Rabbana Aatina Fi Dunya Hassanatan wa fil aakhirat hassantan wa kina azaaba al naar

Shaaban 1430 AH Mubarak

Shabaan 1430 AH Mubarak!!

Eid e Milad un Nabi SAWW 2009

Eid ul Azha Mubarak!! To All

Eid Mubarak!!!

Amar Jalil’s English book

Amar Jalil’s English book

KARACHI: “Love, Longing and Death,” an anthology of English short stories by popular Sindhi fiction writer Amar Jalil has recently been published in New Delhi (India) by Bibliophile South Asia publication house.

The book contains around 20 short stories mostly revolving around the pangs of the partition and mystic musings. Nine of them have already been published in abridged from in Amar Jalil’s weekly columns Mystic Notes published in daily Dawn.

The writer has 11 collections of short stories and one novel in Sindhi language to his credit.

Indus identity of Sindhis: Indian authors

Indus identity of Sindhis: Indian authors- DAWN

By Iqbal Khwaja
THATTA, Nov 25: Indian TV producer, playwright and writer Jetho Lalwani and poet and research scholar Hero Thakur have said that Sindh is not merely a name of an area confined within predefined territorial limits but it refers to Indus Civilisation and its people identify themselves with the River Indus.

They were speaking at a reception-cum-dinner given in their honour by the Sindh Tourism and Culture Department at Keenjhar Lake on Monday.

They said that irrespective of the part of the world they lived all the people speaking Sindhi language and their ancestral relevance to the river were recognised as Sindhis. They said that hundreds of thousands of people belonging to different castes and creeds lived along the Ganges and Jamuna rivers in India but none of them identified themselves with rivers such as “Gangoo” or “Jamunoo”.

The guests who were accorded rousing reception by Sindhi writers, poets and intellectuals termed partition of subcontinent a tragedy, which had forced the sons of soil to bear its brunt.

They said that those who were compelled to leave the motherland had after a great struggle succeeded in getting Sindhi language officially recognized by Indian government in 1967. They said that wherever Sindhis were serving they always remained true and loyal to their motherland.

Jetho Lalwani said that Sindhi Hindus in India organised Sindhu Darshan Mela regularly at the descending site of the River Indus in Kashmir in order to keep the new generation informed about their past. Both the guests expressed confidence about future of Sindh.

Sindh Minister for Culture and Tourism Sassui Palijo said that one’s love for the land had always proved to be stronger than the love for a beloved and this reality had made itself widely felt after the partition.

She regretted that Indian intellectuals and writers frequently poured into the Punjab without any obstruction but Indian Sindhis visits to Sindh and vice versa had always been obstructed under the pretext of security concerns.

When Ms Benazir Bhutto met Rajiv Gandhi in India it was called a security risk whereas Gen (Retd) Pervez Musharraf’s visit was welcomed by all, she remarked.

She said that bureaucracy was the real obstruction to bringing people of both the countries closer. Indian Sindhis had created a mini-Sindh in India, she said.

She said that time was ripe for creating an atmosphere of brotherhood among nations.

She said that she felt proud to announce that President Asif Ali Zardari had handed over the Archaeology Department to provincial government. Her ministry would take steps to improve culture and heritage with the help of suggestions and recommendations from intellectuals, writers and poets, she said.

Agha Salem, Qamar Shahbaz, Nasir Mirza, Rochi Ram, Dr Fehmida Hussain, Taj Joyo, Dr Nawaz Ali Shouq among others also spoke at the reception. Allah Dino Khaskheli and other singers enthralled participants through nationalist songs. 

16 Dhul Quaad Urs/Annivarsary of Fakir Qadir Buksh Bedil – Rohri

BEDIL QADIR BUX (Sindhi b 1814 d 1872) Fakir Qadir Bux better known by his nom de plume “Bedil” (one bereft of heart) , was the son of Khalifo Muhammad Mohsin, who was a disciple and an ardent admirer of the Sindhi poet Sachal Sarmast, one of the great trinity of Sindhi poetry – Shah, Sachal & Sami.

