Life with WAPDA (1984-2020) – Part 2 of 4

 

In middle of 1998 I was promoted as Senior Engineer after 14 years and posted in Lahore. I always longed to live in Lahore since childhood, therefore, receiving posting orders was like fulfillment of one of my goals. I joined multimillion dollar National Drainage Program (NDP) Project office under a team of very competent senior officers/ engineers headed by Mr. Ahmad Khan Bhatti, and later by Mr. Hasnain Afzal, Mr. Shamshad M Khan, Mr. Nisar Ali Akhtar and others. Mr. Akhtar was Advisor/Procurement Specialist from Consultants for NDP. I owe my further learning and gaining valuable experience to him. He was a real mentor in the first place and Mr. Afzal in the later part of my stint with NDP. At the conclusion of NDP Program I requested Mr. Afzal to help me in getting transferred to Hyderabad again despite his relentless insistence to join him in Neelum Jhelam Hydropower Project. Two interesting events I would like to share here:

·    WAPDA nominated me to attend a Land Drainage (Tile drainage) at ILRI, in Wageningen, the Netherlands in early 2000 for which I sent all relevant documents. In response I received a confirmation letter from ILRI to join the international course in mid of August 2000. When I applied for the visa I received another letter from ILRI informing me that their earlier confirmation letter was a mistake and they had put me on waiting list and since they have already received confirmation of all applicants therefore they regretted my participation. It was discouraging and hurting. During that time, NDP Consultants were headed by M/s EuroConsult, a Dutch firm. I explained the situation to the Team Leader (a Dutch) and requested him if he could intervene. He asked me if I had received a confirmation letter from ILRI. I affirmed it positively. He said: Give me a copy of that letter and meet me after three days. Exactly after three days he not only reconfirmed my participation in the course but also arranged my appointment with Dutch Embassy in Islamabad for issuance of visa. Within a week I was in the Netherlands.

·      During 2003 I applied for a lucrative job outside WAPDA through proper channel. My application returned/refused by Mr. Ahmad Khan Bhatti, the then Member Water with a long hand written note that read: Mr. Pitafi is an asset of WAPDA. We must not lose him. He has a long and bright future in WAPDA. Mr. Shamshad Khan, the then Director NDP advised me to get these comments of Mr. Bhatti framed and displayed on a wall.

Alhamdulillah, by closure of NDP in 2007 I had earned enough respect in WAPDA and regarded as an outstanding engineer hailing from Sindh. The praises poured in from different offices in Lahore. Mr. Raghib Abbas Shah, the then GM (C&M) Water was kind enough to agree and transfer me in Sindh but he posted me at Rainee Canal Project at Guddu where I never liked to go. I had wanted to go to Hyderabad to spend some time with my ageing mother. Finally, the competent authority convinced to my request.

While in Lahore during 1998-2007 I have had opportunities to attend international training courses and seminars/workshops in the Netherlands, China and India. Such chances were not easy to come by while posted out of Lahore. Further, when the time came and I was able to do Masters from University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, I preferred to go for MBA instead which I did during 1999-2001 from the University of Punjab. The thirst of doing Masters in any of Civil Engineering fields, however, remained unquenched.

Working in Hyderabad with Consultants for Redesign of Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD) for initial two years and further two years for Lining of Canals remained highly fruitful and productive. I also earned accolades by getting nominated and then receiving an Outstanding Performance Award from Mr. Shakeel Durrani, Chairman WAPDA in 2009. In spite of above recognition, it was hard time adjusting in Hyderabad for both myself and family after having spent almost ten years in Lahore. I could not adjust to overall working environment of GM (South) office. It was entirely different culture of working in comparison to Lahore. Gossip precluded the completion of timely tasks. I used to sit long hours while many of us attended the office like visitors. The culmination point was the refusal of the then GM (South) WAPDA in allowing me to do Masters from Mehran University (by then ageing had taught me to concede to my earlier inflexible stance about doing Masters from the best or equivalent to NED university). For family and kids; the inferior schooling standards, non-availability of utilities, especially water supply, poor hygiene conditions, etc., kept them regretting the decision of leaving Lahore. Mr. Hasnain Afzal who helped me in getting posted in Hyderabad had earlier warned me on several occasions that you would regret going back to Hyderabad. After the sad demise of my mother in early 2011 we bade farewell to Hyderabad and returned to Lahore.

Mr. Sheraz Jamil Memon, my NED classmate and lifelong friend convinced me to join his office i.e. Pakistan Commission for Indus Waters (PCIW) on deputation from WAPDA. He was working as Additional Commissioner and also acting as Commissioner/head of office. I was reluctant in the first place to work under a friend (and a boss) but since we were very close friends I decided in favour of him and joined PCIW in March 2011. It was an altogether new experience while working in a different organization dealing with Indus Waters Treaty 1960.

