Cloud of smoke surrounds parliament
The debate for or against cigarette smoking in the parliament reflects some worrying trends
By Dr Arif Azad
Parliamentarians all over the world are expected to be upholders of the legislation they themselves frame. This universal principal is respected more in observance than in breach. But not so in Pakistan.

terror
The hardest blow
A walk through the markets in the narrow streets of Meena Bazaar and Kochi Bazaar in the aftermath of the blast which claimed over 100 innocent lives
By Javed Aziz Khan
A few hours after the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Pakistan on October 28, yet another huge blast ripped through the densely populated trade centre in Peshawar to kill over 100 people, injure over 180 others and cause colossal damage to the properties in markets located in narrow streets of Meena Bazaar and Kochi Bazaar. The two trade centres mostly deal in clothes and daily use items for women. That was why many of the female customers and their minor children were also caught in the blast.

One too many SIMs
SIM verification is causing inconvenience to many mobile phone subscribers -- for no fault of their own
By Shujauddin Qureshi
"I put my CNIC number on PTA's website and found that the cellular companies had issued 27 SIMs in my name. I couldn't believe it," said housewife Shazia Qureshi.

The road from Quetta to Kalat is broken and bumpy, but after a thorough shake-up it takes you to the historical town, a hub of Baloch nationalist movement that was the capital of a semi-autonomous princely state under the British period.

Along the way, graffiti on the walls for Balochistan's independence, salutation to Baloch leaders killed fighting for independence and abusive slogans against Pakistan and Punjab just give a glimpse of what is actually cooking up in Balochistan and hidden from the eyes of the rest of the country.

Kalat is one main centre of Hindu population in Balochistan. One thousand Hindus have lived there for centuries. They are not very expressive of what is happening to them, but once assured of confidentiality tell their complaints. One common complaint is that young Hindu men are ignored in government jobs. There are only two schools for Hindu community in Kalat city.

The Hindu elders are nostalgic about good old days when it was a city of peace and love. At the time of Partition, Hindu-Muslim riots did not take place in Balochistan. Hindus were free to go everywhere and they used to enjoy picnics in mountains. Local Muslims used to welcome them. Now the situation is quite bad. Thefts and murder are a routine. Violence has become common and widespread. There is lot of population pressure which requires more space for members of Hindu community to build new houses, but out of fear they are not ready to go out in the suburbs and build a new locality.

Another complaint is that there is no writ of the government. The government does nothing for them. A young child of Hindu community was abducted for ransom in the presence of police. A few years ago, a young man of the community was murdered, but police has not yet arrested the accused. The Hindu traders pay extortion money. They are threatened to pay extortion money or face bomb blasts at their shops.

Hindus complain that they do not have access to any high-ranking government officials or public officials. They complain that chief minister and governor of the province do not give them time to present their complaints. Five years have passed but district minority committee has not met. They say they are treated as second-class citizens.

Kalat's minority community also seems to be unhappy about the joint electorate system. "If we do not vote a candidate in general election, he becomes our enemy." There is no elected representative of Hindu community in the National Assembly from Balochistan who can raise Hindus' voice. There are four seats for minorities and all of them get filled from Sindh where Hindus are in a large number. Hindus of Kalat want their candidates to be elected exclusively by the votes of Hindus alone so that they can be answerable to them.

The resentment and anger among Muslims is much more severe than the tongue-in-cheek complaints of the Hindu community. "Gen Musharraf is responsible for fomenting trouble in Balochistan," says Prince Mohyuddin of Khan of Kalat family. In his sprawling and historical but quite simple fort in Kalat, one is shown the rooms where the Quaid-e-Azam and his sister Fatima Jinnah had stayed before Pakistan came into existence. Prince Mohyuddin says young Baloch boys think Gen Pervez Musharraf was a good man for the Baloch cause as he woke them up by first putting Nawab Khair Bakhsh Mari into jail and then killing Nawab Akbar Bugti.