            After this famous trio of Sindhi poets, other two stars that shone on the firmament of Sindhi poetry and who could measure up to them in excellence, were the father and son – Bedil and Bekas. They wrote poetry both in Sindhi and Persian.

            Bedil was well versed in a number of languages, Sindhi, Persian, Urdu, Arabic and Hindi. He has written poetry in Sindhi, siraiki, Urdu, Persian and even in Hindi.

            The burden of his poetry is Sufis tic which cult he inherited from his Murshid – Sachal, but he was not a rebel like the great Bard and did not offend Mullahs and Moulvies as Sarmast did. He was a staunch Muslim who moulded his life strictly according to the laws of Shari at. He was very simple and frugal in his style of living and gave away whatever he received, to the needy.

            He followed the path of Ishqu Majazi (physical love) to attain the heights of Ishqu Haqiqi (spiritual love) as dictated by Sufis tic doctrine.

            He was a devotee of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar of Sehwan also. Although he had deformity in one foot, yet he undertook long journeys to Sehwan to pay his homage to the Saint’s Shrine. He went to Jhok Sharif to pay homage to shrine of Sufi saint Shah Inayat Shaheed and also to Daraz, to visit the shrine of Sachal. He compiled as many as 23 books on prose and poetry written in Persian, Sindhi and Urdu more known being Masanavi Riyaz Alfugr, Diwan-e-Sulook-ul-Talbin, Diwan Minhaj-ul-Haquiqat-a, Rumuz al Qadri, Masanavi Nahr ul Bahr (Persian poetry), Punj Gunj (Persian prose), Diwn Musbah al Tariqat (third collection of Persian ghazals), Vahadat Namo (couplets in sindhi), Sarud Namo (kafis and couplets in sindhi and siraiki) and Diwan e Bedil (collection of Urdu ghazals).

            Among his poetical compositions we have his famous elegy (Diwan e Bedil), written on the death of Sachal Sarmast immortalizing the master and incidentally himself too. Some of the verses from this elegy are “Wonderful was the magic of love in Daraz, my friend Sachu was there, the intoxicated seeker and the Gnostic. Heavy was the shower of rain, of yearning of that hero. The pangs of separation were there, visible and invisible. Inherited he was, truly, with the rapture of oneness. Verily he was another Mansoor, love itself incarnate. He was attar (perfume) himself in fervour and sentiment. Commander he stood in the ranks of those given to love. Bedil haunts the door of the donor for the gift of his ardour. About himself he proclaims in the mood and style of Sachal; “I am what I am. Put on the various garments, and again divert myself of them” (Diwan-e-Bedil).

            Khanqah is the shrine (in Rohri city district Sukkur Sindh Pakistan) where thousands of his Murids (followers) throng every day to pay the homage to the great saint poet – Abdul Qadir by birth and Qadir Bux by his choice.

 

 

From: Encyclopedia of Indian literature vol. 1

By various

Burning bridges in Sindh

 Burning bridges in Sindh

By Bina Shah
I HAVE been reading Alice Albinia’s excellent Empires of the Indus, which is compelling although she veers too often from a balanced, objective view of Pakistan’s history and culture into the worst of wide-eyed European orientalism.

Chapter One, ‘Ramzan in Karachi’, takes an unflinching look at the position of lower-caste Hindus in Karachi, consigned to clean our sewers and toilets for what seems like all of eternity. Albinia’s judgment of this social class system is severe, and asks an unspoken question: why don’t we feel like cleaning out our own muck, literally as well as figuratively?

Even more compelling was Albinia’s description of what happened after Partition to many of the Hindus in the city. After Muslim refugees stoned and set a Sikh temple on fire in retaliation for violence visited on Muslims in the Punjab riots, spontaneous rioting erupted all throughout the city.

