got scared

of an innocent fledging little bird

like all cowards

how easily scared you are

The twitter of nightingales 

the softness of the clouds

the refreshing spray of cold water

has scared you

like all cowards

how easily scared you are

You can kill one Parween

but you cannot kill

the power of an idea

what you have done

has increased commitment and courage

and sense of purpose

The light of knowledge

will continue to spread

and with it awareness

in the villages and fields

On the lips of those

who have no shoes

there will be the smile of contentment

in the dancing fields

the sound of bangles

on the cheeks of the workers

the glitter of earings

These symbols of love

are messages to the enemies of peace

listen to them cowardly assassin

for we are not alone

we are not alone

(Translated from Urdu by Arif Hasan)

Parween’s father hailed from Patna and her mother hails from Hyderabad Deccan. Her parents’ families moved to East Pakistan (then East Bengal) after the Partition. During the upheaval leading to the creation of Bangladesh, Parween’s family suffered immensely, as some of its members got separated from one another. They finally moved to present day Pakistan and Parween studied to become an architect at Dawood College of Engineering and Technology. She also obtained a post graduate diploma in housing, building and urban planning from the Institute of Housing Studies in Rotterdam.

The now renowned Orangi Pilot Project (OPP) was launched by Akhtar Hameed Khan in 1980 and Parween joined the organisation in December 1981, remaining with it for the rest of her life.  She learnt at the feet of Akhtar Hameed Khan and Arif Hasan whom she always addressed as “guru”. Instinctively, she empathized with Akhtar Hameed Khan’s vision and took to the work of OPP like fish does to water. But as she worked with the communities in Orangi, considered the largest squatter settlement in the region, she did not hesitate to stand up to her mentors, young as she was, on issues on which she held her own opinion.

OPP’s core focus was to facilitate communities by providing them technical assistance to lay down sewerage lines on a self-help basis. For the poor people of Orangi, like most marginalised people, sanitation as an instrument leading to development, was a low priority. In the early days, as OPP mobilised them and broke down social barriers, they used to call Parween “gutter baji” affectionately. She became a specialist on sanitation and water issues and her expertise was sought at home as well as by forums across the world. She could easily have landed a job with any international finance institution or international development network and become a multi-millionaire like so many development consultants and experts, but she never waivered in her loyalty to OPP.

As it is structured today, OPP consists of several institutions. Parween was the director of OPP’s Research and Training Institute which facilitates communities in education, water and sanitation, and relief and rehabilitation. OPP’s Rural Development Trust and the Orangi Charitable Trust are headed by her colleague and close associate, Anwar Rashid. The model developed by OPP has been replicated in many developing countries and is studied in academia throughout the world. In Sindh alone, OPP provides technical assistance to 150 organisations. Inevitably, OPP’s programmes have captured the urge for change among the people, facilitated in providing livilihood, drawn women into the workforce and loosened the hold of the patriarchal system.

Working from her base in Orangi, which is inhabited by members of several ethnic communities, Parween came face to face with the problems of the Karachi. She was part of the alliance of organisations which opposed people-unfriendly development projects such as the Lyari Expressway, elevated mass transit through MA Jinnah Road and the luxurious multi-billion beach development project which would not only have deprived the people of Karachi of access to the beach but also involved massive foreign funds. OPP’s documentation of the sewerage system became the foundation of the S3 sewerage plan for Karachi, based on self-financing, without any foreign aid.

Parween’s remarkable contribution was with respect to the use and misuse of land as an asset in Karachi.  Sensitive, professionally meticulous and committed as she was, she mapped the changing patterns of land ownership, an issue which was taboo to many vested interests in the city. She identified the goths where land snatching was taking place, gave their inhabitants the information they required to get themselves regularised and handed them self-financing packages for water and sanitation which remain the basis of OPP’s development approach.

