Civil Hospital: final hope for hundreds of peasants from interior Sindh

Sixty two-year-old Muhammad Kabeer is on his knees outside the emergency operation theatre of the Civil Hospital. His eyes remain fixed at the operation theatre's exit door as his wife struggles for life inside. "While giving birth to her fourth child, she suffered an injury," Kabeer narrates his sorrow tale. He gently strokes his three year old son Abdul Jabbar as he speaks, his eyes filled with pain.Abdul Jabbar, is one of Kabeer's four children.

He is too young to stay home so Kabeer brought him along to Karachi with his pregnant wife, Farzana from Shahdadkot. The story of Kabeer is however not unique. Hundreds of patients arrive at the Civil Hospital in Karachi from different areas of Sindh in search of healthcare. They come here because their towns and villages lack basic health facilities. Kabeer works as a peasant in Shahdadkot. He and Farzana got married a few years ago, and he is 36 years older than his wife. Looking back, Kabeer recalls his marriage as the best thing to have happened in his life. Kabeer believes it was the black stone that he had been carrying with him for so many years that changed his luck forever, bringing Farzana and him together.

Life before marriage revolved mainly around work in fields, where Kabeer spent tireless hours digging dirt with spades, and sickles. His only friends were the bulls that helped him plow."I felt like I was the luckiest person on earth," he says, whilst stopping his bare-footed son from picking up an empty packet of cigarettes from the floor. But as luck would have it, things changed. His life took a U-turn when his pregnant wife encountered urethral complications before giving birth to their fourth child. The doctors at a nearby hospital refused to admit her and advised Kabeer to take her to Civil Hospital in Karachi. "After an operation at the hospital she gave birth to a child, but during birth she suffered injuries to her genital system".

Dressed in worn out clothes, with a traditional Sindhi cap resting on his head, Kabeer unravels his distressing tale. Following birth, Farzana and Kabeer went back home, with a prescription in hand. Three months later, Kabeer again finds himself at the Civil Hospital, this time he is told that his wife is in serious condition and doctors will have to operate."She is undergoing an operation in the theatre," he says sullenly. Kabeer is lost between two worlds; his village and the Civil Hospital in Karachi. For a moment he thinks about his children back home but then his eyes scan the operation theatre for his wife's return.

At times Kabeer thinks of how angry his landlord must be for remaining absent from the fields for the last three days. It seemed Kabeer had a lot to think about and he could not decide on which problem to address first."There is no health facility in the hospital at Shahdadkot," he says, adding that people, in order to get proper medical treatment, have to come to Karachi. The heat under which he works has darkened his skin and his wrinkled hands stand witness to his hard work. "There, the doctors do not come to the hospital regularly," he complains about the government hospitals in his area.

Oblivious to his father's pain, three-year-old Abdul Jabbar slides on the floor, chewing on an empty packet of crisps, which he picked up near the dustbin. The smile on the child's face says he likes the taste. "Most people in our village die because of lack of health facilities," Kabeer claims.He has enrolled his two older children in a local school as well as a Madressah. "When they grow up, I will teach them how to bow and harvest," he reveals his plans for his children.Kabeer remembers that once he also went to school, "Mai bhi aik daraja para hua hunn (I have completed one year of school)," he proudly says. However he maintains he will send his children to school till grade 5. Shahdatkot is a district of Sindh, that lies some 51 kilometres outside Larkana. The peasant after working day and night hardly earns enough money to bring food to the table. His wife's condition has forced him to borrow money in order to bring her to Karachi. "Tell the government to build a civil hospital for us," he demands, and waits for his wife to emerge out of the operation theatre.

Arms licences thru DCO quota banned

The Sindh government has imposed an indefinite ban on issuing arms licences through District Coordinator Officers' quota and asked all the licence holders to report to their concerned police stations within next 15 days.

The decision to this effect was taken in a meeting held at the Chief Minister House on Friday to discuss law and order situation in the province.

Aafiya's detention: Court seeks ministries comments till Jan 15

Sindh High Court Thursday directed Ministries of Interior, Defence and Foreign Affairs to submit till January 15, 2009 their comments on detention of Dr. Aafiya Siddiqui by US authorities.Intekhab Alam Suri & Imran Ahmed of Human Rights Network, filed pro bono petition against Defence, Foreign Affairs, Interior Ministries and Sindh Home Department. Advocate Iqbal Aqeel submitted Dr. Aafiya, a resident of Karachi, with her three children was allegedly kidnapped by law enforcement agencies from Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Karachi in March 2003.

The detainees were later allegedly handed over to US agencies. British journalist Ms Yvonne Ridley early this year disclosed Dr Aafiya was detained at Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan by US authorities.Dr Aafiya, who did PhD in genetics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US, is facing trial in US for allegedly attacking US soldiers in Afghanistan. Her son Mohammad Ahmed Khan was released by US authorities, but whereabouts of Mohammad Suleman and Marium, were still unknown.