“Hindus — hitherto secure in their homes and mixed-faith neighbourhoods — now took refuge in their temples…. Sindh had been championed as a paradigm of inter-faith harmony. Following the riots, the government estimated that three thousand Hindus a day were taking their belongings down to the docks, and purchasing a passage to India.”

The riots were not as bad as those in Punjab, Bengal or Uttar Pradesh, but Sindhi Hindus saw the signs and many took the decision to leave before things got any worse for them.

Sindhi friends in London tell me that the exodus from Sindh did not occur overnight; many Sindhi Hindu businessmen had emigrated for economic reasons to Hong Kong, Africa, Bombay, long before Partition. Those who left sold their houses for reasonable prices, others stayed on through the 1950s and 60s, leaving only when Zia arrived on the scene. Their migration was to North America rather than India. Not all in Sindh were sorry to see the Hindus go, as exploitative Hindu moneylenders were thought to have a stranglehold on Sindh’s economy. But there was plenty of sympathy for most of the emigres, and Muslims could be seen helping their poor Hindu neighbours load up camel carts with meagre luggage before setting off for India.

After “Sindh’s famously rich and ‘venturesome’ Hindu mercantile class left for India”, where did they go? How did they rebuild their lives after leaving Sindh? How are they keeping in touch with their Sindhi culture and traditions, and how are forthcoming generations going to do the same? And finally, what do they think of Sindh today, as it exists in Pakistan?

Dr Shivkumar Israni, a Sindhi Hindu living in Mumbai, wrote to me, “We are no more connected to the land of our forefathers; some of us who were born there and are still alive today, for them also Sindh is but a fading album of black and white pictures that has the capacity to bring tears to the eyes.”

This is a familiar lament from any population that has been dispossessed and forced out of its homeland, which has led to the creation of art, music and poetry that expresses the soul’s desire to go back. Even Benazir Bhutto wrote poetry inspired by Shah Abdul Latif’s tale of Marvi when she lived in exile, away from the land that nurtured her and in which she is now buried; perhaps she could have identified with Sindhi Hindus similarly cut off from the land of Sindhu.

According to Lavina Melwani in an article for Hinduism Today, the Hindu Sindhis are “a people who overcame adversity to become one of the most affluent communities in India, and perhaps the world. Disclosed and traumatized by the partition of India in which their beloved homeland of Sindh was swallowed up in the newly created Islamic country of Pakistan, the Hindu Sindhis were turned into world-wandering refugees. They fled with their lives and just a few belongings from the bloodshed and religious persecution. With few resources beyond guts and creativity they sailed to the far corners of the world, to seek their fortunes.”

The Sindhi Hindus made it their business to survive, and relied on their sharp business instincts and trading skills to truly thrive wherever they went. And money isn’t the only thing on their minds: they have established schools, temples, institutes of Sindhology, magazines and newspapers, all in the name of preserving the culture that they left behind in 1947.

They hold cultural programmes, celebrate their births and marriages with the traditional Sindhi-Hindu rites, and engage in philanthropy unrivalled by any other South Asian expatriate community. They worry that their children won’t be able to speak Sindhi; they worry about the plight of their Hindu brothers left behind in Sindh, subject to discrimination and insecurity as minorities in a land that is growing more strictly Muslim day by day. And they worry about Sindh itself, which they see as suffering greatly under leader after leader, regime after regime, none of whom care much for the fortunes of Sindh or the Sindhis.

There is resentment about the loss these Sindhis had to endure, and their feelings towards Pakistan are not exactly friendly or forgiving. They see Sindh as an endangered land, oppressed by ethnic forces that are alien to the culture that spawned the civilisation of Moenjodaro and the Indus Valley. Their websites are full of anti-Pakistan rhetoric; they accuse the government of erasing the pre-Muslim parts of Sindhi history from the textbooks.