Within a couple of months, I reached to a conclusion that working under a friend was not comfortable. We both have had different natures of dealing with superior officers and subordinate staff. Besides, WAPDA treated me as an alien and did not promote me in the next grade on the condition that I was away and working in a different organization. It was simply a heartbreaking event. Another discouraging situation in PCIW was that the institute was highly politicized and being run by a Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) directly. Unfortunately, Mr. Sheraz was directly under the SAPM’s hammer and facing hard time there. Since I had a choice of returning back to WAPDA therefore I availed the chance and left PCIW after working there for eleven months. Nevertheless, I had the valuable oppurtunity to attend Court of Arbitration for Kishan Ganga HPP Water Dispute on Neelum River at the International Court of Justice, The Hague, the Netherlands and also visited Indian Occupied Kashmir, notably from Leh Ladakh region to Kargil along Indus river. (Next….Part 3/4)

Life with WAPDA (1984-2020) – Part 1 of 4

 

It was my adolescence time during 1975-77 that I read much of the Urdu and a little bit of Sindhi literature apart from my academic books. The travelogues, in Sindhi, of a Marine Engineer Mr. Altaf Shaikh had a huge impact on me. I just wanted to emulate him by joining the Marine Academy in Karachi. After passing Intermediate exam with good grades I shared the same desire with my family especially father who by then was a petty contractor in provincial Irrigation Department. I was straight away instructed to purse Civil Engineering and become an Irrigation Engineer. That’s it.

Completing Bachelors of Civil Engineering from NED University of Engineering and Technology in August 1983 was an honour and achievement of great milestone of my young life. Like most of my classmates I also wanted to win a scholarship and do Masters from the US (first priority) or British University. Doing Masters from a foreign or local university on own expenses was simply out of question/affordability. Joining Irrigation Department or Communication and Works (C&W) Department along with seeking scholarships was the next option. However, nature had had some other planning for me; it sent me to Lahore in December 1983 to join WAPDA after I went through appointment process. The irony was that joining WAPDA was my last priority among tens of federal and provincial organizations. Eventually I was forced to join it in January 1984 owing to my family’s deteriorating and feeble financial position. I was supposed to support them with my income, rather paltry income though.

I started working with WAPDA half-heartedly, aiming to resign it as soon as I have had a better alternate opportunity. It was not forthcoming soon though. I was working at Kalabagh Dam Project site in Pirpehai, district Mianwali when the Project (technically feasible and economically viable) was politicized and became bone of contention among the provinces and WAPDA was advised by the federal govt. to slow down the award of project in 1985. In the meanwhile, my senior colleagues helped in getting me transferred to Hyderabad Sindh in July 1985.

Few trivial but interesting events to share about being at Kalabagh:

·       Soon after joining I started reading all technical documents about the project to get acquainted with the scope and progress of work. A high level meeting chaired by World Bank representative took place at the site wherein foreign and local consultants along with senior WAPDA officers participated. We, some newly appointed junior engineers, were also allowed to participate to gain a learning experience. During the meeting, the Chair asked a question, meaning of an abbreviation. All remained dumb. I replied him spontaneously since I had read it recently in the technical documents. When the meeting was over everyone appreciated me for saving them from the embarrassment.

·       Within a month of my arrival at Kalabagh I was given a proforma by the Admn. to fill in for sending the same back to WAPDA House. It was a kind of biodata and dates of joining WAPDA and retirement were to be recorded. When I wrote down date of retirement as 31.08.2020 I was literally petrified. I kept looking at the year of my retirement: 2020. It was a far reality in early 1984. It was simply indigestible to stomach and unthinkable to mind. I just shook up my head and said back to me; never mind, 2020 is not going to come!

·       Four of us, junior engineers, from Kalabagh appeared for our departmental promotion examination (Four papers) in Lahore in January 1985. About a month later four envelopes in our respective names arrived through postal service and received by our senior engineer. He did not open but observed them closely. He called all four of us in his office and said: Your results are here. I have not unsealed the envelopes but by looking them from outside I can firmly declare that only Pitafi sb has cleared the complete exam while others have cleared in parts. We were astounded. I was excited, naturally, on his guessing. We opened the envelopes hurriedly and found our results exactly the same way our senior engineer had predicted earlier. Now we asked him to explain how he could guess it correctly. He smiled and said: Few people clear the complete examination in one attempt. Pitafi’s envelope contains a single sheet only therefore the envelope weighted light while others had more than 20 sheets. These envelopes weighted thick and heavy. So, I had passed the exam along with 4 others in entire WAPDA while rest of 100s of candidates cleared either one, two or three papers.       

After joining SCARPs Monitoring Organization (SMO) in Hyderabad it was revealed to me that it was not an ideal office to work with for an engineer’s career propagation. I found it blessing in disguise because I never wanted to keep working with WAPDA anymore. Between 1985 and 1991 I appeared in two TOEFL exams (getting good marks on both occasions), applied for Science and Technology Scholarship (twice), Asian Institute of Technology Scholarship, East-West Scholarship, and what not but failed to earn any of them. My colleague and friends advised me to do Masters in Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro and argued that at the end of day people/employer would only ask whether you have done Masters or not, they would not ask name of the institution. I ignored them on the grounds that either I would do from a better or an equivalent university, even if it was local/in-country.

