JUNE 1-7 2014
Concrete dreams There may be a way out for street children in Pakistan
JUNE 1-7 2014
Cover Story Concrete Dreams All may not be lost for street children in Pakistan COVER PHOTO CREDIT: KHAULA JAMIL
Feature
Down to earth The age-old craft of Kashi Kari is gradually losing patronage
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Feature
In full bloom
The floral business blossoms in Karachi
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30
4
Regulars
6 People & Parties: Out and about with beautiful people
50 Reviews: Movies and books
54 Health: Pregnancy-related anemia is on the rise
Magazine In-charge: Sarah Munir and Sub-Editors: Dilaira Mondegarian & Mifrah Haq Creative Team: Essa Malik, Jamal Khurshid, Samra Aamir, Kiran Shahid, Munira Abbas, Omer Asim, Sanober Ahmed & Talha Ahmed Khan Publisher: Bilal A Lakhani. Executive Editor: Muhammad Ziauddin. Editor: Kamal Siddiqi For feedback and submissions: magazine@tribune.com.pk Twitter: @ETribuneMag & Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ETribuneMag Printed: uniprint@unigraph.com
PEOPLE & PARTIES
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 premieres at Cinestar Cinema, Lahore
PHOTOS COURTESY BILAL MUKHTAR EVENTS & PR
Asad and Anushay
Adnan Abbasi and Romana
Ifrah and Ayesha
Rubea Mughees
Zainab
Awais and Paul Tabet
6 JUNE 1-7 2014
PEOPLE & PARTIES
PHOTOS COURTESY BILAL MUKHTAR EVENTS & PR
Pariza, Rabia and Alaina
Lubna , Inzar , Verdah and Shahzada Farhad
Tahir and Maria B
Yab Zahra and Ash
Zainab and Ijaz Butt
8 JUNE 1-7 2014
PEOPLE & PARTIES
ADDRESS launches its flagship store in Karachi
PHOTOS COURTESY LOTUS PR
Annie Bilwani, Shanzae Adamjee
Nadia Farooqi, Maryam Rashdi and Mehreen
Mehreen and Hadeel Obaid
Zainab A Bilwani and Saba Pervez Dada
Alizeh Imtiaz and ala Mallika Rangoonw
Shahrina Hashwani, Amirah Muneer and Farah Karim
10 JUNE 1-7 2014
PEOPLE & PARTIES
Rabia Shafi and Tania Ahmed
PHOTOS COURTESY LOTUS PR
Zarmeen Katchi and Tania Bashir
d Kyran Tariq Meher Fatima an
Zoya Allawala and Kiran Zuberi
Maha Ahmad and Shabina Rahman
12 JUNE 1-7 2014
PEOPLE & PARTIES
‘Wedding Affair’— a complete wedding expo takes place at The Palm, Karachi
PHOTOS COURTESY TAKE II
Kiran and Nazia
Arwa, Muneera and Marium
Lahrayab Shamsi
Nomi and Fauzia
Sidra Yousuf
Seemi Jalani, Areeba Habib and Falak Shaikh
14 JUNE 1-7 2014
Concrete dreams Alternative initiatives pave a new path for street children in Pakistan
BY SABA KARIM
DESIGN BY SAMRA AAMIR
Home is not a place, but a reality — a set of circumstances that one is born in. But for the nearly 1.5 million street children in Pakistan, the only home they know is cruel, crowded and concrete. Their condition is the natural consequence of decades of poor governance, poverty and state and institutional failure and the only way to reverse this trend in the long run is through macro level, preventive interventions. However, in the short to medium term, it is imperative to introduce bespoke initiatives aimed at creating an enabling environment, conducive to the ‘natural’ development of those children who have already taken to the streets and protect them from marginalisation and taboos that have become synonymous with street children. “Sustainable alternative measures such as entrepreneurial and vocational training, sports, PHOTO COURTESY: KHAULA JAMIL
Definition of street children According to the definition used by the United Nations, ‘a street child is any girl or boy for whom the street in the widest sense of the word (including unoccupied dwellings, wasteland, etc.) has become his or her habitual abode and/or source of livelihood, and who is inadequately protected, supervised, or directed by responsible adults’.