The bitterness felt by those who left Pakistan in 1947 is felt by their sons and daughters and will be felt by future generations, who have no good memories of living in Sindh to counteract the anger they feel at having had to give up their heritage and start all over again in India and elsewhere. Many Hindus who migrated to India immediately joined Hindu nationalist parties like the RSS — L.K. Advani being the most well-known example.

Rather than glean all my information from the Internet and books, I wanted to speak to members of the Sindhi Hindu community in other parts of the world for their views. I was given the name of a prominent Sindhi Hindu businessman, and I wrote to him with this aim in mind, asking him to write back soon so that I could include his views in this column. He never replied. Perhaps he was busy, or perhaps he never received my email. Still, I can’t help but think that his silence is symbolic of the vast gulf that lies between the Sindhis in Sindh and the Sindhi Hindus abroad.

Will anyone ever be able to bridge that gap? Or have all the bridges between the Sindhi Hindus and Sindh been burnt forever?

The writer is a novelist.

 

 

Privatising strategic assets – DAWN

Privatising strategic assets

By Engr Hussain Ahmad Siddiqui

In an apparent bid to overcome the widening fiscal deficit, the government is set to sell off the Qadirpur gas-field, on a fast track basis.

The Privatisation Commission has referred the scheme of four options for bidding to the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation for a final decision. The sale of this strategic asset is expected to generate about $3 billion.

The Qadirpur gas-field, located about eight kilometers from Ghotki, was discovered in 1990, and covers an area of over 389 square kilometers in Jacobabad and Sukkur districts. The joint venture lease was granted to the state-owned Oil and Gas Development Corporation, in October 1992, to act as its owner and operator.

After installation of gas gathering facilities and processing plant, regular production commenced in September 1995. The gas-field was developed in three phases until March 2004. Based on state-of-the-art technology, it has the largest gas processing facilities in Asia.

The expanded natural gas membrane plant, commissioned in 2004 in Qadirpur, uses the well-proven UOP’s cellulose acetate plus (CAP) technology for carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen sulphide (H2S) removal and hydrocarbon recovery. The suppliers, UOP LLC of the USA, claim that this is the world’s largest operating membrane plant in natural gas service. A compression project is being undertaken to maintain gas production plateau (level of peak production) of 650 mmcfd (million cubic feet per day) through the year 2013 and to maintain underground gas pressure through 2017.

A total of 31 development wells are currently producing 500 mmcfd processed/pipeline quality gas, 100 mmcfd raw gas and 1,100 barrels (bbl) per day of condensate/NGL (natural gas liquids). Qadirpur gas-field production currently meets 16 per cent of total national gas requirement, which translates into import substitution of around $300 million a year. A project for enhancement of its gas capacity by 20 per cent is currently in advanced stage, scheduled for completion in December.

The gas-field has net reserves of 5.147 trillion cubic feet (tcf), and is termed as the second largest gas reserve in the country. In comparison, the balance reserves of Sui gas-field are to the level of 9.625 tcf, whereas Mari gas-field has 4.006 tcf reserves. It is a joint venture among Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (OGDCL) with 75 per cent shareholding, PKP Exploration Ltd 9.5, Kufpec Pakistan Holdings BV 8.5 and Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (PPL) seven per cent.

The government plans to sell-off the entire 75 per cent shareholding of OGDCL in the gas-field.

Qadirpur gas-field is key portion of production and earnings of the OGDCL, which is the largest petroleum exploration and production company and holds 32 per cent of the country’s total gas reserves. Net sales of the OGDCL during the year ending June 30, 2008, amounted to Rs125.45 billion, contributing Rs99.37 billion to the national exchequer in the form of royalty, dividends, corporate tax, GST, excise duty and development surcharge. Without Qadirpur gas-field, projected earnings of the OGDCL in future will decline drastically – by at least 17 per cent.

