The Bar Room - Sindh High Court Bar Association, Karachi

It was a great honour to have been invited into the Bar Room of the Sindh High Court Karachi earlier today.  Upon entering the Bar Room there is a huge plack listing past and present presidents and secretaries of the Sindh High Court Bar Association.  There were many familiar names amongst whom were Barrister Hassan Ally A Rahman and his younger brother Barrister Tufail A Rahman who also served as Chief Justice for Sindh and Balochistan, and also presided upon the the Hamidurrahman commission post East Pakistans succession from West Pakistan.

It was an awe inspiring moment to walk the halls of the Sindh High Court,  step in to the Bar Room where normally only advocates of the court are allowed to enter. This room has been witness to history as it unfolded way before the formation of Pakistan. Then to read the names of my maternal grandfathers on the plack further brought the whole experiece home. 

 

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Breakdown Of Civil Authority in Karachi

Khayaban-e-Shamsheer & Khayaban-e-Hafiz intersection - Photo AR Rafiq

As of 2012 the Khayaban-e-Shamsheer road, one of the main thoroughfares in Karachi's  Defence Housing Authority (DHA) has been designated a one way. Yet no one follows the rule, even the traffic cops aren't enforcing it. The only time there is some of semblance order is when DHA's private police are onsite.

You can try and drive on the right hand side, but at your own risk. You can blame lack of education as the cause of the mess, however when the educated elit who reside in DHA won't follow the law, or obey posted traffic signs then what more can one say or do to enforce the new rule to the broader, and largely illiterate public?

What about the traffic cops? Shouldn't they enforce the law? Why does DHA have to send their organizations police. In fact what need does DHA have in maintaining a private police force when you already have city police for maintaing law and order?

Clearly there's a communication breakdown between the various city and private authorities resulting in rampant lawlessness.

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Karachi Coastline: Endangered Mangroves

Back in 2007 I had done a series of posts, many in partnership with Civil Society members on Karachi's threatened coastline. Since then the situation has worsened. Unchecked construction in the name of development is threatening the coastline. An increase in untreated sewage running into the Arabia Sea is having adverse affects on the marine plant and animal life, not to mention local indigenous fisher folk's livelihood;

Following is a brief video produced by Nameera Ahmad, in association with NuktaArt on the Mangroves of Karachi and an IUCN re-plantation project ...



Other related posts:
Karachi Coastline Under Threat
A Dying Breed: The Baloch Fisher Folk
Save the beaches: Karachi's coastline under threat
Sahil Bachao...Save Karachi Beaches (Petition)

Sohrab Faqeer Passes on Friday, October 23, 2009

Sohrab Faqeer, the great Sufi singer of Sindh, Pakistan at 73 left hundreds and thousands of listeners morning on Friday, October, 23rd, 2009. We at Sindhiyat extend our heartfelt condolence to his family and friends.

His full name was Sohrab Fakir Khaskhely. He was born in 1934 in Khairpur. His father was the ;ate Hamal Fakir, was the disciple of Kush Khair Muhammad Fakir.

Sohrab Fakir is recognized as the greatest living Sindhi folk singer in his style of music, playing the yaktaro (single stringed instrument) and chappar (wooden clappers)

In a condolence statement, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah paid tribute to the deceased with respect for his traditional Sufi songs and said

It is difficult to fill the gap created by his death...Sohrab Faqeer would be remembered for his unique command over the Sufi genre of singing.

Marvi Memon, Member of Pakistan's National Assembly in her condolence tweet said:

Sohrab faqeer of sindh was one such treasure who was not taken care of n whom we lost. We mourn his death

From Peshawar, the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan Shihab Taqi Halepota in response to Marvi's tweet states:

Sindh, #Pakistan lost an other Sohrab Faqeer, a saint, sage and sufi singer. We value them once they depart. We are never in or on time.

Continue reading full article at THE NEWS.

Listen to Saiin Sohrab Faqeer on YouTube.

Cross posting from Sindhiyat

Zaradari elected President of Pakistan - What's your reaction?