Prince Mohyuddin says presently there are two forces in Balochistan: resistance-fighters (militants) who rule at night and security agencies that rule in the day. He says Baloch are mentally no more a part of Pakistan. He says Baloch issue has been internationalised and this is likely to remain so for some time. In his view, at the moment the situation has gone out of the hands of Baloch politicians.

The prince of Kalat appears to be polite with gestures that he is ready to work within the framework of Pakistan, but young men of Kalat are quite blunt and aggressive. Names of most people interviewed have been withheld for their safety. A young boy belonging to Baloch Republican Party-Brahmdagh group, says it would be good for Pakistanis if they grant Baloch independence otherwise to gain it they are ready to die. "Those fighting in mountains are my brothers and my life is not precious than that of Nawab Akbar Bugti or Ballach Mari; I can sacrifice it for independence."

Young Baloch resent the role of security agencies in Balochistan and claim that they pick up people, torture them and kill them. "They picked up a man and threw his body which had the marks of torture and inscribed on it with a sharp-edged weapon, Pakistan Zindabad."

A local trader seems a little moderate. He recounts a long list of grievances against the government. "There is no writ of the government. Police do not take action on quarrels among people and thefts. In some case, if police takes action, courts release the accused." He says there is shortage of patrol in Kalat and other basic requirements. "Kalat-Quetta road is in shambles for the last four years. We do not have maternity homes. Our women observe strict seclusion from men, but circumstances force them to give birth to children in front of strangers on the way to hospitals in Quetta. It hurts our honour."

A relatively moderate political activist belonging to BNP complains law and order situation in the city is very bad. He says he cannot safely go to his home in suburb, 15 kilometres away from Kalat city. " Kalat Police has strength of 1000 policemen, but the day a Hindu boy was abducted, there was only one policeman present in the police station. Police could not recover the abducted man. People themselves got him recovered. The CPLC Karachi could not identify the car that was used in the abduction."

After recounting the grievances, he says, although our young men want independence, but there are many people who want to be a part of Pakistan. In his opinion, if political settlement does not take place soon, the moderate people will also join forces with those demanding for independence.

A local journalist and government employee says Balochistan issue cannot be resolved through chatter but concrete actions to bring Baloch at par with the rest of the country. "We have been kept backward and you can gauge this by one small indicator that there is not a single public park in Kalat or in entire Balochistan."

There is no girls' middle school in 12 out of 18 union councils of Kalat, what to speak of a high school for girls. There is only one girls' high school in the district and that too was established before 1947. This school does not have a single science teacher. There is not a single maternity home in Kalat district.

Baloch activists in Kalat are quite candid about admitting targeted killings being carried out by Baloch nationalists. A political worker says: "People are carrying out targeted killings of settlers because they belong to the community which is committing excesses on Baloch people." A BSO member says: "In return of the excesses do you expect us to garland you with flowers? It is right to carry out targeted killings in response." He is quite blunt in abusing Punjabis who in his view have usurped the rights of Baloch people and have forced them to carry out targeted killings. 

One bitter complaint is that intelligence agencies are abducting Baloch activists who go missing. For example, they cite the case of one Abdul Mujeeb Baloch son of Abdul Majeed Baloch, who was a unit member of Baloch Students' Organisation (BSO) Azad in Balochistan University, Quetta and a student of MA in Public Administration. On his way to meeting with the vice-chancellor along with his two colleagues and a professor, he was picked up along with a colleague. The colleague, Abdul Qadir, was released after 25 days. He told us that a federal intelligence agency had abducted and blindfolded them so he did not know where he was detained.

One after another Baloch activists get up and pay tribute to Baloch leaders whom they call martyrs. They consider Balochistan's minerals are providing a rich resource to run Pakistan, and in return, Pakistan has not given them anything. So, they will not rest until total independence.

What is the solution? Has the situation reached a point of no return? While Baloch young boys and girls loath the idea of a solution within Pakistan, senior politicians still talk of political rights and ownership of their resources within the federation. Prince Mohyuddin was part of Gen Ziaul Haq's cabinet and had worked to diffuse volatile situation at that time. In his view, in this crisis, veteran politician, Sardar Ataullah Mengal alone has the capacity to bring along both Pushtoons and Balochs and may provide a political solution.