Collecting hides made conditional

The Sindh Home Department has finalised strategy for the collection of hides on the eve of Eid-ul-Azha.According to new policy, all those who desire to collect hides has been asked to obtain written permission from concerned DCOs in this regard.

Hygiene Absent: Sewerage water, garbage heaps greet visitors at Civil Hospital

Most of Dow Medical College (DMC) including the mortuary, attendants' waiting area, the hospital's entrance and the central mosque inside the Civil Hospital Karachi has been inundated with sewerage water on Thursday morning. Patients, attendants, doctors and college students were forced to walk through ankle deep sewerage water.

The hospital's premises were inundated after the town administration controlled sewerage lines on Maulvi Abdul Haq Road choked. The patients and hospital staffers said that inundation was now a routine in DMC, which is the biggest public sector hospital of the province. The sources said that the hospital's 40-year old sewerage system is outdated and most of the washrooms are out of order with most of the pipelines leaking sewerage water all the time. "The sewerage water seepage has also affected the buildings and this problem has never been reported in the past," sources said.

The hospital staffers said that the flooding of the mortuary and attendants' waiting area is common in the hospital. "Not this area alone, but also gate No 2 that connects emergency department with Chand Bibi Road is usually flooded with sewerage water," said a staffer on the condition of anonymity.Civil Hospital is the largest public sector hospital of Sindh with 1,780 beds and 42 different departments. The hospital's data reveals that approximately 4,000 to 5,000 patients from all over the province visit the Out Patients Department (OPD) daily, but despite that, cleanliness of the hospital is a challenge for the hospital administration. Most of the wards and corridors do not have a proper lighting system and all the walls are red with pan-spit. Huge piles of garbage are lying everywhere in the hospital and now the sewerage water flood has created more problems for the hundreds of patients and their relatives. Mostly poor patients visit this hospital and on Thursday during the visit to the hospital, the correspondent found minor children walking in cold sewerage water, bare-footed.

The stagnant sewerage water has become a breeding ground for mosquitoes and the open gutters have invited rats and mice inside the hospital. "Often big rats bite minor children in the waiting area and even inside the wards," said a female patient. "It is not our fault that the gutters outside the hospital are choked. We have informed the town administration about the problem many times, but they have not addressed the issue yet," said a peon of the hospital. On contact, Civil Hospital, Karachi Medical Superintendent Dr Saeed Qureshi said that he has personally contacted the town administration but they have fixed the sewerage system. He confirmed that there are rats and mice inside the hospital. "The rat problem is not in hospital alone but in fact the entire city is infested with rats and mice. We do not get funds to deal with the rat problem so I spent money from my own pocket to kill the rodents, as they have destroyed a portion of false ceiling in my ward but the efforts were in vain," said Qureshi.

NAPA’s sixth play to be held on 12th

National Academy of Performing Arts (NAPA) will launch its theater play on December 12, which will be its sixth drama during the year 2008.The drama titled ‘Jungle Main Mangal Bazaar’ is a masterpiece of Italian Nobel Laureate Dario Fo and focuses on the skyrocketing inflation rate in the country. Giving details of the play, NAPA Director Rahat Kazmi said that the drama was written by Fo when the inflation rates were very high in Italy vis a vis the Pakistan of today.

“The play takes off with some women who visit the local market but are unable to pay for the stuff they want to buy owing to the extravagant prices. They have no option but to steal the goods and run,” Kazmi said.“After that the whole play revolves around this incident, as the women try to conceal this episode from their husbands, belonging to middle class families, who have never done anything illegal,” Kazmi said adding that, “The play has the theme that you will not get your rights unless you demand them.

”The play will be presented by the NAPA Repertory Theatre Company and will be directed by Kazmi. Kazmi said that NAPA has already presented five plays and this will be the last play in the year 2008. “Next year, six new plays will be presented, in addition to four old plays and, in 2010, six new plays will be presented, along with four old plays of 2008 and 2009,” he added.

He said that the academy was planning to initiate a members club to ensure its sustainability in future. “It has been planned that 2,000 members will be registered after they pay an annual fee of Rs 5,000 per couple and the members can attend NAPA programs free of cost throughout the year,” he said and added that, however, till now only 210 people have applied for membership.

Pakistan, India urged to restart dialogue process

KARACHI - Pakistan-India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy has urged the governments of both the countries to avoid increasing tension emerged after the recent Mumbai mayhem. Hence, Anis Haroon called for a Press briefing on Pak-India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy sharing the concerns of peace activists in Karachi.

Speaking at the Press conference on Thursday she said, “External and internal peace and security is in danger because of the derailing peace process between the two countries, since there is a deadlock between the two countries on dialogue process.

We express our heart-felt sympathies with the victims of the Mumbai incident. But India must not initiate or propagate this by thinking it can venture towards war. If war begins, both the countries will suffer massively.”