PPP stalwart and cabinet member Sherry Rehman congratulated Mr. Zardari on his election win calling it a "victory for democracy."

"This man suffered jail for more than 11 years for the sake of democracy and today he is elected as the president of the country and it is a sign of the strengthening of democracy," stated Sherry Rehman.

What do you think? [Comment here]

One view point, and a fairly interesting one might I add is from a friend many of you may know as iFaqeer (or Sabahat Ashraf) is (http://blog.ifaqeer.com/2008/09/on-president-zardari.html) that Zardari rightfully earned the Presidency. You may be thinking 'what, he earned it!'. That was my initial reaction before my chat last night with Sabahat.

His view is: he earned it based on the fact that he played the political game, no matter how dirty and crooked his tactics he has proven to be "politically savvy". He got the 2/3 majority vote from the Federal and provincial Assemblies.

Though I am not entirely convinced, I do see where iFaqeer is coming from - he does have a point, but I can't discount Zaradari's infamous history, let alone he still has to release pre PCO judges. What do you Think?

Sabahat/iFaqeer's post titled "On Zardari" can be read here.

A dying breed - Baluch FisherFolk

The fisher folk living along the Karachi and Makran coatline are a dying breed. The are the the ingenious people of the region, their roots stem back to well before the 1947 partition of India and and Pakistan, further to the days of the sea faring meds that claimed to hijack an Arab ship in the 700 C.E. era. As a result the Abbasaid Khilafat at Baghdad, under the leadership Hajjaj Bin Yusuf and his son-in-law and nephew the 15 year old Mohammad Bin Qasim on the Sindh expedition.

These Baluch fishermen live of the Arabian Sea in their sturdy handmade wooden boats, which is an art in itself - that the design and construction of their boats is based on ancient oral transmittals a another dying breed of artisans.

Copyright C. Abdulrahman Rafiq

A city by the sea...a glorious city indeed....

A City by the sea...http://www.dawn.com/weekly/review/review2.htm

Clifton Beach - A wrecked Oil tanker Karachi Nuclear Power Plant from French Beach (or Bulehjo)

Though I have known Karachi for three decade as well - I should say two decades since, I do have early memories from age 5 or so - it was even then (early 80's) a gentler city, less population, traffic, pollution. Defence was considered far from the city - where from Phase 5 down Khayaban-e-Shamsheer to Seaview it was more or less virgin land. Shamsheer was a single carriage road. New town (Guru Mandir) area was still a smart area - and now look at it, it is in bad shape - dilapidated pre-partition buildings situated immediately behind the Quid's mazar - is this how we honour the father of the Nation? Have we no respect for the man we owe our existence to - the man who against all odds fought for this land?

Then you could go out, sit at street side restaurants and enjoy a meal, a cup of tea or a coke. Now, though you can still go to street side eateries, you want feel like sitting for long - for one the pollution will get to you, the people after a while will get to you - not the people per say but the immense "jahalat" will get to you. The city seems to have lost its sense of self.

But then my early memories of Karachi were through the eyes of an innocent eyes of a boy - a boy who had high hopes for the city, for the country under the Zia dictatorship. An idealistic boy who new only Zia's Karachi, Zia's Pakistan - knew no better - other than what was told to him by his parents and parents friends. But that is mom and dad talking - how else would a boy think when unconsciously he is fed Zia's propaganda through radio and television?

The idealistic boy is still idealistic, however concealed from the world out of fear of being recognized and mocked at. The world is a harsh place, idealism has no place. A very shallow world indeed. Where ones weight is determined in gold - where ones word is attached to ones bank account, ones action is attached to ones worldly success - not to intellect or intellectual knowledge, or wisdom from the ages. Todays world, todays Karachi and Pakistan is about how GREEN is your pocket, how GREEN is your document - GREENER than the green passport, green as being pinkish-white as your GREEN-card or the GREEN-blue combo. It is a Karachi where you are not judged by character but by where in the world you reside and how much you make. Where questions like "you must be a multi-millionaire by now, since you work in the Silicon Valley" are common place.