He also suggests that an option is to hand over the province to his political organisation for three years with the following pre-conditions: (a) Militia be taken out of the province though Army may stay here; (b) no more Cantonments be built in the province; (c) all political prisoners be released; and (d) Politicians and bureaucracy from outside not to be part of the provincial administration as outside bureaucracy is too heavy-handed.

Two years in office, the Zardari-Gillani government is making tall claims of bringing some relief for Balochistan, but no measure has been taken so far as the situation is worsening by the day. While the broken and bumpy road from Quetta to Kalat does end up somewhere, it seems the road to and from Islamabad leads to nowhere.

Ahead of the Tablighi Jamaat's annual congregation in Raiwind near Lahore -- one of the largest congregations of Islamic world attended by at least one and half million Muslims -- there has been a day-long meeting of at least 50 former officers of Pakistan's armed forces in Raiwind to discuss the future agenda of the rapidly-expanding movement.

Though party sympathisers term the meeting as 'routine', insiders claim these retired officers had travelled from across the country to attend this special meeting of "Halqa-e-Khawas" (group of special people) and were well-taken care of and hosted by the Ameer of TJ, Maulana Abdul Wahab. It may be interesting to note that Wahab is no seminary student but an ordinary landlord.

The annual congregation of TJ, which is considered a non-resistant and non-political Islamic revivalist movement, is scheduled from Nov 5-8, 2009.

The meeting, convened under the driving force of this group in Pakistan armed forces, Lt Gen (r) Javed Nasir, former director general Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), was attended by at least 50 former high-rank officers of the military including many generals, brigadiers and admirals and even top police officers etc. Apart from Lt Gen (r) Nasir, there were Lt Gen (r) Agha Masood Hasan, former naval chief Admiral (r) Karamat Rehman Niazi, Lt Gen (r) Aftab Ahmed and others.

The objective of this meeting was to discuss the possibility of politicising its agenda. Many retired army officers were convinced that the TJ now should have a political manifesto. Wahab, the head of TJ, reportedly related the first phase of the party to Prophet Muhammad's time in Mecca where he tolerated all violence and criticism by infidels and patiently focused on preaching Islam. Wahab, who believes that one day the rule of Allah must be set up in the world, however, asked these retired armymen that being the main force of this party, they should start planning about the direction this gathering of millions gathering should take.

Insiders told TNS this kind of resistance and questions are being raised within the Tablighi Jamaat from time to time.

"There are thousands of serving armymen who have joined this party and no force disallows the soldiers from practicing their religion," said a former army officers who was privy to this particular meeting. "If you want to know the depth of this party, you have to jump into it."

The Jamaat is extending its influence throughout the world, especially South Asia. In Pakistan it has impressed people from all walks of life including soldiers, rulers, political leaders, scientists, businessmen, sportsman, showbiz people, singers, doctors, engineers, students and many other important professions.

TJ has a loose structure and a non-charismatic leadership. The leadership is so non-charismatic that the party has no official name. The name "Tablighi Jamaat" has been publicly adopted following their motives and the way their groups have been preaching street to street.

Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Kandhalawi [1885-1944], a student of Dar-ul-Aloom Deoband conceived this unmanned group, which later emerged as Tablighi Jamaat in Mewat (India) in mid-1920s. After completing his education at Deoband, Maulana Ilyas took up a teaching position at seminary Mazaharul Uloom in Saharanpur. He also prepared a team of young madrassa graduates from Deoband and Saharanpur and sent them to Mewat to establish a network of mosques and Islamic schools throughout the region.

According to historical accounts, the first Tablighi conference held in November 1941 in Mewat was attended by 25,000 people. Many of them had walked on foot for ten to fifteen miles to attend the congregation.

According to wikipedia: "TJ maintains a non-affiliating stature in matters of politics and jurisprudence to eschew the controversies which would otherwise accompany such affiliations. Although, TJ emerged out of sub-school in jurisprudence of , no particular jurisprudence or interpretation of Islam has been endorsed since movement's inception. TJ has largely avoided any form of electronic media and has emphasised on personal communication as its preaching channel. Teachings of TJ are mainly rudimentary and Six Principles set by Muhammad Ilyas influence most of their teachings.