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music and art are being employed as tools across the globe to tackle this longstanding predicament,” says Ali Khan, department chair for social sciences and humanities at the Lahore University of Management Sciences and an expert on child labour in Pakistan. He quotes the example of El Sistema, Venezuela’s programmeme of social uplift through classical music and distancing children from the inevitable consequences of poverty such as crime, substance abuse, trafficking, child labor etc. “Whilst El Sistema has been underway since 1975, the concept of alternate approaches to such socio-economic issues is relatively recent in Pakistan. Today, however, it is encouraging to see ubiquitous initiatives being propelled in diverse parts of the country, including the rural hubs where these issues are rampant,” he adds. JUNE 1-7 2014
The Pakistan street child football team celebrates after a goal during their match against India at the World Cup held earlier this year. SOURCE: AFP
Scoring right There was hardly any Pakistani who wasn’t rooting for the Pakistan squad, led by the Azad Foundation, at the Street Children World Cup held in Brazil this year. The team comprising of street kids from various under-privileged neighbourhoods not only managed to bag a bronze medal but also put Pakistan on the football world map. However, more pivotal than winning or losing, was the initiative’s role in filling the mounting void in these children’s lives and rehabilitating them to a quasi-regular existence. “They have been exposed to many things, some of them were also into drugs, but now they are role models,” says coach Abdul Rashid. “This was their first step towards returning to normal life.” To add to these efforts, Aman Sports, also joined hands with the Real Madrid Foundation to open up a Social Sports School in the country. “Every child has the right to play and learn through sports. At Aman, we aspire to put sports into the DNA of the schooling system starting at the bottom of the learning pyramid,” says Ahsan Jamil, the CEO of Aman Foundation. “We are trying to execute a strategy that achieves this and consequently galvanises the sports industry.” He elaborates that in an education system where there is a dearth of quality teachers and a
sound curriculum, the idea of harnessing the learning process through sports holds immense potential. The programme will cater to 400 neglected children between the ages of six and 17, with the first academy being established in Ibrahim Hyderi, Karachi.
Teach, don’t preach Until recently, Kulsoom was one of the many children roaming the streets of Pir Wadhai in Rawalpindi but things took a turn following a visit by the community mobilisers from the World Vision Manzil Drop in Centre (DIC) — a non-profit organisation that supports local schools
Alternative measures such as entrepreneurial and vocational training, sports, music and art are being employed as tools across the globe to tackle the problem of street children Chair Social Sciences Department, LUMS Ali Khan
A training session on plumbing at The Hunar Foundation. SOURCE: THE HUNAR FOUNDATION
and communities and creates awareness about the importance of education for all. In addition, it also educates children about their rights and responsibilities along with other essential issues such as hygiene, health and environmental problems. The mobilisers helped convince Kulsoom’s father to let her attend the educational programme at the centre. Soon enough, due to her outstanding performance and commitment, Kulsoom also managed to secure a spot in a public school. Today, she spearheads advocacy and outreach programmes to enable other street children and collectively become a catalyst for change. “I grew up in these slums and know what issues are faced by these children and their families in sending them to schools — that’s why I feel I have a moral responsibility to help these children in getting them to school and an education,” she says. So far, Kulsoom has supported the enrollment of seven street girls at the Drop in Centre while The World Vision Manzil DIC itself has enrolled 72 children in formal schools and enrolled another 1,042 at various levels. It also intends to launch a similar centre in eastern Punjab to reach out to 3,600 children and 900 families in the near future. Along with academic education, initiatives like The Hunar Foundation (THF) in Karachi also impart vocational skills to young people in order to enable them to source
The Pakistan team led by the Azad Foundation landed a bronze medal at the Street Child World Cup held in Brazil this year. SOURCE: AFP
COVER STORY economically productive livelihoods and break the ensuing cycle of poverty. Boys and girls after completing their degree at THF have a better chance of earning a respectable living rather than labouring on the streets. “From inception, the backbone of Hunar’s philosophy has been to provide alternate livelihood opportunities for the less privileged youth through vocational training of international standards. Our vision is [to create] a skilled Pakistan,” says Adnan Asdar who heads the project. THF teaches young men and women a diverse range of skills including electrical installation, fabrication and welding technology, plumbing, general fitter & plant maintenance, CNC machine operation, motorcycle mechanics, electrical home appliances repair and electrical and electronics technology. Muhammad Bilal Hafeez, who secured a job at Samsung, Saudi Arabia after graduating from THF with a diploma in mechanical fitting and plant maintenance is a testimony to the success of the programme. Similarly, Syed Muhammad Ebad Kaleem also graduated with a diploma in electrical installation and is currently employed as a visual inspector at a leading soft drink company. “I have explored numerous technical training institutes but am yet to come across a facility that works sincerely towards the development of students’ skills,” says Kaleem. “When we see these young people successfully graduating with the UK City & Guilds training diploma and attaining employment across various industries, it is immensely encouraging,” adds Asdar. However, he feels that more of such endeavours are needed, especially through synergised support of the public, private and donor sectors to build scale and address the socio-economic issues countrywide.