Besides, I appeared in job interviews for Irrigation Deptt., C&W Deptt. and Pakistan Railways but fared badly in the interviews. I don’t blame them for their partiality or question the integrity of selection committees. Eventually in early 1992, I realized that my destiny was written with WAPDA and I needed to excel here. With some hectic efforts and a fairly long visit of nearly a fortnight to Lahore that I succeeded in getting myself transferred to Lakhra Coal Power Project near Khanot village, Distt. Dadu. I joined it in March 1992. It was a field job with lot of opportunities to learn and a responsible position to supervise construction activities. By then I had given up the decision to leave WAPDA and suppressed the desire of doing Masters. I kept working here till 1998 and earned reputation of an excellent worker/engineer. (Next…..Part 2/4)

Grade-20 Officer

Being a Grade-20 officer in a government department is a dream come true like situation. It is almost like reaching at a pinnacle of your career. One enjoys the self-actualization status of their service. You are respected all around, with maximum perks of your stature, besides, being in a highly responsible position.

But there are sacrifices attached to this spot also. A life-long struggle. It is not an instant climb. It took me more than 35 years to attaining this peak, and now left with one or two more years to retain this position before calling it a day at reaching a stage of superannuation. Under the normal circumstance one should reach at this zenith with 25 years of their service coupled with an excellent service record. But government departments work under weird set of rules that delay the promotions and elevation to the higher scales to undesirable extent and due to various unavoidable reasons.

Another obscured aspect of the life of a public officer is that one has to maintain the lifestyle of prevailing working environment. For example, if one is working in Grade-18 or 19 then their friendly and family gatherings would also revolve around the people working in the similar grades or higher; requiring to maintain a certain status.

Climbing up the ladder from Grade-17 to Grade-20 looks an easy ride but it takes a toll of your own and family’s time and resources, ageing in particular. Let’s go back to the four (five, in fact) stages from G-17 to 20 and discuss each one briefly, step by step, in an ascending order, from my personal perspective:

Stage-1: It is an induction stage, carrying lots of dreams and wishes to be realized in ensuing times. Back in 1984 I joined in G-17 as Junior Engineer (Civil) at a place some 1000 km. away from my home town. I was installed on a monthly salary of less than 2,000 rupees. Considering that I was going to be the sole earner in the house after sudden and sad demise of my father two years ago and required to support my family from this paltry income. Supporting my siblings was simply out of question within my meager income, therefore, our widow mother kept selling our agricultural land tracts, one by one, that we used to own.

According to our office service structure my current stage was supposed to last five years. In reality it took 14 years before I moved into the next grade with none of my fault. It was the toughest period of my life in terms of weak financial position while I was raising my family too. Our rich relatives bought us refrigerator on loan basis. Some others also gave us used beds and other old furniture for our rented apartment. During hot summers we sometimes used to take our kids to our relatives’ house to spend a couple of hours in their air-conditioned rooms. The little savings we could make came through Budget Committees that my wife wisely invested in within her friends’ circle of officers’ wives. After 10 years of service I was able to buy some new furniture for our rented house and an air-conditioner too.

Stage-2: It was 1998 when we moved to Lahore as a result of my promotion in G-18. By that time my family had grown into 6 members; our four children. Living and working in a bigger city was a pleasant experience but at the same time it was difficult to manage in a monthly salary of about 8,000 rupees considering that three out of four children were attending the school. But this time I was able to take long term loan from office and manage a bank credit card (means borrowing) while my wife kept investing in committees. During this period of time I was also able to complete my Masters and then started teaching part time in the evening. Some savings also came as a result of three short foreign training courses. During this phase my elder daughter married for which I had to withdraw my savings from Employees Provident Fund (EPF). But it was not sufficient to cover the marriage related expenses and hence my relatives again came to our rescue and let our daughter begin her new phase of life in a satisfactory and befitting manner. This stage took another precious 14 years of my life, but it moved on.

Stage-3: Moved into Grade-19 in 2012, a stage where an engineer is considered and treated as senior officer. Some perks added to my position like orderly allowance, free landline telephone and cellphone, and a vehicle for official use. By now, one of my daughters was happily married at a young age of 21 years, and one of my sons went into practical life after completing his engineering studies. Two younger children went into universities, private ones, causing enormous financial burden owing to their expensive tuition fees. This causes to yet another borrowing; another long term loan from office. This time I was able to buy a small residential plot for construction of the house in future. In 2013 elder son also moved to Finland for higher studies. He kept working as “Paper Boy” in the freezing nights of Tampere, Finland to meet the expenses of his Masters. He completed the studies in 2015 and was able to land a job in one of the multinational companies in Finland.

During all these three stages of life our social life remained limited due to affordability issues. In comparison to tedious and gruesome long two early stages, this one remained short and reasonable and I moved into the next grade within four years and posted as Chief Engineer.

Stage-4: In the middle of 2016 I was posted as Chief Engineer and stationed in the same city i.e. Lahore. It was a time of financial stability in the sense that both sons were working, means earning along with me thereby decrease in the expenses on academics. Elder son got married and settled with his family in Finland.

Stage-5: In January 2018 I was elevated to a coveted position of General Manager. The irony is; the grade remains same i.e. 20. Elevation to a higher position also uproots me from Lahore. Younger son gets into nuptial knots in 2018 and almost a year later he moves to Germany in early 2019 to grab a job opportunity in Berlin.