Parween worked fearlessly in the tension-ridden atmosphere in Karachi. Her work brought to the fore her consensus building abilities and while she was wise in the interest of her programmes, she never compromised on ethics. True to the OPP philosophy, she believed that she could never be effective as a development facilitator if there was a great difference between her financial status and that of the members of the community whom she sought to motivate. Therefore, after so many years of service, she drew a monthly salary of only Rs. 32,000/- and the “perks” given to her were a car and a driver, perhaps also the use of a cell phone. How different was her dedication and, therefore, the impact she made from the longing of development doyens who cannot function without drawing hundreds of thousands in monthly salary  and whose contribution is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

As her colleagues, followers and admirers came in their hundreds to mourn for her to her modest apartment in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, which was too small to accommodate them, they waited in the pathways of the apartment block and asked the question, who will carry her work forward?  I found them as determined to continue that work as Arif Hasan, Anwar Rashid and Parween Rahman had been when Akhtar Hameed Khan passed away in October 1999. She used to say, in her own quiet way, that some people live in palaces, others live on the streets. Our mission should be to raise the quality of life of those who live on the streets.

Dr. Masuma Hasan is the Chairman of the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs and the President of the Board of Governors of Aurat Foundation.

Email: pakistanhorizon@hotmail.co.uk

However, the political openings caused by these revolts were quickly exploited by fundamentalist religious groups who immediately sought to undermine human rights defenders.  Across the region, women human rights defenders are being targeted for violent attacks, intimidated, threatened, excluded, and undermined.  In addition to physical threats, conservative powers are also attempting to create social rifts between human rights defenders and their communities through stigmatizing women human rights defenders as not legitimately representing national values.

The fate of democracy in the region rests on its nations achieving equal rights, security, and the political participation of all their citizens. Without women’s rights, democracy will not be realized. The targeted gender-based violence being witnessed on the ground and in media around the world is a clear demonstration that women’s actual security is at stake as countries in the region struggle to form new political systems and institutions.

Because Our Cause Is Just is dedicated to the activists who persevere in the struggle for freedom and human rights for all. Writer, Director and Producer: Deb Bergeron. 

email: pakistanhorizon@hotmail.co.uk

• Gender related, physical, emotional, verbal, psychological abuse
• Pattern of degrading or humiliating conduct
• Insult, ridicule, threat to cause physical pain, malicious prosecution and threat of violence
• Obsessive possessiveness or jealousy undermining the privacy, liberty, integrity and security of the victim
• Baseless accusations
• Citing barrenness of a spouse for the purpose of marrying again
• Willful or negligent abandonment of the aggrieved person

The bill, which shall finally become an act bearing the force of the law once it receives the Governor’s assent, stipulates that anyone indulging in violence against vulnerable sections of society, women in particular, would be liable to be sentenced to one year in prison and a fine of Rs. 20,000. These are not punishments commensurate with some extreme forms of violence perpetrated on women and vulnerable persons but nonetheless the bill is a great breakthrough in our struggle.

Several pro-women or women-friendly laws – dealing with harassment at the workplace, sexual harassment, anti-women practices and acid throwing – have been passed by the Federal Parliament during the last decade: see posts here and here. Many of these began as private members bills and owed much of their success to the women’s caucus created by the Speaker of the National Assembly, Fehmida Mirza. But domestic violence seemed to elude the law makers because many male members privately believe – and even publicly stated – that they had the right to punish and chastise the women of their households.

Aurat Foundation worked relentlessly for the passage of this legislation against domestic violence by the Sindh Assembly in collaboration with jurists, lawyers and human rights activists. They were supported by the women legislators of the Sindh Assembly. Aurat Foundation regularly releases data on violence against women and also organised awareness raising seminars on this issue. (Our work in respect of women’s issues in Pakistan features regularly in government documents in the West; see, for example, the British Home Secretary’s Operational Guidance Note on Pakistan, which may need to be updated after bill receives the Sindh governor’s assent, to her immigration officials. Equally, our work is also cited in cases which are communicated to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg; see K.A. AND OTHERS v. THE UNITED KINGDOM – 63008/11 – HECOM [2012] ECHR 1696. And the U.S. State Department also relies on our efforts in its human rights reports.)

