Tag: Karachi

Pakistan is a criminally horrible state. Read the whole story, published in The Express Tribune on September 15, 2015:

Minister directs hospitals to remove political parties’ offices

KARACHI: Sindh health minister Jam Mehtab Dahar has directed the managements of all public hospitals in the city to remove the offices of political parties from their premises, ordering them not to take any pressure while taking action against them.

The major public hospitals, including Civil Hospital, Karachi (CHK), Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, National Institute of Child Health and National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, until now, housed the offices of various political parties that enjoyed influence in the area where the facility was located.

“These should be hospitals, not offices of political parties,” he directed the officials. The minister has also asked them to immediately remove political slogans, banners, pamphlets and other such materials from these institutions.

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Years back, I sent an article titled, “Nationalization of social and moral values in Pakistan,” to a newspaper. It did publish but with entirely a different title. The new title, “A state that took over society” aptly described what that article was about. Now when I want to write about the destruction of our cities by the political elites in their bid to impress the citizens as voters, I cannot think of a better title than the present one. First I thought of this one: “Preserving the older cities.” However, both the titles communicate what this article argues about. First, the political elites are destroying our cities; and, second, we need to preserve our cities and their age-old soul.