Considering that I would be retiring from the job in later half of 2020 and that my two sons are in a position to send some remittances I take a giant step of going for the construction of our small house. I am given the estimated cost of construction as Rs. 6 million. I calculate my savings, wife’s savings through committees, EPF and all adds up to less than Rs. 2.5 million. Believing on the premise that when you marry your daughter or construct a house you receive divinely financial help, the construction begins in early 2019. When I write this piece in later part of 2019 almost 95% house is ready with construction expenditure crossing the figure of Rs. 7 million. Divine help surely reaches but it comes in loans. I will be repaying at the retirement about Rs. 2 million taken from various rich relatives, and already paying installments of Rs. 1.2 million bank loan. If the things go as planned, we intend to move to our newly built house by start of next year i.e. 2020.

Final Goals: After having retired from the job and cleared all the liabilities out of my pension gratuity coupled with the financial support of children we (me and better half) wish to spend rest of life in getting our last of children married and settled down, praying for all as usual, buying a car, going for Hajj and waiting for our children and grandchildren’s visits to us.

My Vote, Worth a Dime!

At nearly 60 years of age I have seen almost all political/ democratic elections in Pakistan; witnessed election processes and election-days when people voted, observed winners turned rulers, their early promises during elections and post-election actions, and compared their goals versus targets achieved. The result is; Pakistan has not forwarded a yard in the direction to gaining prosperity. It still remains under-developed country. The rhetorical promises from the political leaders, as some of them listed below, remain hollow promises since ages:

·       Education for all
·       Jobs to youth
·       Women emancipation
·       Adequate salaries and minimum respectable salary
·       Health for all especially poor
·       Clean potable water
·       Housing
·       Poverty alleviation
·       Infrastructure development
·       Balance in exports and imports
·       Elevation of currency
·       Robust reserves with the central bank
·       Clean environment, and so on

None of the political parties ever promoted a culture of harmony, morality, ethics, honesty and integration of ethnic societies in the past. Rather, at times they highlighted fragmentation on the basis of language, caste, creed and religious factions to win votes of a particular section of the population in a particular area while slogans differed at other places.

The most disheartening factor being the absence of long-term policies in our political and democratic structure aimed at development of the country on a sustainable basis. Long term policies shape up the country and its direction, which may look working slow but long term goals have long lasting impacts. All those political parties who won the elections in the past on a certain manifesto of promises actually ruled with a single point agenda; to earn enough wealth (individually and collectively) through whatever means so that the same could be invested for winning the next elections. Needless to say that more money you are going to spend during the election campaign more chances are that you would emerge a winner.

At the formation of every new government after the elections, the ruling party cries of foul play with the economy and wealth of the nation by and through the hands of predecessors. They cry about empty treasury, excesses of foreign loans, dearth of funds for payment of interests on loans and repayment of principle loans. To resolve the issue of balance of payments they take more loans; at tough conditions of the loaning institutions: the vicious circle.

Even after decades in place all the major government departments are working in deficit apparently due to corruption, at every tier of service structure: Pakistan Steel Mills, PIA, Railways, GENCOs, DISCOs, SSGC, SNGC etc., with a pile up of spiteful loans and debts. The only rescue is; obtain more debts. Freeing ourselves from the chain of debts means having a new chain of loan tied to the country and to each of us. The latest figures say that every countryman owes a loan of Pak Rupees 115,000 and this figure is increasing day by day without any respite.

When it is said and generally believed that government is poor but people are rich, it makes sense because corruption is deep routed in our blood through last fifty (50) years of poor governance, dishonesty, nepotism, and filling the top positions of all big and important institutions on political grounds ignoring merit altogether. What an irony that in a population of more than 200 million, only 1.7 million people pay taxes that counts to be less than 1 percent. One of the main reasons behind this dismal position of taxpayers is peoples’ mistrust in the successive rulers. Most of the entitled people evade paying taxes and those willing to pay it don’t trust the incumbent rulers and feel that their tax money would go wasted on corruption practices.

Other important fact is the emergence of ‘’elite class’’ in the last decades that simply minted the money through illicit means and have gotten away cleanly. This club is expanding day by day. Thus this “elite class’’ has become the source of inspiration for the new generations because earning easy money (without a trace of accountability) has been tempting since long now.

Another curse that this country had to suffer badly from is money laundering. Since money earned through illegitimate means could not be declared or deposited in banks therefore it passed on to safe hands in the middle east, far east, Europe and the United States through money laundering. In no time ordinary people saw some other ordinary people becoming extremely rich, owning luxury cars and SUVs, and found buying real estate in DHAs, Bahrias, and on foreign soils.

The basic needs like clean water and sanitation, health, education and shelter are still beyond the reach of large segment of population. Law and order situation has always been questionable irrespective of pre or post 9/11 era. It is more fearsome for any citizen that a policeman intercepts them on the road than a plain-clothed individual. All the successive governments have failed to build or inculcate confidence into the population about the impartiality, honesty, bravery and swiftness of law enforcing agencies.

If an ordinary middleclass individual doesn’t inherit a house for living in Pakistan, then by virtue of serving their entire lives in public or private job won’t guarantee them that they would ever be able to buy or own a shelter for their respective families from a sizeable pension or gratuity.