"Despite its pacifist stance, TJ has appeared on the fringes of numerous terrorism investigations. TJ gained much public and media attention, particularly in UK, when it announced plans for the largest mosque in Europe."

TJ's international headquarters is in Nizamuddin, Delhi. It has several national headquarters to coordinate its activities in over 80 countries and has a significant presence in North America, Europe, Africa, and Central Asia. Britain has remained a major focus of the movement. Press reports also pointed fingers at the party when the 23 accused of 7/7 (July 2007) London terror plot were found to have connections with it.

TJ has been facing a lot of criticism by other Deobandi factions of Islam, especially those in the business of jihad; their contention is that this non-resistant and consistently expanding humanitarian outfit should also gear up for jihad, one of the compulsory tenets of Islam. The party elders generally avoid responding to criticism from outside, though they are forthcoming to questions within the party.

In Pakistan, the family of political leaders like Nawaz Sharif are also great sponsors of Tablighi Jamaat. Mian Sharif, his father, is believed to be a prominent member and financier. He also managed to make his Tablighi friend Muhammad Rafiq Tarar president of Pakistan when Nawaz Sharif was the prime minister. In 1995, the military officers who hatched a conspiracy against the then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto were associated with Tablighi Jamaat. A coup was thwarted against many high-ranking military officers and civilians, all of whom were members of the Tablighi Jamaat.

An investigative report published in The News on Feb 13, 1995 discussed the connection between the Tablighi Jamaat and Harakat ul-Mujahideen, founded in 1980 and "their clandestine role in supporting Islamic extremist movements in different countries."

Westerns press reports term this Jamaat as having a great potential for jihad. After more than 80 years of this 'quiet revolution', voices have started rising that this jamaat should do more to purge the world of infidelity, predicting another storm.

Parliamentarians all over the world are expected to be upholders of the legislation they themselves frame. This universal principal is respected more in observance than in breach. But not so in Pakistan.

The October 16 incident in Pakistan's Senate is symptom of a worrying trend: Health Minister Mir Ijaz Khan Jhakrani stood up to request the members not to light cigarette in assembly's public places. No sooner had the Health Minister finished that the Leader of the Opposition, Wasim Sajjad, rose to his feet to defend the untenable -- the right to smoke in public places.

The violation of prohibition of smoking law was defended on the ground of breach of parliamentary privilege, which was a jaw-dropping novelty. The Leader of the Treasury, Nayar Bokhari, feeling left out, also defended the right to smoke in public places.

At least, Jhakrani's perfectly sensible and reasonable request served to unite opposition and the treasury in seeking to justify violation of a law as a parliamentary privilege. How can the violation of a law be justified on the ground of a breach of parliamentary privileges? And how can the notion of representative assembly being not a public place be defended? In any other democracy this notion would have been laughed out of the house. But in Pakistan, this went unnoticed in the wider reaches of the press, failing to generate a public debate about ethics and obligations of legislators and implications of their action for wider public policy.

This incident is troubling -- against the backdrop of horrific figures on tobacco-caused deaths in Pakistan. These tobacco deaths exact a heavy toll not only on the government purse but also finish off productive lives prematurely. Thus whatever transpires in the representative house carries implications for tobacco control policy.

Let us take the issue of tobacco use first. Tobacco use, the mother of all ills, has been on the rise in Pakistan. According to one estimate, 100,000 deaths are caused by smoking alone in Pakistan. This comes up to 273 deaths a day. A large part of this tobacco death is owed to second-hand smoke which affects non-smokers in areas where smoker puff at their cigarettes. These horrifying statistics should make our legislator shudder over the death-causing effect of smoking. Rather than promoting smoking they should be lining behind tobacco control efforts.

Then take the law on tobacco control.