The government has divested five per cent of its shareholding in the OGDCL, whereas OGDCL and PPL, another state-owned company and joint venture partner in Qadirpur gas-field, are included in the privatisation programme offering 51 per cent shares along-with management to the prospective buyers. It may be added that 100 mmcfd gas from Qadirpur gas-field has been allocated by the government, in January 2007, to set up a new urea fertiliser plant by the private sector near the gas-field.

Pakistan has total gas reserves of 31.810 tcf. A total of 21.600-tcf gas has been produced and consumed, cumulatively. The reserves will rapidly start depleting after 2012, in spite of recent gas discoveries and achieving higher production. Even if all the discovered reserves are developed optimally, the gas will be sufficient hardly for meeting demand of another 20 years. In fact, the country may face a shortfall of 600 mmcfd by 2009. To meet growing national demand, the government plans to import gas in near future through pipeline from neighboring countries.

Pakistan has limited natural gas deposits, accounting for just half per cent of global, and about six per cent of Asian, natural gas resources. But, the country is among the most gas dependent economies of the world. Natural gas contributes over 50 per cent of total commercial energy supply. It is extensively used for power generation and in various industries, besides its five million commercial and residential consumers. During 2006-07, its sector-wise consumption was power 35.5 per cent, fertliser 15.9 per cent, cement and other industry 26.2, domestic 15.2, commercial 2.6 and transports (CNG) 4.6 per cent.

Under the conditions, the decision to sell-off Qadirpur gas-field is not a viable option and, if implemented, could result in further increase in domestic gas prices and tariff, and may also impact gas availability.

According to the Petroleum Exploration and Production Policy 2007, gas pricing is linked with the basket of imported crude oils, based on a mathematical formula. This provides more incentives as compared with 2001 policy that had a cap of $36 per barrel on wellhead gas price.

The wellhead price from new gas-fields has been increasing manifold, because of application of new formula, but the consumers tariff is still based on resultant mix of old and new gas-fields pricing. The policy also allows export of exploration and production companies’ share of gas, though subject to certain conditions. Divesting the Qadirpur gas-field will thus have considerable negative impact on the national economy. The employees of the OGDCL, members of the civil society and political parties are agitated against the planned privatisation of Qadirpur gas-field and OGDCL.

They allege that the government has also decided to sell Qadirpur gas-field to a selected foreign investor at throwaway price. The government needs to review its decision, on priority, lest the proposed privatisation of Qadirpur gas-field may prove to be a Pakistan Steel case for the present government.

The government should instead develop infrastructure for production of natural gas from new fields that remain far from being realised, and intensifying exploration efforts, particularly in western Balochistan and offshore. The untapped expected potential is estimated at an additional 215 tcf recoverable gas reserves.

The writer is a former chairman of State Engineering Corporation and Heavy Mechanical Complex.

Land ownership and rural inequality

Land ownership and rural inequality

By Naveeda Mahmood

RURAL poverty is rooted in the asymmetrical distribution of land, which is the main asset in an agricultural economy.

Big landlords have been reaping the benefits of price policies while small landholders are only growing the staples, to put food on their tables.

Disparities between rich landlords and poor peasants in terms of wealth, rents from land, capacity to grow cash crops and ability to obtain education remains stark. Land ownership is highly concentrated and feudal lords are obstructing any meaningful reforms towards fairer distribution of land. What is there in our rural areas is a perpetual deprivation of the majority and a huge income inequality.

Huge income disparities serve as a drag on the economic growth and poverty reduction. Scarce resources get diverted to eliminating poverty instead of focusing on reducing income disparities. Concentration of incomes in a few hands generates undesirable socio-economic consequences.

Nowhere is this strain between growth and growing inequality more relevant than in the agriculture where distribution of resources has long been viewed to be skewed. Most of the rural poor, on an average, hold less than five acres only enough to sustain and survive or work as share cropper and remain at the mercy of the tenancy arrangements with the land owners.