The incumbent ruling political party which won the elections on the slogans of ‘’across the board accountability” and ‘’change’’ last year is the last hope that in the next four years the “change” would be visible and tangible in the lives of millions of people in this country. The failure would be catastrophic. People would stop believing in the political/ democratic system and would begin apprehending that either these politicians are not worth getting their votes or their own votes are worthless.

PART-7: NED NOSTALGIA (1978-83)

J-1 Hostel

Hostels are usually considered as the best place for studies in peace, free from doing house chores, free from relatives, cousins and guests disturbing and devouring your studies time. So were our 4 J-blocks. They were ideally located in wide and open spaces around them and in the wind direction. Strong sea breeze would shatter windowpanes and slam room doors if left open. No dormitories but still enough space to squeeze in two students in each room; most of the time they would be classmates. This arrangement helped us study in unison. Bathrooms and toilets were not attached and were located at the far end of entire rooms wing; short wing had six rooms with toilets and bathrooms at the end while long wing had twelve rooms with toilets and bathrooms at both ends. Since overhead water tanks were not provided in the hostels separately therefore every room occupants were supposed to have a bucket full of water stored with them because direct water supply from the main large overhead water tank released water twice a day in morning and evening.

When I shifted in J-1 Hostel along with Ashok we were allotted room # 13 in the long wing on the ground floor. It was not an ideal room in terms of its location but still we were excited to be here. Best thing about it was its corridor (grilled/ mashed with cemented blocks)opening towards Karachi University direction. There was a earthen path connecting NED with Karachi University (a kind of shortcut). Many of the students both boys and girls would walk through this path during daytime to or from Karachi University every day. Our seniors would shout at them throwing jokes especially when a couple crossed through the path, like; apni baji ko kahan le jar aha hae, hum mar gaye hain kya. We too followed our seniors. 

Kazi Waheed (Civil-1981) was House Monitor. His room was in our neighborhood. Once while chatting with Kazi in the corridor my room door shut with a bang due to strong wind and I mistakenly had left keys in the room.

Don’t worry, Kazi assured me, I can open it if it is “single locked”. In case it’s “double locked” then we will have to enter through an 8-10 inch wide and 4 feet long ventilator located between the ceiling and the door beam.

Kazi tried with his own room key with some technique and I heard a click sound of lock opening. He smilingly rotated the door handle and it opened into the room.

Kazi, this means you can break into any room in J-blocks, I asked him in awe.

Yes, provided that doors are “single locked”, he replied.

Please teach me the difference between “single and double lock” and also how to open the “single lock”, I begged Kazi.

If you just push the lever of the lock from inside the room it means it’s single lock and if you rotate the lever anticlockwise after pushing the lever for single lock it would be a double lock, Kazi explained.

He demonstrated it and then asked me to have a try.

With little practice on my room door with Kazi’s key, I learned breaking the locks.

From then onwards I provided my services free of charge to all those newcomers who accidently locked their rooms with keys left inside of their rooms. In early 2^nd year someone broke into my room with the same “unlocking” technique and stole my calculator. Calculator in late 70s was a precious gadget. It was upsetting because I could not afford to buy another one immediately within paltry monthly allowance my parents used to send me. I complained to the House Monitor, Kazi about it. Kazi asked me if I had doubted somebody as a thief then we could search out his room. I named two junior students. We broke into their rooms clandestinely but in vain.

Also living in my vicinity was Jalaluddin, from Kazi’s batch. He was a thorough gentleman, softly speaking, and a fine sportsman too. His forte was cricket and Badminton. He was excellent in both games and represented NED in national tournaments. But we used to envy him on one account; girlfriends. He managed to have had plenty of girlfriends that also used to visit his room frequently.

J-1 Mess was famous for its tasty cuisine. The Kashmiri chef was best in preparing Chicken Biryani, Mutton Qorma, Dal Chaawal (Plain Rice with Pulses), Bhindi Fry (Fried Okra) and Chicken Roast. Many of the students living in other hostels has joined J-1 Mess for this purpose. The Mess accommodated more than 100 members and it always remained crowded during lunch and supper time. In order to enjoy fresh meals in comparatively clean environment and with ungreased plates we would try to get seated early at starting time of food serving; 0100 pm for lunch and 0730 pm for dinner. Ahad (Mech ‘83), Sharafat, Muhammad Ali, Nasir Jalil (Mech ‘83), Aslam Ansari and me would always be around early in the Mess. Nasir Jalil was so fond of Chicken Biryani (served at lunch) that he used to skip any kind of brunch in the canteen of NED campus so as to enjoy it fully and eat in plenty. Some people used to eat a lot. Hence, to put a check on them it was decided that members would not be served food after they had had regular plate of food plus 3 supplements. Nasir despised this rule on Biryani day.

It was customary that Mess Manager (selected every month among J-1 boarders) would be getting free meals as long as they ran the Mess. During my 2^nd year Warden and House Monitor approached me to run the Mess for a month. I expressed my reluctance on the pretext that Mess members were non-cooperative in paying advance money for their meals and it was not easy to collect such dues from them. Nevertheless, on the assurance of seniors I took over as a Mess Manager. The experience was amazing and extremely successful as everyone cooperated and paid money in advance for their meals. At the end of my tenure the balance sheet of accounts showed positive balances in respect of all members as against the negatives in case of my predecessors.