This pro-smoking stance by our parliamentarian comes at a time when serious tobacco control efforts are afoot in Pakistan. In recent years, the introduction of designated smoking areas in assembly secretariat was celebrated and observed. More significantly, in recent years, more concerted efforts have been made to control tobacco use on the international level by World Health Organisation.

This has resulted in the adoption of Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC) by more than 160 countries, including Pakistan, which singed up to the document in 2004. This binds Pakistan to incorporate FCTC legal provisions into domestic law within a period of five years.

Some progress on this front has already been made recently. In 2009, Health Minister Mir Ijaz Khan announced the introduction of pictorial health warning on cigarette packs by February 2010. This is laudable since this step puts Pakistan in the select list of about 30 countries that have undertaken to implement pictorial warnings legislation. Though the notification on pictorial warning has not gone far enough, yet it is a good beginning that needs to be built on in the coming years. A lot is required to see pictorial warnings to be implemented.

Of course the proverbial devil would reside in the details. But this is a significant step forward nonetheless. Our legislators are duty bound by nature of their office to support such measures and not to undermine either the law or policy by seeking to promote smoking that kills in billions. They can set themselves up as role models, as tobacco control advocates, rather than tobacco promoters.

A few hours after the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Pakistan on October 28, yet another huge blast ripped through the densely populated trade centre in Peshawar to kill over 100 people, injure over 180 others and cause colossal damage to the properties in markets located in narrow streets of Meena Bazaar and Kochi Bazaar. The two trade centres mostly deal in clothes and daily use items for women. That was why many of the female customers and their minor children were also caught in the blast.

This may be a coincidence, but it has been observed that whenever any senior US or European official lands in the country or Pakistani president or premier leaves for a crucial meeting abroad, terrorists strike hard in the country to make their presence felt. Many had already feared a major terrorist attack to welcome Hillary Clinton on her first visit to Pakistan as US Secretary of State. The blow this time was the hardest ever, which claimed over 100 innocent lives and shook the whole of the provincial capital.

What happened on the spot cannot be expressed in words. There was smoke, huge flames and pile of rubble. Being a narrow street and suddenly packed by the mob, the area was accessed by the fire brigade and rescuer workers quite late. This not only aired the flames to catch more buildings but also many of the wounded succumbed before they could be taken to hospitals. One three-storey building was razed to ground a couple of hours after the explosion because the fire erupted there could not be extinguished till late. A mosque, Masjid Umme Habiba, also collapsed due to the heavy fire.

"I was at shop attending some customers when we heard a loud bang and then everything plunged into darkness. When I returned to senses, I found myself on the hospital bed while my customers were killed," recalled Ali Rahman who owns a small cosmetics shop in Meena Bazaar.

There were many tragic stories related with this single incident. Eight members of a single family were killed in the explosion. Ibrar, a resident of Mohalla Jatan, was busy shopping for the wedding of a relative after arriving from the federal capital when caught in the blast. Ibrar along with his wife, three young daughters, a son and two other family members was killed in the tragic incident. A 7-year-old minor, Jibran, was killed along with his aunt during shopping for the wedding of another relative in Meena Bazaar. His mother was critically wounded and is being treated at the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), the major health facility that takes care of wounded people in case of blast or other terrorist attacks.

Those killed also included two brothers Naeem Jan and Faheem, a baker Mohammad Arshad and his minor son Waseem, a trader Tila Mohammad and his son Pir Mohammad, Mumtaz and his young sister, a young woman from Yakatoot Rozi and another woman Shehnaz. Around 12 houses and over 60 shops were completely destroyed while almost 300 other shops and houses were severely damaged due to the powerful explosion at around 12:40 pm, when thousands were busy in buying and selling clothes, bangles, jewellery, cosmetics, make up kits and other such commodities.

Senior NWFP minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour believes the attack was in reaction to the military offensive in Waziristan. "Terrorists can reach anywhere, if they can enter GHQ. We will counter the menace soon and terrorists will be uprooted from the country," opines Bilour, a daring senior minister elected from the interior city who turns up at the sites of the explosions well ahead of his contemporaries and other top officials. Bilour himself has survived two suicide bombings, a rocket attack and a failed terrorist attack in recent months.