The young lawyers representing Aurat Foundation, Maleeha Zia Lari and Rubina Brohi, discussed and debated the legislative provisions clause by clause and led by Mahnaz Rahman, resident director of Aurat Foundation in Karachi, Shireen Ejaz, Farida Tahir and others tirelessly lobbied with the Sindh lawmakers for more than five years. They all entered the stern environment of the Sindh Secretariat to literally win the hearts and minds of the members of the bureaucracy. It was patient and sustained team work. The effort and contribution of Aurat Foundation was acknowledged from the floor of the House by the lawmakers when the provincial legislation was tabled and passed yesterday. The Sindh Assembly also unanimously passed two resolutions moved by the treasury benches and the opposition to pay tribute to the ‘dynamic women’ of Pakistan.

International Women’s Day was marked by Aurat Foundation as a day of solidarity jointly with other civil society organisations by holding a seminar in the Arts Council. The country is still stunned by the carnage in Abbas Town, so we dedicated the seminar and the day to the victims of terrorism in Abbas Town.  A rally was then taken out from the Arts Council by the members of all the civil society organisations participating in the seminar to the Karachi Press Club, the meeting point and venue of protestors and advocates of lost and continuing public causes.

Dr Masuma Hasan is the President of the Board of Governors, Aurat Foundation, Pakistan.

Email: pakistanhorizon@hotmail.co.uk

There is ample scope of enhancing the operational activities of the Karachi port and it is incumbent upon the port authorities, the port operators, and the port users to ensure that this major port of Pakistan is operating at its optimum. Pakistan’s imports and exports have increased substantially in the past few years. This has led to a dynamic enhancement in activities at both the Karachi port as well as Port Qasim. The country’s third port at Gwadar is there to complement the existing ports. However, the foreign operators responsible for marketing and running Gwadar port have been unable to attract business. Although there has been significant introduction of sophisticated and high tech machinery and equipment at the ports, there is still lots to be done. There is an imperative need to attract more investment as well as inducing the cargo handlers to bring in more sophisticated technology. Nowadays, due to abnormally high volume of commodities such as wheat and other foodstuffs as well as coal, sugar, chrome ore, clinker and cement, the efficiency and infrastructure of the ports are under tremendous pressure.

At present, most of the port-specific equipment and machinery attract duties and sales tax. Nowadays, with the diminishing value of the Rupee, the prices of these equipments have become prohibitively high. However, notwithstanding the fact that cost is increasing, the government levies duty at today’s prices. This has impacted on the feasibilities of the various projects resulting in abandonment of facilities as well as portraying the country’s image as a low profit center or as an insensitive decision making environment.

The objective of the government is to offer appropriate facilities, with minimum hassle, and at comparable prices. The emphasis should be on providing excellent service at better prices. Therefore, it is submitted that a paradigm shift is essential and that the cost of handling and other charges at the ports be made pragmatic keeping in view the difficulties faced by Port users.

It is, therefore, suggested that in order to boost port traffic, in order to maximize the potential of these ports, and in order to attract substantial foreign investment and acceptance of the port as an important destination, it is proposed that the import duties and other levies on port and shipping equipment be zero-rated and that there should be no frontloading in any manner whatsoever. This measure would provide a tremendous boost to the shipping industry and that it would ensure remarkable investment in this sector.