Tahir Nisar, Ahsan and Ramesh had a room allotted in J-1 hostel and would join us here in exam season. Ramesh used to be their teacher. Tahir was a first class cricketer and an amazing painter drawing pencil sketches and ballpoint pen portraits. He would draw a girl’s photo on his thigh (while putting on shorts) or arm biceps and them move his muscles in a way that the painted girl would dance on his arm or thigh. Some “Tharky” boarders would get the girl painted in bikini on their arms in order to have fun with it.

Cricket was in blood of every NEDian. We would play cricket in the hostel every afternoon come what may. Tahir was a good addition. He was good at hitting long sixes even with a tapped tennis ball. I was a fairly good medium paced bowler but an excellent fielder with catching. I would love to field deep in mid-off or mid-on when Tahir batted. Muhammad Ali was another power hitter. Ahad would immediately take a position of wicketkeeper or first slip when I bowled fast deliveries. He wouldn’t drop catches in these positions.

Soon after shifting into J-I Hostel I came to learn that arranging and showing Indian movies (sometimes with addition of XXX movies) was a regular weekly feature of J-Blocks, MBQ Blocks and IBA (Karachi University) Hostel. Some senior students would arrange it in the common hall at or after midnight at a paltry ticket of 10 rupees each. It was highly exciting for a moviegoer like me and I watched quite a lot of movies in these hostels.

Foreign students of NED, mostly from Arabian countries and Iran, used to live in hostels in abundance. I remember some Iranians, Syrians and Jordanians used to live in J-1 Hostel. Mr. Munaim, a Jordanian was a member of Akhwan-ul-Muslmeen organization, a fundamentalist kind of Islamic group. He would dread to go back to his country and used to say that he would be put in jail as soon as he put step on his home soil. He was our Imam in many of our Namaz (salah) that we offered in the prayers room of J-1 Hostel. He was totally against watching movies in hostels. Every time we did hold such program we would avoid facing him for some days. Another foreigner, a Burmese used to live in J-2. He was pretty senior and people used to say that he’ been living in the hostels for nearly a decade. He could speak Urdu to some extent but his love for gardening was praiseworthy. He was a pioneer in converting J-2 Hostel dried lawns into lush-green areas with flowers planted everywhere. Emulating him, Kazi in J-1 and others started making their respective hostels look greener.

Though I came from a poor background, still my father would manage to send me 400 rupees through bank every month for meeting my living expenses. It was hard to manage a breakeven position within this paltry amount but I did through refraining from visiting the downtown city for hanging out or shopping frequently. The Elphinstone Street renamed as Zaib-un-Nissa (renamed after renowned journalist Zaib-un-Nissa Hamidullah) Street in the heart of Saddar Karachi was my favourite visiting place. It was convenient because NED Point Buses running between hostels and city would provide dropping and picking up services from adjacent Empress Market. I used to buy second-hand imported shirts at 30-40 rupees a piece from a kiosk at the intersection of Bohri Bazaar and Zaibunnisa Street, Saddar. Paying 10 rupees more on its alteration would make it a perfectly fitted shirt for use in the University. Besides, enjoying a rupee carrot juice glass at the side of Empress Market, doing window shopping in Bohri Bazaar and surroundings and sometimes having broast chicken meal at a fast food outlet or taking prawn masala at an Iranian restaurant was an ideal weekend night. Continued in Part-8: Study Tour of Pakistan

PART 6: NED NOSTALGIA (1978-83)

Civil Engineering Department

Civil Engineering Department had same undeclared special status of what Tariq Road had in Karachi in 1980s. First, it was located in the front of NED campus. All civil engineering labs and workshops were located at the front. All point buses would drop the students at this location and boys would go through the aisles of civil engineering department to their respective departments i.e. Mechanical and Electrical which located at far end of the campus. A Bank Branch and Stationery store were also located here (Later, they were shifted to a new small building on NED approach road for Faculty). Similarly, Canteen, Girls Common Room, and a double storied Drawing Hall were located in the vicinity of our department. The corridor between outer wall of Girls Common Room and Drawing Hall served as point for social cum political activities. Two large notice boards, one either of IJT and PSF, were installed here where these organizations would announce their respective daily programs.

Around break time, this point will get swarmed by boys for two purposes; to watch and keep an eye on every girl entering and leaving Girls Common Room, and indulge into social cum political activities, raise slogans in favor and against their respective parties and adversaries. The amazing thing about this place was; despite getting into heated arguments, debate and raising slogans in favor and against, the boys never scuffled upon, never touched opponents’ arms or necks or threw fists at each other. However, they fought ferociously in verbal terms, hurling tantrums and criticizing policies and leaders of their opponent parties.   

The large Drawing Halls covering two floors as its name indicate were built for helping students to prepare large drawings on the flexible boards that could be lifted upwards and adjusted downwards. These Halls also served as examination centers for civil engineering students because both floors could accommodate nearly a 100 students. (From students’ point of view, it was an ideal examination center for cheating). Ground floor of Drawing Hall was also used for holding Book Fairs at the start of every new semester, thus helping the students to buy branded technical books at discounted rates. Informally, students would also use these Halls for indulging into some extracurricular activities such as experiencing their singing instincts, some would do paintings, and most of all, it also served couples to sit and chat in peace while others envied them watching through windowpanes.