"Chechen and Uzbek terrorists are targeting innocent and peaceful Pakhtuns instead of launching Jihad against Israel. We will not lose heart and eliminate terrorists," vows the NWFP information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain, another man who is always found on blast scene. His statements have made him No-1 enemy of militants in the province. But he has won the sympathies of hundreds of thousands people of his province. Apart from Mian Iftikhar and Bilour, the rest of the ministers and political heavyweights of the province seem to have gone underground following the recent violent wave of terrorism, leaving their people to bear the brunt alone. The fact is that three of the four MNAs from Peshawar are enjoying slots in the federal cabinet, six of the eleven MPAs are either provincial ministers or speaker and deputy speaker but they have rarely been seen on site of any blast to boost the morale of people.

"For how long we will continue to become scapegoats during the visits of high-profile dignitaries? Can anybody tell me why Pakhtoons are being killed in Fata and Frontier for the past many years and why not the rulers come for their rescue?" questions Ahad Beg, a student of the University of Peshawar that was opened on Wednesday after over a week's closure after the twin suicide blasts in International Islamic University in Islamabad.

The site of the Wednesday blast is surrounded by Chowk Yadgar, Qissa Khwani, Ghanta Ghar, Peepalmandi, Yakatoot, Kohati, Kochi Bazaar, Dalgaran and other bazaars from all the four sides. Traders in all these centres closed shops immediately after the blast and decided to observe a three-day mourning to protest against the inhuman act. Business is already on decline in this troubled city where terror has revisited six times since September 26.

Since the fresh wave of terrorism -- a reaction to the Waziristan operation -- has struck Peshawar, people have restricted themselves and their families to houses. Following six major bombings and threats of more attacks, the government authorities had to close all the public and private sector educational institutions for at least two weeks, in a bid to secure the lives of innocent students. The restaurants of the city also remained shut for three days in protest and most probably due to threats after the Swan Restaurant blast. The lone five-star hotel of the province has already been closed after a bomb attack on June 9. There are rumours that it may never be opened as a deal is being negotiated to hand over the facility to another country for establishing its diplomatic mission there.

Owners of plazas in different localities have adopted measures on their own to secure their properties and its inhabitants. But despite the security measures, the sense of insecurity as well as uncertainty prevails all over the Peshawar and many parts of the NWFP.

The deadly Meena Bazaar blast also exposed the poor intelligence network and improper security arrangements by the law-enforcement agencies that have placed the lives and properties of commoners at the mercy of terrorists. The city is almost sealed for the past many days after erecting barricades on all entry points to urban limits. Senior superintendent of police (SSP) Coordination Mohammad Alam Shinwari tells TNS that barricades have been erected at 104 points in the city, which have been properly manned. Police, however, complain of lacking explosive detectors, scanners and other required gadgetry. The force has got 12 detectors from the US Embassy in Pakistan a few days back but they can only detect explosive material in a car from close quarters, which may not serve the real cause of scanning all the vehicles passing through a route. The police force and district and provincial governments even lacked hydraulic cutters that were later borrowed from the National Highways and Motorway Police to remove the rubble of buildings and evacuate bodies and injured persons. Vehicle cutters were also rushed from NHMP.

Peshawar is really in the line of fire, for being the easiest target for terrorists coming from nearby tribal areas. At least 46 terrorism incidents have been reported in the city since the launch of military operation in Swat in June last, some of which really proved fatal. The people of this historic city are looking for some committed leaders at federal and provincial levels to take wise and adequate decisions not only for the protection of the city and its people but for the settlement of the issue of militancy once and for all. Until the issue of militancy and Taliban is there, the terrorism incidents will never stop.

"I put my CNIC number on PTA's website and found that the cellular companies had issued 27 SIMs in my name. I couldn't believe it," said housewife Shazia Qureshi.