Young men are taught skills such as welding at The Hunar Foundation which enables them to earn an independent living. SOURCE: THE HUNAR FOUNDATION
Some roads lead home Another key issue linked to street children is the increasing problem of ‘missing children’ i.e. those children who are no longer in touch with their parents. In many cases these children may have taken to the streets, and are likely to have become victims of exploitation, sexual assault, sodomy, trafficking, crime and bonded labor. In some cases, girls have been found raped and murdered with their bodies recovered much later. The majority of these cases go underreported as the law enforcement agencies often dismiss them as a ‘noncognisable’ offence, even when parents lodge complaints. Over the last decade, Roshni Helpline has been working towards bringing this issue to the forefront through a combination of awareness campaigns amongst public and private sector and donor communities. It has collaborated with youth bodies including the khwaja saras (eunuchs) for help 34 with the reporting and tracking of these children. “I started JUNE 1-7 2014
Counseling sessions are offered to children before and after reunification with their families by the Roshni Helpline. SOURCE: ROSHNI HELPLINE
According to data collected by the Roshni Helpline, there are 3,000 children who mysteriously disappear every year, just in Karachi
this initiative in 2005 as there were no existing avenues to redress the missing children issue,” says Muhammad Ali, the founder and president of roshni Helpline. According to data collected from police stations, general public, mosques, referral partners’ volunteers and newspapers by roshni, there are 3,000 children who mysteriously disappear every year, just in Karachi. “on an average we receive 110 calls each month on our 4-digit helpline ‘1138’ to counsel and support families of these children,” says Ali. He elaborates that the organisation’s main objective is to collaborate with relevant groups that can help them create awareness of the issue and hence mitigate the problem of underreporting. the organisation has also produced a guideline for the police to follow in case of reporting of missing children. the challenge, however, is for law-enforcement agencies to implement the outlined procedures effectively and consistently.
Collective problem, inclusive solution Whilst painstaking efforts to tackle the issue of street children are underway in Pakistan and must be lauded, one hopes that such initiatives are sustained over time. the Vocational training is provided by the aman Foundation to young men and women in order to help them escape the poverty cycle. SourCe: AMAN FouNDAtIoN
scale of the issue in the country is quite pervasive; hence interventions have to be multi-pronged and should be executed through a synergising of strengths across the public and private sectors rather than in silos. Most of these children are light years ahead of their more privileged peers due to the daily adversity, coerced exposure and necessary troubleshooting they have endured, making them far more resilient. Whilst their actions cannot be entirely justified (in some cases), it is critical to realise that it is the state’s inertia that has landed them in this position and hence, our empathy must reign beyond our indignation. It should also motivate us to act collectively and responsibly to help alleviate their circumstances and enable them to regain their self-respect, both preventively and through integration — it is the only way to ensure that Pakistani roads do not become a ‘one-way street’.