If we could play cricket in the classrooms we would have definitely done that but alas! All corridors and small & large parks in front of classrooms and around were used for playing cricket by students whenever they had some free classes. Students didn’t spare even the windowpanes of the ground floor of Drawing Hall; the flying tennis ball (wrapped with adhesive tape) broke much of them within no time while playing cricket. One could also watch some good and quality cricket played regularly in the large open area surrounded by Civil Engineering Department, Canteen, Auditorium, Central Library and Administrative Block, and by the side of central Fountain.

Tahir Nisar, our classmate, was a first class cricketer and used to represent NED in the national cricket tournaments. During our free classes or while in wait for Mr. Abdul Quddus Alvi Sahib, we would go behind Civil Lecture Hall and play cricket. Tahir would hit big sixes on long on/ off position. I would prefer to field in that position for catching but his sixes were pretty long and hard to catch.

Else, still waiting for Alvi Sb in Civil Lecture Hall I would stand silently behind a group of “top” students and enjoy their chatting while they discussed course contents, preparing and appearing for TOEFL and GRE exams, and sometimes try to test English vocabulary of each other by asking meanings of difficult words.  

Civil Lecture Hall was (is) a large and wide room enough for accommodating about 200 students to attend combined classes, seminars or such lectures. Alvi Sb was fond of conducting combined classes ostensibly to save his time because he was a busy engineer doing his consultancy, official administrative matters (being head of Civil Engineering Department and Dean of Faculty later) and teaching, all along simultaneously. He was a matchless teacher. We used to attend his lectures in a pin-drop silence.

It is also an undeniable fact that we did not spend as much time in learning from Alvi sahib’s teachings as much as we wasted in waiting for him. He was irregular and would keep us wait for his class most of the times. Hence, all subjects that he taught us were hardly covered as much as 50% percent of the prescribed courses.

Once while delivering a lecture (probably in Structure Analysis) to joint A, B and C (or A & B) Sections in Civil Lecture Hall, Alvi sahib came up with mentioning three terms: Significant, Considerable, and Reasonable. He suddenly asked the class to classify these terms from lowest to highest rank.

I was baffled. Much of the class too, and hid their faces or lowered their gaze so that he wouldn’t point it out at them for reply.

Sir, Reasonable, Considerable and Significant, came a sudden and confident reply from Sohail Ghulamali.

Alvi sahib was pleased over the reply. All were relieved over it, at least I, surely.

Another unforgettable but deplorable incident; I fail to remember when it happened, may be in the third year that somehow due to Alvi Sahib’s prolonged absence from taking the classes, students reported to the higher authorities about his habit of skipping the lectures. Besides, due to Alvi Sahib’s tough, livid and inflexible attitude as well as internal political of teachers and in connivance of student union, we were brainwashed to go for a boycott of Alvi Sahib’s paper during our examination. So, all was set on the exam day. As soon as question paper was distributed among students, we, without taking a glance at the question paper, stood up and started shouting that contents of the question paper were not covered in the lectures and began chanting; out of course, out of course. Other teachers and invigilators also supported the boycotting students. Much to the embarrassment of Alvi Sahib, boycott remained successful. I regret that day.

Few words about our Faculty: Of all the teachers I learned my civil engineering from, Alvi Sb stands tall and spearheads the list followed by Makhdoomi Sb, Afaq Sb, Kidwai Sb, etc. Let me confess here that I hardly understood Khalid Sb’s Maths lectures. Kidwai Sb was much easier to comprehend to.

A funny thing about Afaq Sb’s lectures: On initiating his lecture he would draw a small member (T-beam or I-beam) on the blackboard. We would follow him by drawing the small member on our copy. As the lecture would progress he would keep on adding loads, actions, reactions, draw stresses, strains, bending moments, diagrams, etc, with coloured chalks. The initial figure and subsequent loads would intermingle in such a way that it would hardly be comprehensible on a piece of paper with one coloured ballpoint pen and if I didn’t reproduce it on a larger scale back home immediately it would never be understood.

During breaks in lectures or in the recess time we would gather around our gang leader Sharafat and Muhamamad Ali acting as his deputy, as their ardent followers. This gang was notorious in making fun of and joking with others, creating funny nicknames of other students especially girl students and hurling indirect flying jokes at them. Jinn Baba, Duck, Auntie, Chhota, Lorry Adda were some of the nicknames of some NEDian girls conceived by Sharafat and propagated and enjoyed by all. Continued in Part-7: J-1 Hostel

Part 5: NED NOSTALGIA (1978-83)

Section C

Periodic full day picnics were a regular feature of NED. I don’t remember visiting any spot during our first year of studies but in the second year after Abdullah became CR we went for a picnic to Keenjhar (Kalri) Lake and Shahjahani Mosque in Thatta, some 100 kms in North-West of Karachi on Indus Highway. For every such picnic we would arrange Chicken Biryani and Raita for lunch, especially prepared at J-1 Hostel. Some Kashmiri cooks used to prepare delicious Biryani in J-1 Hostel. While travelling through Karachi roads we would tease/ abuse unprovoked traffic police with shouting a term called “Tulla” at them. Poor traffic constables would avoid getting entangled with students because student unions were strong during that era. But sometimes they would react with anger and show a stretched five fingers hand (called Bujja in Sindhi or La’nat) at us. At times, middle finger also hurled at us.