Ownership holdings by size of area owned, according to the agriculture census 2000, shows that in Pakistan 61 per cent of the total private holdings are under five acres and ownership of 50 acres and above are only two per cent. Majority of the landholdings, 94 per cent, are in the category of less than 25 acres while only six per cent holdings are in the category of 25 acres and above.

There are wide provincial variations as, in Punjab and NWFP, dominant ownership holdings fall in the category of under five acres, 61.34 per cent and 79 per cent respectively while in Sindh and Balochistan, majority of the land ownership is in the size class of five acres to under 25 acres, 46 per cent and 52 per cent respectively. In Sindh and Balochistan, shares of landholdings of 25 acres and above are the highest among all four provinces, 12 per cent and 18.6 per cent respectively.

Since majority of land holdings are of less than five acres, the income patterns of households owning them, become highly vulnerable to the vagaries of weather and economic shocks — any exogenous shock, unfavorable weather conditions, a bad crop or an adverse economic policy, proves their undoing and they slip below the poverty line. A vicious cycle of poverty ensures — starting with lower or rather zero initial assets’ base — that the small farmers are unable to bridge the economic gap on their own unless official economic policies are positively biased towards them.

Agricultural income for majority of the rural poor accrues from the food crops, mainly rice and wheat. Wheat dominates the total cropped area occupying 40 per cent of the total area, followed by cotton and rice, 14 per cent and 12 per cent respectively. Share of sugarcane is only four per cent of the total cropped area (agricultural census 2000). These two food crops serve as the staples for majority of the households.

The decision to grow food or more remunerative cash crops such as sugarcane depend on the size of land holding and restrict the freedom of choice for the poorer. To be able to profit from the price policies set by the government for sugarcane, it is vital to have large land holdings to serve as insurance against food scarcity for such agricultural families. Rural poor prefer, rather can only afford to grow more of food crops to feed themselves. Well-off households with large farm holdings receive major part of their income from cash crops while poorer households get their income primarily from food crops.

Cash crop such as sugarcane needs to stay in the ground for whole year and families dependant on land for food cannot afford to wait that long for any economic return. Rotation of crop with another food crop in the same year is not possible and the soil has to wait for three or four years to grow food crops. If the small landholders have larger tracts of land, it would become feasible for them to simultaneously grow both food crops for survival and sugarcane for income enhancement. No wonder that the wealthier agricultural households in the higher income bracket dominate cultivation of profitable cash crops.

Shares of various income sources in rural monthly household income for 1998-99 and 2005-06 amply show that dominant part of the rural income comes from crop production followed closely by wages and salaries including government jobs and unskilled labour. Over a period of eight years, the pattern of distribution of household income has only nominally changed. In NWFP and Balochistan, income from wages and salaries contributes a major share to total income while crop production is the main contributor in Punjab and Sindh.

Rental income from land only accrues to the big farmers while majority of rural population working as tenant farmers or having very small tracts of land are on the losing side. Overall rental income from property forms a meagre share except in Sindh and NWFP where there has been substantial rise in the contribution from rental income since 1998-99. Livestock has now emerged as a prominent source of income, improving its share since 1998-99 except in Punjab where its share has considerably declined.

Given the importance of wages and salaries in all the four provinces, employment assumes crucial importance keeping in view the skewed land ownership. Focus on raising employment can help reduce rural income inequality. Currently, the poor and uneducated are unable to invest in education which could enable them to secure government jobs.

Policies with a pronounced bias in favour of facilitating non-farm income such as improving human capital or labour skills by providing free and quality education, would help correct the skewed income patterns and reduce the rural poverty in the absence of any structural change in the asset base. Measures to improve sources of income such as livestock will undoubtedly reduce inequality.

Programmes aimed at poverty reduction failing to address the issue of skewed land distribution, will be inadequate. Any land reforms, no doubt, would face stiff resistance by the land owning class, enjoying enormous political clout.

Rich land owners are few but effective as a pressure group. On the other hand, the peasants are not organised as an interest group.