Saba Karim is an anthropologist from the University of Oxford. She tweets @SabaKarim
Down to earth The once ямВourishing Kashi Kari craft now faces a gloomy prospect TEXT AND PHOTOS BY DANIAL SHAH DESIGN BY SANOBER AHMED
Kaka Ghulam Soomro claims he has spent almost every single day of the past 40 years of his working life at the Kashi centre in Hala, Sindh. “There are no off days for us. I can’t live a day without working.” He sits in his familiar spot on the floor hunched over a ceramic pot, a pair of glasses perched on his nose as he paints masterful strokes with the brush and dye. Soomro is an expert in the ancient art of Kashi Kari — the traditional glazed form of mosaic art that has decorated tiles, fabric and pots in this part of the world for centuries. Soomro practices an art that was historically so robust it thrived for centuries across Persia and the subcontinent, perhaps starting 5,000 years ago in its elementary form in Mohenjo Daro, where painted earthen toys and vessels have been recovered from the ruins. In its present glazed form, Kashi Kari emerged somewhere around the beginning of the 13th century, primarily Persian in style, and made inroads into the subcontinent from Persia, Iraq, Egypt and Syria. The Mughals took the art form to new heights by using intricate Kashi designs to beautify their mosques, tombs and palaces, making it synonymous with Muslim art. There is plenty of confusion around the origin of the word ‘Kashi’. It could have possibly been derived from the Persian word ‘Kashi’, meaning ‘tile’, or its name may have been derived from the town Kashan in central Iran, which is notable for its decorative tile work. And since Persian art was influenced by Chinese art centuries back, ‘Kashi’ may have borrowed its name from Kashghar in China. It could also be a blend of all these influences that has evolved into what we know today as Kashi. Like all things passed down with time, Kashi Kari is now at the risk of losing its patrons. Today, you will find splendid specimens of this art in the arid landscapes of Sindh and South Punjab, such as the shrine of Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai in Bhitshah, the shrine of Sachal Sarmast in Khairpur, the Shahjahan Mosque in Thatta, the mosque of Wazir Khan in Lahore, the tomb of Shah Rukn-e-Alam and the shrine of Shaikh Bahauddin Zakariya in Multan. But gone are the days when people mostly used handmade stuff and bulk industrial manufacturing was not as common. “Everyone now wants computerised designs,” says Soomro. “No one gives priority to the craftsmanship. The materials we now get from the market, including the clay, is of low quality and adulterated. It’s hard to find pure clay these days.” Soomro works at one of the eight surviving Kashi centres in Hala, the hub of glazed pottery and ceramics in Sindh that is situated at the west bank of River Indus, 35 miles north of Hyderabad. The owner of the centre, Allah Buksh Soomro, is
A labourer removes impurities from the clay.
A potter shapes clay on the wheel.
Kaka Ghulam Soomro painting a clay vase.
FEATURE
An artisan at work.
Clay items being dried under the sun.
38 An artisan displays a finished glazed plate. JUNE 1-7 2014
carrying on his family tradition despite its limited prospects now. “This workshop has been passed on to me by my father and to him by his father,” he says. Allah Baksh has 12 labourers working under him, and he pays each according to his artistic skill, experience and the type of technicality involved in the work. The making of a Kashi specimen goes through a series of 20 processes. Initially, clay is formed from fine-grained soil and water, and a labourer works on removing impurities. A skilled potter then throws a lump of moist clay at the wheel, which he rotates using his foot and moulds the clay with his hands into the desired shape. The moulded clay is then baked in a gas furnace at a temperature of 900°C for 12 to 14 hours. It is then dried under the sun for two days until it hardens. Once the pot is prepared, the artisans start painting and finally glazing it under high temperature. The colours used mainly are cobalt blue, turquoise, mustard, purple, brown and white, while cobalt oxide and copper oxide are used extensively to get the colours blue and green, respectively. The patterns are mostly representations of complex geometrical figures, triangles, pentagons, hexagons, leaves, flowers and calligraphic inscriptions in Arabic, Sindhi, Persian and Urdu. It irks Allah Buksh when buyers haggle to bring down the prices of their goods after such a lengthy and complex process. “They don’t appreciate craftsmanship and the hardship behind producing such a piece of art and bargain on nominal prices, which is offensive to the craftsmen,” he says. Along with prices, the demand for earthen containers has also gone down. “Clay pots were used to store drinking water and to keep it cool, but now people want plastic bottles and refrigerators,” he complains. Hence, his main income primarily comes from bigger orders, such as tiles and minarets of a mosque or a building. Gas load-shedding is another major issue for potters. “We can’t operate if we don’t have gas. At times there is very low pressure, which is not enough to achieve the appropriate temperature for the materials to bake,” says Allah Baksh. “We then have to rely on burning wood, which is very expensive and of extremely low quality.” Several initiatives for the revival of Kashi Kari have been launched to counter the declining trends. The Pakistan Institute of Fashion and Design has set up a College of Design in Hala to introduce ceramics into mainstream education, which offers a four-year bachelor’s degree in Ceramics Design and Glassware. “The tuition fee is subsidised but it still is impossible for us to send our children to the institute,” says a local craftsman. Aik Hunar Aik Nagar (AHAN), another not-for-profit project by the Ministry of Industries and Production, Govern-