Another example of unnecessary charges is the “light dues” which are based on net registered tonnage of the vessels as per Section 10 of Lighthouse Act 1927 on ships calling at Pakistani Ports. The rates were Rs 0.50 per NRT (or net register tonnage) but some five years ago; these were raised to Rs 3.00 per NRT and recently further raised to Rs 7.00 per NRT. The “light dues” are imposed without any improvement, replacement, or modernization of the Lighthouse. The dues are collected by Customs on behalf of the Mercantile Marine Department. As an example, a ship with a load of 27,000 NRT has to pay approximately US$ 2000 which adds to more than Rs 5.00 per tonne of cargo. These “light dues” unnecessarily increase the cost of the commodity by US$ 1.00-1.50 per metric tonne. It is estimated that the annual “light dues” are between Rs 900 to Rs 1000 million.
 

Rising to 28 m (91 feet), the lighthouse at Manora Island near Karachi port is the tallest lighthouse in Pakistan. In 1889, the British built it to assist trade vessels approaching Karachi harbour. The light of this lighthouse is prominent from up to 20 nautical miles away on a clear night. Its focal plane is 148 feet high. Unfortunately, the lighthouse has neither been modernised, repaired or even well-maintained inspite of the huge collection of dues.

Furthermore, all these high port tariffs and exorbitant dues result in heavy monetary surpluses for the ports. This encourages the government, the port authorities, and the concerned ministry to generously utilise these funds to build flyovers, underpasses, water fountains, and other non-port related edifices and also donate huge amounts for various causes to obscure organisations. Actually, it is trade and industry, as well as the consumers, who are paying for this entire extravaganza without realising the added cost in freight due to these dues, tariffs, and levies. There is no private sector monitoring and even the port’s trustees are not concerned with this front-loading which is costing billions for trade and industry. There is a Lighthouse Advisory Committee but it rarely meets.

It is also pertinent to note that the Port dues are dollar-based and so with the depreciation of the Rupee, the ports make windfall profits with the result that this bonanza is diverted to non-port activities. The Trustees as well as representatives of trade and industry, especially,  Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI), Karachi Chambers of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce & Industry (OICCI), Karachi Contractors Association (KCA), etc should insist that the financial surpluses are not used for donations, giveaways, and building non-port structures. It is proposed that port charges should be bifurcated into local and foreign allocations. Local charges should take into account the salaries, overheads, maintenance and repairs, and other auxiliary expenditures. The foreign component should be based on the foreign exchange involved. This should help save billions for trade and industry.

It is ironic that while funds were being diverted to non-port activities, the berths at KPT were in shambles and inoperative. Even today, berths 3, 14, 15 and 16 are under repairs and still not operational. Moreover, whenever foreign goodwill ships come into the port, security concerns and other exigencies hamper the workings of the ports and Pakistan’s foreign trade is disturbed. There is also the imperative need to check and monitor the efficiency and productivity of the various Port equipments such as tug boats, pilot boats, dredgers, etc. Large amount is wasted in maintaining and operating these equipments.

The culture of strikes and closures are affecting movement of cargo from the ports. The 12-day strike in December 2012 by the transporters and truck owners should be an eye opener for the government as well as trade and industry. This resulted in huge demurrage charges, loss of export orders, markets running out of imported goods, and negative image around the world. The government did not react to the strikes and it was after nearly two weeks that the government took cognizance of the strike and negotiated the end of the strike. It is proposed that political parties and religious organisations should allow ports to perform so that the country does not come to a halt. Pakistan is probably the only country where business related cargo, especially export cargo, is not allowed free movement during strikes and protests.

It is my hope that the ports of Pakistan should become the centres of trade through global shipping. The private sector should be fully involved with policymaking and decision making stages so that the ports of Pakistan become attractive for international shipping lines.

The author is former President, Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Email: majydaziz@gmail.com

When I visited Uch in 2007, I went first as most visitors do, to the shrine of Jalaluddin Surkhposh (1192- 1291 CE). The simple and dimly lit interior of the shrine with its exquisitely crafted and hand-painted wooden roof, wooden pillars and turquoise floor, is awesome. There are scores of simple unnamed graves of his followers and devotees within the sanctum and, in one corner, the grave of the great Sufi himself. I noticed immediately the prominent Christian cross niches along the wall behind his grave, all in one row. They were symbols of the multi-faith approach of the Suhrawardy Order which inscribed its monuments with icons and symbols from all major religions. In the visit last week, I was astonished to see that the cross niches had been plastered over and all but one remained, perhaps because the Auqaf department (the official department which has taken over the upkeep of the shrines) had run out of plaster. Surely, somebody out there considered these niches un-Islamic.