Qureshi uses only one SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) subscribed by a leading mobile phone company. Now, she is not looking forward to a visit to a franchise or a customer service department to get the rest of the 26 SIMs closed. "Why should I stand in long queues? What is my fault?" she asks regretfully, adding: "It's the duty of the regulator of telecom sector, in this case, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to ban the issuance of multiple SIMs. Instead PTA has put the desperate consumers in a difficult situation."

Qureshi's case is not unique. "I have learnt 78 SIMs have been issued by various cellular companies on my identity card. I feel insecure," said another subscriber Mustafa Ahmed.

When the scribe fed his CNIC number into the PTA website (http:// www.pta.gov. pk/668/index.html), he discovered that two SIMs have been issued in his name.

PTA has trumpeted through media that it has taken a revolutionary step by introducing the SIM Information Service. However, it has become a nightmare for many subscribers, as most of them have known that a number of SIMs have been issued in their names without their knowledge. PTA claims that it has got information of all the issued SIMs from all the cellular companies till January 2009.

PTA launched the new service on October 15, 2009. It advises mobile phone subscribers to check the number of SIMs issued on their CNIC number, and get their data corrected by visiting the Customer Service Centre (CSC). The procedure further requires submitting a form stating the number of the SIM which he/she wants to keep along with an attached CNIC copy.

"I went to my cellular phone company's CSC and found a huge crowd waiting in long lines to register their complaint. The company officials checked the original CNIC and asked for a photocopy for company record," said Mohammad Ishaq, a subscriber, fearing there is every chance the CNIC copies will be misused yet again for issuing fake SIMs.

But for a housewife like Shazia Qureshi, visiting crowded places and waiting for hours in long queues is an arduous job.

According to PTA sources, till October 25 some 175,000 complainants had visited various CSCs of the concerned mobile phone operators across the country for SIM data correction, whereas about 400,000 illegal or irregular SIMs had been corrected.

"Since the launch of the service on Oct 15, 2009 PTA has received more than 2.96 million requests of mobile phone subscribers seeking the correction of SIM data through SMS and about 0.86 million through web-link available at PTA website," read a PTA statement.

Many mobile subscribers fear that SIMs issued on their CNIC might have been used by terrorists and other illegal outfits for their nefarious designs.

But the main complaint of the subscribers is the inconvenience the registration procedure is causing to them. "Why should I visit the office to get my data corrected? It is not my doing," laments Mustafa Ahmed. The simple solution, he suggested, is to call PTA's a centre, and after due identification, the unrequited numbers in his/her name be blocked.

At least six mobile phone operators are working in Pakistan -- Mobilink, Warid, Zong, Telenor and Ufone -- and have spread network in most of Pakistan, whereas Special Communications Organisation (SCO) is working in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Northern Areas (Gilgit).

PTA is oblivious to subscribers' complaints. At first it did not take action against the cell companies and misuse of CNIC copies of subscribers to meet PTA's directive of providing identification for every number sold. According to a cellular phone company official, the customers were often buying pre-activated SIM chips from retailers or shops in their neighbourhood and did not properly fill up the Cellular Service Agreement Form (CSAF). In some cases, according to him, there was negligence of consumers while making photocopy of CNIC at different photocopy shops where a copy is retained by shopowners for ulterior motives."

It may also be mentioned that PTA launched a new system of SIM activation on February 1, 2009 in which SIM can be activated after verification of consumers' identity from NADRA. The pre-activated SIMs can no more be used instantly after the purchase. Now a non-activated SIM could be sold to the consumer after checking his original CNIC and filling of CSAF. The consumer has to call 789 from the same SIM and Call Center would ask few questions to verify the data provided by the consumer. After the online verification of the consumer's antecedents from NADRA, SIM is often activated in the name of verified customers. In case of incorrect answers consumer are asked to contact Customer Services Center of the concerned mobile operator or NADRA Swift Center.

Despite the fact the tele-density – the number of telephones per 100 people – in Pakistan is higher (60 percent) in South Asian region, the poor service of the telephone operators and callous attitude of the regulators have created difficulties for subscribers.