The finest examples of Kashi work at the shrine of Sachal Sarmast in Khairpur. ment of Pakistan, is working to generate non-traditional employment opportunities in rural areas. “We technologically upgrade kashigar workshops by providing them smallscale machinery to increase their production and quality,” says Shakeel Abro, regional coordinator of AHAN in Sindh. “Our dedicated designers worked with artisans to introduce new ranges for the contemporary market, and we promote artisans and their work in exhibitions in Pakistan and abroad,” he adds. The Sindh Indigenous and Traditional Crafts Company, a non-profit organisation established with public-private partnership, awards two scholarships to young Kashi craftsmen from Sindh to study ceramics. The executive secretary of the company and co-author of Tale of the Tile: The Ceramic Traditions of Pakistan, Abdul Hamid Akhund hopes this will enable young artisans to innovate and excel at the current practice of the art, which he feels is woefully mediocre compared to
the splendid examples of the past. “The generation of master-skilled craftsmen is lost now. The current generation of kashigars has not adopted excellence of this craft and is now only involved in generating business instead of art,” he says. “They prefer to use cheap materials instead of quality materials. For instance, Babul wood is expensive and is good for quality baking, but they use Devi wood instead, which is cheap and of inferior quality.” It takes a lifetime of passion and experience to make up a maestro like Kaka Ghulam Soomro. But in a time where even the children of Kashi artisans prefer white-collar jobs or acquire other profitable skills instead of learning this art, ceramic centres in the country will continue to shrink unless concrete efforts are made for its revival.
Danial Shah is a travel writer and a photographer. He tweets @DanialShah JUNE 1-7 2014
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FEATURE
In full bloom The oral business blossoms despite certain unfavourable conditions TEXT AND PHOTOS BY ARIF SOOMRO
At Teen Hatti, Karachi, men handle flowers with rough hands. Trucks piled high with tokris carrying a variety of flora from Lahore, Hyderabad and Memon Goth in Gadap Town are unloaded every morning. They are then tossed into plastic bags by the fistful or tied neatly into bunches and placed along the pavement, from where they are whisked away by retailers coming from the city.
“These days roses sell for Rs40 to Rs50 per dozen, marigolds for Rs100, tuberoses for Rs300 to Rs350 and Swiss Sultan for Rs80 to Rs100 a bunch,” says Muslim Baloch, a retailer at the market. The seeds for red roses, however, are available for Rs14.5 per seed. Seeds for English roses, available in five different colours, are sold in packets worth Rs1,600-1,700, whereas the seeds for marigold, brought from Punjab, cost Rs12,500 for a 50-gramme packet. Once the seeds are sown, they require consistent watering and care for two months until they start to bloom. Farmers usually prefer the ‘desi gulab’ over the English rose, which requires clean water, which adds to their cost. It takes a seed nearly 10 months to blossom into a fullgrown healthy plant and can have a life of about 12 to 18 years. Production is at its peak from February to April, when the weather is relatively moderate, with each acre producing nearly 50-60 kilogrammes of roses. The yield remains considerably lower during summer and winter. While vendors profit from a boost in sales on various special occasions during the year such as Valentine’s Day, Eid and Eid Miladun Nabi, farmers reap no such benefits. Therefore, some farmers like Abdul Hakim Baloch have started selling
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Hakeem Baloch’s rose fields at Memon Goth.
FEATURE
Roses were previously grown throughout Malir, right up to Thatta, but due to increasing urbanisation and cropping industries, their cultivation is now limited to selective areas in Memon Goth
(Above) A rickshaw transporting roses from Teen Hatti. (Below) A shopkeeper carrying rose petals into his shop at Teen Hatti. directly to event management companies in order to stay in business. For some roses, the journey that begins at Teen Hatti culminates in unusual places. Those that do not find buyers in the first few days often end up with florists near graveyards, while shopkeepers claim that some wilted leftovers are also purchased by perfume makers. Perfume makers in Botal Gali, however, refute the claim stating that strong scents can only be extracted by drying fresh flowers. T Arif Soomro is a page-maker and a freelance photographer at The Express Tribune.
(Above) A Jasmine sambac (motia) garland being made at a flower shop in Gizri. (Below) A flower shop at Gizri selling bouquets and garlands directly to customers.
A florist sorting out supplies at a shop in Teen Hatti.