As I sat in the courtyard beside the old pond which dates back many centuries, some young men from Uch lamented about the cavalier attitude of officials towards of the shrines. The old red sandstone stairs which led me up to the shrine in 2007 have been covered with commercial tiles. The Auqaf insisted on replacing the sandstone flooring in the courtyard also with these tiles. But the community protested and a small space outside the beautiful mosque adjacent to the shrine was, therefore, left touched. They also wanted to fell the huge tree in the courtyard and fill up the ancient pond but have been prevented successfully by the community, so far, from doing so.

When buildings of utmost historic and spiritual importance are “renovated”, a scholarly understanding of their antiquity and the symbolism they carry, should be undertaken. Some officials of government departments understand the tradition behind these monuments but, by and large, many shrines throughout the country have been denuded of their symbolism by uneducated ― and perhaps bigoted ― enthusiasts who feel the need to spend official funds. In this particular case, the multi-faith doctrine of the Suharwardy Order, reflected in its symbolism, would be a balm on the wounds of the people of our country who are victims of violence and intolerance.

Now that Israeli slaughter is underway yet again, it is an appropriate moment for Pakistanis to show solidarity with Palestinians by recalling what Sir Zafrulla Khan – the author of the Pakistan Resolution – had to say about the “partition” of Palestine in the year of the

Yet the perversion of the meaning of the word “Muslim” to appease the mullah street is incapable of denting Sir Zafrulla’s arguments in support of Palestinians. It remains very much the case that Sir Zafrulla wrote Palestine in the U.N.O. as a Musalman. Of that there is no doubt. Equally, he wrote to expose the truth about what happened in the UN.  But in the context of our own country, no doubt much to his torment, Sir Zafrulla also lived to see his (and Mr Jinnah’s) dream of a secular Pakistan being destroyed.

Our focus today, however, is not the vile state of the law in Pakistan. (But we nonetheless urge our politicians to repeal all non-secular enactments immediately.) Rather, we seek to show solidarity with the people of Palestine who are again being slaughtered by the Israelis: the latest attacks in Gaza have already claimed 67 lives (including pregnant women and more than a dozen children) and no doubt many more innocents will perish under Israel’s merciless and random attacks.

Sir Zafrulla’s seminal 1948 account of how things went in the UN in respect of the problem of Palestine is strikingly similar to later analyses by western journalists and Palestinian activists (see for example David Hirst, The Gun and the Olive Branch, 1977; Sari Nusseibeh, Once Upon A Country, 2003). Land grabbing was the issue at the heart of the problem. And it was facilitated by Jewish immigration. The Palestinians were not the “problem” and the Jews were the “terrorists”: Lord Moyne’s  assassination by Lehi in 1944, the bombing of the King David Hotel by Irgun in 1946 and Count Bernadotte’s murder by Lehi in 1948 (headed by none other than Yitzhak Shamir, who went on to become Israel’s prime minister) confirm this fact.  So not much has changed. And although the British, who bear the responsibility of creating the conflict, would no longer call the Israelis “terrorists”, had he still been alive Sir Zafrulla would continue to call them just that. What else can a professional army intentionally bombing a civilian population be called?

Clearly, the approach is not working and the people firing the rockets remain unaffected by “Operation Pillar of Defence.” We have heard so much from the White House about the atrocities committed by the Syrian regime. But why, even in the face of repeated slaughter of Palestinian civilians by the Israeli military, is the Palestine issue always on the backburner?