The last time I moved offices -- rather organisations -- it took all of three months, and a bit more. My boss -- one of Pakistan's best writers and journalists but now sadly not among us, Tahir Mirza, editor of Dawn -- insisted that I serve out the three-month notice period, despite the fact that I had been at the paper for almost 11 years. I had given him my resignation well before the three-month period was to begin and he kept it with him till the last day (of the three-month notice period, that is) in the hope -- so he said -- that I would change my mind. And that I didn't, despite many former colleagues initially convinced that I would change my mind, given that I had been with that paper for so many years and had presumably become accustomed to its distinctive working atmosphere.

In fact, even after I left, and came to this paper, initially my former boss thought that in a few weeks -- or maximum months -- I would be back. But that wasn't to be and it is now three years, five months and a little over two weeks that another move is imminent. In fact, by the time this appears, I will have moved on -- not sure whether it's a 'greener' pasture, but certainly it will be a different pasture.

However, back to the first move which took place after around 11 years of working in the same newspaper. I started off as a sub-editor, which is beginner's post really, and was shuffled in various sections. From doing nothing for a couple of months initially -- I think the editor hired me and then forgot about me and since I reported directly to him, I couldn't really do much -- I was eventually shuffled to various sections, from the city room, briefly to the international desk in the newsroom, a couple of weeks in the-then Dawn Sunday Magazine (of which the current magazine is but a weak shadow), to even the dreaded supplements section. A word about this section, which should be seen as punishment by any journalist, normally any professional journalist or in fact anybody even starting off in journalism should run like the plague from this section. Of course that cannot be helped at times because as a professional journalist one must follow his or her editor's directions without question. However, the reason one should run from the supplements section like the plague is because the work that is done in it can hardly be deemed proper journalism.

One is making pages to please corporate sponsors, companies whose adverts are in fact funding the publication of the supplement -- and in many instances the marketing staff physically are present to insert/remove/edit and so on whatever material they wish to include or exclude from a particular supplement. The material does not really exercise one's intellectual or mental faculties and is not particularly creative by any stretch of the imagination.

So the two weeks that I spent in the supplements section of Dawn way back in late 1993 were punishment enough and I went to the then editor -- the grand old man of journalism in Pakistan, Ahmed Ali Khan -- begging for a transfer. Thankfully he listened to me and put me with the person who did the letters section -- an amiable man by the name of Safdar Barlas, who is no more in this world (he died in 2005 and began working in journalism in 1954, a full 17 years before I was born!).

A move was made -- for a second time -- to academia, to pursue a doctorate at the University of Chicago, in the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations. However, since my heart was still in journalism and since I wanted to make a career out of it, and given that a PhD in America could take well above five years, the best option was do the master's coursework, which takes a year, and head back.

Luckily, Ahmed Ali Khan was always reluctant to agree to my departure and informed my father (while I was still at Chicago) that were I to return a place would be there for me. And that I did and re-joined Dawn -- this was in 1996 -- the very next day. I was made a reporter and asked to cover some very interesting and substantial beats. This went on for around two and a half years and then I was transferred to Lahore, where a two-and-a-half-year stint followed. While there, one also dabbled in teaching journalism to master's students at Kinnaird College (several columns could be written on that alone but for another time, if at all).

Then back to Karachi and suddenly there was a new editor -- and he elevated me from reporter to assistant-editor and transferred me to editorial writing. The next six years were spent in the same room that Safdar Barlas used to sit in.

And by the time May 15, 2006 came, I began my switch to The News, to edit its editorial pages and letters sections. All I had in that room was a small framed print. Nothing more, nothing less. That is all that I had added to that room in six years -- and yes, a few books, which there was hardly any time to read though. And when someone asked me why wasn't it decorated anymore than that, or why there wasn't even a rug or a couch, the only answer that I could come up with was that I always thought my time in that room was transient and that sooner or later I would have to leave it.

Six years in that room and now three and a half in this room at The News -- from this room I take with me a small TCS box filled with books that I never had the time to read, and a picture bequeathed to me by former The News and Dawn colleague Kamal Siddiqi of the editorial pages team of the latter paper. Out of the seven people in that picture (including myself), five are no longer with Dawn, and one of them is no longer in this world.