Side- effect (Zafar visits)

Source: The News International

LINK:  http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=201067

Friday, October 02, 2009

Harris Khalique

"No one smiles in Karachi any more. No one trusts anyone. There is apathy, bleak apathy. People are ready to pick a fight all the time. They feel helpless and exploited. But at the same time the same people spare no chance to swindle and cheat. Corruption is rampant. Education is worthless. I feel worried, depressed and very sad."

This is Zafar Ahmed, an engineer by training and now involved in a computer networking business in Canada. His sample may not be completely representative, but it largely holds true for middle- and lower-middle-class Pakistanis. Zafar, a friend of 24 years, is visiting Pakistan for the first time after nine long years in North America. One of the very few of my classmates who never wanted to leave Pakistan but were virtually thrown out by circumstance.

A dead-honest, principled and competent engineer, Zafar had a hard time surviving the initial years of his professional career in the country he always remained committed to. After graduating in mechanical engineering from NED University of Engineering and Technology, he was inducted into the Sindh Irrigation Department. During his on-the-job training, those at the helm of affairs in the department understood without much effort how useless Zafar will be in the company of inefficient and inherently corrupt engineers and irrigation managers of the province. Therefore, he never got an assignment or a posting for two years. His only task was to visit the head office of the department in Hyderabad once in a month and sign his payslip for a stipend of a salary. By the time he was totally frustrated, no one in the private-sector would take him that easily because potential employers would bracket him with incompetent and greedy irrigation engineers.

 Around 1994, Benazir Bhutto appointed Fahim-uz-Zaman as the administrator of Karachi. He got Zafar deputed to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation and made him run one of the main maintenance workshops. The young engineer applied himself to the full and changed the character of that otherwise dysfunctional institution, much to the dismay of old employees. The stint was brief and he was sent back to his irrigation department in 1996. For another four-year-long period, he was without any assignment or significant responsibility. In the meanwhile, he tried to acquire further qualifications in computer systems and networking technology. Finally, Zafar left the country in 2000 to work in Canada and the US. His family circumstances were tough and he was almost broke when he left Pakistan, most unwillingly and feeling completely dejected.

Friends reminded Zafar of his situation when he was struggling to have a decent job or wanted a respectable treatment from his government employers. But he insisted that he finds things much worse now. "I am not that old to be nostalgic. I see a marked difference in people's attitudes and their values. Pakistan was never a paradise. But even people like me had hope, and while I thought of myself as unlucky, many of my friends and colleagues did get opportunities to work, contribute and build their careers. We all came from public education system. It is almost impossible now for a student coming out of a government school to get higher education and earn a decent living. Our society is far more class-based than before."

 Zafar is least impressed by the many overhead bridges we have built in the last decade. He says what happens underneath these bridges is more important for a country. I wish people like him could come back.

The writer is an Islamabad-based poet and rights campaigner. Email: harris@spopk.org