Perhaps we can find some answers by returning to Sir Zafrulla’s monograph. His point of departure was the British pledge regarding Arab independence after the First World War: in exchange, of course, for Arab support against Ottoman Turkey. Observing the betrayal of this promise through the Balfour Declaration  – set out in a 2^nd November 1917 letter from Arthur Balfour, the then British foreign secretary, to Walter Rothschild – Sir Zafrulla remarked that “thereafter the Jewish immigration into Palestine started and the struggle between the Jews and the Arabs began.”

Equally, Sir Zafrulla also thought that His Majesty’s Government’s commitment to establishing in Palestine a national home for the Jewish people was a bad idea because the civil and religious rights of the Palestinian people (reduced by the stroke of Balfour’s pen to the “existing non-Jewish communities”!) would never be upheld. When the British finally promised to limit Jewish immigration to 75,000 people (between 1939 – 1949), president Roosevelt wrecked the settlement (achieved by Ernest Bevin) by demanding a mandatory entry of 100,000 Jews into Palestine.

So “an agreed settlement” to the problem was “prevented” by the Americans. “In the meantime”, explains Sir Zafrulla, “Great Britain was getting sick of the whole business.” Special sessions of the UN General Assembly followed and two reports were produced by 11 members of the UN which visited Palestine. The two reports – the “majority” and the “minority” report(s) – put forward solutions on the grounds of a partition of Palestine or a federal state with two units, one Arab and the other Jewish. While the Arabs refused to accept either report, “the Jews declared that they were prepared to accept the majority scheme.”

Subsequently, Sir Zafrulla observed two trends in the General Assembly. One in favour of the majority report which would mean that the Arabs would be in-charge because they outnumbered the Jews: in those days, the population of Palestine was 2,000,000; composed of 1,300,000 Arabs and 700,000 Jews. The two “solutions” were a unitary state with safeguards for minorities (minority report) or a partition with economic union (majority report).

The two proposals were committed to the two sub-committees of the Committee on Palestine. Sir Zafrulla, was elected as the chairman of sub-committee two and the Polish delegate headed sub-committee one. Sir Zafrulla’s sub-committee concluded that the UN “had no legal or juristic authority to partition Palestine.” Most delegates agreed that this was the true position in law and everyone agreeed that the problem could have been resolved “very easily” by Britain. But, as the mandatory member, she conveniently maintained:

Whatever solution the Assembly adopts, we ourselves will not support either partition or any other solution that may be suggested unless it is a solution which the Arabs and Jews are both willing to accept.

When the question “are you willing to help in what this scheme visualises?” was asked, Britain’s reply was “no; we won’t. Whatever you suggest will have to be done by the U.N.O.” Moreover, “the ultimate British attitude was”:

Upto the date on which we terminate the mandate – and we shall decide that date – we shall not share authority for the administration of Palestine with anybody else. We shall be the sole authority as the responsibility is ours and it is our troops that have to keep and maintain law and order. From the date of the termination of the mandate upto the date of the evacuation of our troops from Palestine, we shall be responsible for law and order only in our military camps to which we shall have withdrawn our troops. With regard to the rest of our country, we shall not be responsible and we shall withdraw our troops from Palestine at the latest by the 1^st of August 1948. (They have since announced that they will terminate the mandate in May 1948.)

The proposals of the special committee sent to Palestine by the General Assembly desperately tried to mitigate the humanitarian dilemmas posed by the hasty British departure. Despite some attempts to stay partition (to search for a better solution) by the French and the rejection of it altogether by the Columbians, Sir Zafarulla recorded that the Americans were able to coerce a majority in favour of partition. The Haitian delegate – “there were actually tears in his eyes and he said: I have announced that we shall vote against partition and I have now received instructions to vote for partition” – was made to change his country’s vote because “pressure was being put on some delegations to vote in favour of partition against their will.”

As a Musalman, Sir Zafrulla knew that partition – “a very sad decision” – was the worst option and that the Nakbah was its inevitable consequence. He ended his monograph by noting that “most delegations, even some those that had voted in favour of it, were very unhappy.”