FILM
Two’s company, three’s a treat
Amini’s directorial debut delivers on every count BY SCHAYAN RIAZ
The Iranian-British screenwriter, Hossein Amini, has enjoyed a great deal of success with the modern cult classic Drive, amongst his other projects. Now, Amini adds another feather to his cap with his directorial debut The Two Faces of January. Like almost all his previous projects, Amini has fantastic source material at his disposal. The screenplay is adapted from a lesser-known work by American novelist, Patricia Highsmith, whose books have in the past been adapted into movies by Alfred Hitchcock (Strangers on a Train) and Wim Wenders (The American Friend). The Two Faces of January shares many themes with her most popular novel, The Talented Mr. Ripley, which was also adapted into a 1999 Academy Award-nominated crime drama by Anthony Minghella. Speaking of similarities between The Two Faces of January and the book, there are a couple of Ripley-esque characters in Amini’s film. One of them is Chester MacFarland (Viggo Mortensen), a conman ‘vacationing’ with his wife Colette (Kirsten Dunst) in Crete, Greece. The other is Rydal (Oscar Isaac — as good here as he was in Inside Llewyn Davis), a handsome and mysterious tour guide, who meets the MacFarlands in Greece and offers to help them remain undercover. But very soon, the three Americans start outwitting each
other. Amini creates a heady cocktail of lust, suspicion and betrayal, peppered with scenes of dancing, heavy smoking and drinking. It is in some ways reminiscent of the American television period drama Mad Men and the ‘60s feel with Chester’s impeccable cream linen suits (costume design by Steven Noble). The film creates an interesting dynamic between the three characters, pitting playful Colette between these very polarising men. But then it turns out that the two men do have much in common. It makes for an interesting father-son analogy and The Two Faces of January stresses on this quasirelationship perhaps too much, making the climax a bit hard to digest. One does not see that end coming, since the film’s tempo seemed to have been built up for a darker, more cynical outcome. What makes the film watchable besides the gorgeous cinematography (Marcel Zyskind has a ball with the locales
in Greece and Turkey) is the acting. All three, Mortensen, Dunst and Isaac, give masterful performances. Mortensen is fantastic as the suave-at-first-sight-but-eventuallybroken-man and Isaac matches him frame for frame. The film’s most tense moment and intriguing scene involves the two at an airport security check and the way they play against each other. It’s a pity that Kirsten Dunst is a tad side-lined in hindsight, but for what it’s worth, she makes her presence felt. The Two Faces of January feels very much like a nail-biting page-turner on screen, which is a compliment to Amini’s adaptation skills. He has made a very fine first film, with top-notch actors and it deserves all the appreciation for being a respectable entry in the Highsmith film canon.
Rating: Schayan Riaz is a writer based in Germany. He tweets mostly about film @schayanriaz
BOOK
Is right wrong? An attempt at understanding religion-driven politics in Pakistan BY FAIZA REHMAN
The current debate in international relations fails to distinguish Islamic parties in Pakistan from Islamist parties, making for an oversight which shrouds the multifarious nature of these groups, argues Haroon K Ullah in his latest book, Vying for Allah’s Vote. The primary thesis of the 251-page edition is that right-wing parties in Pakistan may be calibrated across a Sharia-secularism spectrum, with each party loosely resting at varying points, and fluctuating along this scale as per the political environment. Islamic parties, he argues, are no monolith; many of them subscribe to select ‘liberal’ agendas, such as an emphasis on party politics and girls’ education, while others advocate an uncompromisingly miltant form of religion. Though all religious parties agree upon the normative goodness of Islam, some are seen clinging to this value judgement more firmly than others, with subsets of that category insisting on the complete institutionalisation of Islamic values at the state level. Then there are also those who do not clamour for a Sharia-based leadership and prefer the status quo. Issue-based confrontation between these religious entities, however, is what the author is more interested in. To add weight to this central argument, the author uses examples like Jamaat-e-Islami’s (JI) alleged fallout with the Zia regime, with JI leaders insisting that elections be held during a dictatorial tenure, and the current friction between the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. Though the merits of the author’s thesis are contestable, Haroon K Ullah’s work makes for a straightforward and accessible account of the history of religion-driven politics in Pakistan. He is able to observe, quite like several other political commentators, that Pakistan has depicted an unabashed preference for the 52 religious right by voting the PML-N into power JUNE 1-7 2014