That Karachi that idealistic 5 year old boy new - the Karachi which actually had a blue sky, the karachi where one could hear the the trees billowing in the gentle sea breeze unlike now where you can hear the bustling traffic of Gizri or Shamsheer from your lawn, the Karachi where if you stood from your porch some 15 miles miles away from the sea, you could see the Arabian Sea - and if lucky actually sea ships in the distance - or better perhaps whales on a clear cloudless day.

It was a sweet Karachi - a quite little town - yes a town, though big enough to be called a City, it felt like a town. With a small airport, and an observation deck where you could observe the activities on the tarmac - where security wasn't such a big issue, though 'tis was a military dictatorship - things seemed calmer and sweeter.

Karachi O' Karachi - Karachi the magnificent, Karachi the glorious what has happened to you. What happened to the charm of the 80's, though some may argue the charm was in the 60's - but who is to say what was charming - when was Karachi charming? There is no definitive answer to that question - it is a relative one that is time dependent - a function of age f(age) it is.

Copyright C. Abdulrahman Rafiq

In Memory of a Great Pakistani Patriot: Hasanally Abdur Rahman

There have been countless named and unnamed distinguished individuals whose whole life was spent in service to our great nation. One such individual who is well respected to this day in many circles of Pakistani society is the late Professor Hassanally Abdur Rahman, Barister-at-Law, Founder, architect and the First Principal of the Sindh Muslim Government Law College in Karachi.

Professor Hassanaly A Rahman was born in the Karachi, Sindh in the year 1909 C.E. to a respected professional, legal family of Sindh. He received is early education at the Sind Madressah and Saint Patrick School in Karachi. where after he joined the Aligarh Muslim University. He was called to the Bar at Middle Temple, England in 1934 C.E.

At Middle Temple he in a short span of time distinguished himself as a knowledgeable and persuasive advocate and also leader of the Bar. He was one the few Muslim advocates of Karachi, before the 1947 C.E. partition of the Pak-Indo Sub-Continent, to be elected to the office of President of the Karachi Bar Association.

Mr. Hassanally stood for the rule of law, wherein lies the salvation of the nation. He was one of Pakistan’s greatest patriots, and a staunch supporter and follower of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, or Mr. Jinnah, as he would respectfully and affectionately refer to the founding father.

Professor Rahman’s love for Pakistan knew no bounds. As principal of the Sind Muslim Law College, he would make it mandatory that every student at the time of admission sign the “pledge of a law student:”

“I shall serve Pakistan to the best of my ability, and
I shall abstain from creating dissension and hatred.”

The late Professor Rahman was also known as a social and community leader. He served as Vice Chancellor (1964 C.E. - 19XX C.E.) at the Sindh University, Jamshoro. He was the treasurer of the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs, Secretary General of All Pakistan Educational Society and President, Sind Madressah and S.M. Law College Board. In 1952 C.E., he led the Pakistani delegation to UNESCO and in 1953 C.E. represented the country at the Commonwealth University Conference.

The untimely death of his illustrious younger brother, Mr. Justice Tufail Ali Abdul Rahman, on the 16th of January 1975 inflicted a heavy blow on his health, happiness and law practice; On April 19th, 1982 he made his last appearance at a function hosted in his honour and in recognition of his contribution to the cause of the legal profession and education at the Sindh Muslim Law College.

It was in the year 1986 that this illustrious figure of Pakistan took to his deathbed. The members of his legal fraternity held Mr. Hassanally Abdul Rahman in great reverence; He was well respected by the Pakistan Supreme Court bench and Bar Association. What added to his stature were his polite and gentlemanly manners in court. Though he was an eminent educationists and reputable successful law-advocate, he never developed a false pride to ignore people he had known even slightly and was always the first to raise his hand to say “As Salaam Alaykum.”


*Primary source: Newsletter, Sind Muslim Law College and tit-bits of family anecdotes.
** Visit Hassanally Abdur Rahman's bio on wikipedia




Copyright C. Abdulrahman Rafiq