With the above in mind it is obvious that in addition to the Israelis, the Americans and British have a lot of blood on their hands. Maybe, to make amends, they can wash some of it off now by restraining Israel from attacking civilian populations and killing innocent women, children and non-combatants/journalists. It is high time the west, which is responsible for creating an absolutely horrific predicament for the Palestinians, held Israel accountable for its crimes rather than hiding behind Hamas’s skirt and, following Sir Zafrulla, we urge America’s president Obama to stop supporting the wholesale slaughter of innocent Palestinians by backing Israel’s murderous ways.

Sir Zafrulla’s views, worth reading in full, are available below:

email: pakistanhorizon@hotmail.co.uk

Bihar is the third largest state of India so far as population is concerned, above 103 million according to the Census of India 2001, but it has traditionally been backward and poor. Although it was the seat of great empires like that of the Mauryas, and of great religions like Buddhism, it has long been caste-ridden and home to dacoits and criminals. All the more difficult, therefore, would it be to introduce reforms in such a rigid and stratified society.

Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister of Bihar, dwelt at length on the achievements of his government during a seminar hosted by the Chief Minister of Sindh, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, on whose invitation he was visiting Pakistan. The performance of his government, even if exaggerated, came across remarkably well, as remarkable indeed as his own political career. Leader of the Janata Dal (United) in Bihar, which has socialist origins, he governs nevertheless in alliance with the conservative BJP.It is claimed that Bihar’s rate of growth in the current financial year is around 13 per cent but he did not tell us that he has been lobbying with the Union government in India for a special status for Bihar because of its underdevelopment. He attributed the achievements of his government to the creation of an environment (mahaul in Urdu) which facilitates good governance.

A major success of Nitish Kumar’s government lies in the field of women’s empowerment. According to the 73^rd amendment to the Indian constitution in 1993, a minimum of one-third of the seats at the panchayat level are reserved for women. Bihar was the first Indian state to voluntarily raise the reservation of seats for women in panchayats and district boards to 50 per cent. Perhaps only a politician with socialist leanings could have taken this decision so quickly. This created an inspiring change although women are still unable to make it to decision-making levels in these bodies. Bihar’s initiative of raising the women’s quota to 50 per cent at the panchayat level was followed by other Indian states such as Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

One of the innovations introduced by Nitish Kumar, which seems to have been his very own, was with respect to girls’ education. Female literacy in Bihar is 53 per cent, well below the overall Indian average of 65 per cent. The majority of girls are married off in their early teens and the state has been described as the “hotspot” of child marriage. As those who have worked in the field of women’s empowerment know, it is difficult for parents to keep girls in school as they grow older. The cost of transport and concerns for security are the parents’ major worries. The Bihar government decided that it would give each girl, who had done well in the eighth class, a personal cheque to purchase a bicycle. According to Nitish Kumar, there were one and a half lakh girls at the pre-Matric stage in Bihar but the number rose to above six lakhs and absenteeism dropped dramatically after the government’s scheme was implemented. The bicycles provided the girls and their families with mobility, cut down transport costs and also helped the girls to become self-confident. As Nitish Kumar said, these girls pedalling along merrily and also transporting their siblings, will never look back. Kaun peechhay mur kar dekhta hai.

When I first started going to school, Karachi was a very tolerant city. Some girls used to come to school on bicycles but these bicycles disappeared as values changed. Much later, in some schools, the government started a scheme to provide milk or food to girls at lunchtime and the enrolment levels rose. The “red corridor”, which is the operating field of the Naxalite-Maoist insurgency in India, passes through Bihar. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described this insurgency as the single biggest internal security challenge ever faced by India. Ironically, however, Bihar is lucky that the Maoists believe in women’s rights. It is difficult, at least at present, to see a bevy of girls pedalling through our streets. But as we continue to work for the empowerment of women and girls in these difficult times, surely that day will come.