thrice. However, he argues that voting the rightwing into power is not tantamount to popular support for religious violence as the right-wing also comprises some democratic, violenceaverse elements who often place “practical political considerations” before their faith, should the need arise. Nonethless, bills and ordinances written into law during the tenures of political parties recognised as ‘Muslim democrat’ by the author, and the general conduct of such parties which abets or favours extremist mindsets, may qualify as a glaring insufficiency in his argument. In the case of the extremely religious-sensitive Pakistani society, lethargy over denouncing a Taliban attack openly can have deep and long-term consequences. Moreover, in case of Islamic parties skirting the ‘secular’ end of the author’s proverbial spectrum, unwillingness to adopt a fierce, combative stance towards violence-loving extremist groups may not be open cooperation, but may be silent acquiescence, which again does little to distinguish the agendas of Islamic and Islamist entities. Moreover, the question of PML-N’s relationship with the Saudi leadership has not been addressed satisfactorily. Indeed, there may be much nuance between this democratic party and global terrorist organisations. But the fact that the Nawaz leadership solicits undeclared monetary resources from a leadership which keeps a soft hand on such organisations should have been questioned by the author with more force. The bottom line, however, may be that while there are differences between ‘Islamic’ parties which can be mended through patient cooperation, the existing points of unity between them still threaten security. T Faiza Rahman is a subeditor for the Editorial pages at The Express Tribune.
The book is available at Liberty Books for Rs1095.
Author Haroon K Ullah.
HEALTH
RED LIGHT
BY SAADIA KHAN DESIGN BY OMER ASIM
Pregnancy-related anemia is on the rise but can be prevented
Anemia is the latest addition to the long list of maternal health issues in Pakistan. The national nutritional surveys reveal that the number of women with anemia in the county has increased from 28% in 2001 to 51% in 2011. The condition arises when there is a decrease in the number of red blood cells or the hemoglobin (the oxygen-carrying protein in the red blood cells) in the blood. As a result, the supply of oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body is diminished. With the prevalence of anemia so high among women, expectant mothers are even more at risk of developing this condition because they need more oxygen, and consequently more iron, in their blood to support a growing foetus. Other kinds of anemia during pregnancy arise from vitamin B12 and folate (vitamin B9) deficiency that can lead to certain types of birth defects, such as neural tube abnormalities (spina bifida), preterm labour and low birth weight. Both vitamins are vital for producing healthy cells, including the red blood cells that carry oxygen to the baby inside the womb.
Symptoms:
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1.Pallor: When the skin is visibly pale, along with palms, lips, mouth and other mucous membranes. 2.Pica: A condition where the patient has an appetite for non-nutritive substances, such as paper, sand, pencils, mud, chalk and paint. 3.Fatigue 4. Dizziness 5.Breathing difficulty and heart palpitation 6. Irritability and trouble concentrating
Causes: 1. Poor dietary intake 2. Heavy menstrual flow 3. Teenage pregnancy, since the condition multiplies the already high iron requirement of an adolescent body 4. Repeated pregnancies in a short time span 5. Excessive blood loss during childbirth 6. The overuse of common pain-killing and feverreducing drugs called non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) 7. Peptic ulcers, stomach or bowel cancer, or chronic kidney diseases, which may cause bleeding inside the body
Effects: If iron-deficiency anemia is left untreated, it makes the body susceptible to infections, and a severe deficiency may increase the risk of developing heart failure. It may also hamper a teenage woman’s growth and development, while an anemic pregnancy may lead to a higher risk of developing complications before and after birth.
Prevention:
1. Pregnant women should keep up with their antenatal checkups. Seek medical assistance if you show signs of anemia and take iron and folic acid supplements as prescribed. 2. Eat iron-rich foods such as red meat, egg yolks, dark leafy vegetables, particularly spinach, dried fruit such as dates, raisins and nuts, iron-fortified cereals and grains, fruits, particularly apples, chicken giblets, and pulses such as beans, lentils, chickpeas and soybeans. 3. Calcium found in dairy products, antacids and supplements hinders iron absorption by the body. Avoid taking sources of calcium and iron together. 4. Vitamin C helps the body absorb iron. Hence, intake of citric fruits and vitamin C supplements may be increased. Saadia Khan is a pediatric resident from Multan. She tweets @drkhanchc
JUNE 1-7 2014