Beside my Sindhi class fellows I had the tendency of befriending other-language speaking classmates and hostel-mates. It was because of my upbringing environment. Though I came from rural Sindh, but still, our neighbourhood in Larkana was predominantly Urdu speaking families, therefore, I felt at ease in making friends. The Iranians were also good friends of mine, perhaps because I supported their strong allegiance with Khomeini. It was a time Iranian revolution had recently put Khumeini in power and Shah of Iran had fled from Iran. Who can forget two very popular Iranian slogans (in Persian) during revolution uprising: Marg Bar Shah (Death for Shah), Durood Bar Khumeini (Prayers for Khumeini).

Adil Irani, our Parsi classmate left NED within a few months to join merchant navy. He used to crack jokes in English that we would hardly understand owing to our poor vocabulary and his typical accent that was hard to understand but we would join in laughing with him all the time. Jamsheed aka Jumpy, who used to look messy in extra-casual attire with thick dark curly but uncombed hair and unshaven most of the time, would often help Ashok and me in English writing and remained a dear friend all the rest of NED years and beyond virtually and electronically, till now.

Aftab Farooqi, on the other hand, was more a teacher than a friend, especially for Aziz Memon and me. In fact he’s a born teacher. We would travel to his home in North Nazimabad for learning during preparation leaves for exam. Babar, Ahmad Salam, Shahzad and even Sarwat would also turn up there for the same purpose. After the studies, Babar/Ahmad Salam would take us to Hydari Market for lunch, mostly Nihari.

Can’t remember all but there were many other friends who would often interact with me like Shahzad (a soft spoken and thorough gentleman), Ramesh, Mohtesham Rizvi, Tahir Nisar, Ahsan, Mehtab, Abid, Kazi Qadir, Mansoor Khan, Mansoor Gillani, Akbar Khan, Akbar (Hockey player), Jawaid Latif, Ishrat (late), Zafar Mushtaq, Shahid Jabbar, Zahid Ismail and most importantly Ahmad Ali (late). The former was a genius at studies and his handwriting was simply beautiful. Unfortunately, while in third year he became eccentric, abnormal and lost his sanity and couldn’t recover from it to complete his engineering. Some years back from now I learned that he had been chained at his home because of his unrelenting madness and he died in the same physical and mental state. Poor unlucky fellow! May he rest in Jannah. Ameen.

A good friend named Tariq Panhwar was also our classmate but he rarely appeared in the class. We would often meet him at a hostels kiosk at afternoon/ evening tea-time. He would appear with swollen eyes (just gotten up from the day long sleep). He had done his FSc. from Russia and was vying to move to the United States. Perhaps it was our second year that we heard about him leaving NED for the States. Aleem Soomro was a truly social and helping fellow. He would assist in filling and filing yearly scholarship forms, buy for us computer paper from Lunda Bazaar and prepare & distribute photocopied “notes” to the entire class. He handwriting was beautiful too (similar to Nizam).

Aslam Ansari was a genius but lethargic fellow. He would study and prepare assignments at his own convenience i.e. at the last moment. I don’t remember him refusing to teach us whenever we had gotten into trouble. Mumtaz Memon was intelligent but he had affiliations with some students from Section A residing in J-4 and MBQ-I hostels. Therefore he was a bit alien to us. Late Ishrat was also a brilliant student but since he was not a boarder therefore he was not of much help to us except for his group friends. Similarly, Aziz Memon was a Tableeghi (preacher) and would not miss an opportunity to whisper in my ears extending invitation for accompanying him to Makki Masjid on Friday night for weekly gathering of Tableeghi Jama’t. He was effective twice; once taking me to Makki Masjid and on other occasion to a 3-day congregation held in a large ground in North Nazimabad, Karachi.

Somehow I felt that Section C was a deprived class. The reason being, as I perceive, that teachers treated it as a “class of nominees” and did not exert extra efforts in teaching (often skipped taking lectures too) in comparison to Section A and B. The other big reason I found at that age was absence of girl students in it. Although a handful of girls but still I used to envy Section A for having them there. Dejected with all these factors with Section C, one fine day I wrote with a white chalk on our classroom door in big and prominent letters: Labour Room.

When Aslam Ansari saw it he burst into a laughter and asked me:

Aijaz, do you know what does it mean?

I replied confidently: Yes, a place where labourers work.

He again laughed at me and said: You fool it means a place where women undergo pregnancy pains and deliver babies.

It was high time I ignored embarrassment and concentrated at improving my poor English.

Section C lasted two years. It was wound up as we stepped into third year of civil engineering. Section C students were divided into two groups; one group of about 30 students (including me) joined Section A, while other 30 students went into Section B. I was happy on moving into Section A. In spite of this new arrangement, our friendships that reared up with our classmates in Section C didn’t diminish and remained thriving and everlasting. I hardly made any new friends in Section A because the old students of Section A were already in their friendships/ groups that were formed within first two years of our NED.

Continued in Part 6: Civil Engineering Department …..