Dr. Afia Siddiqui –

Aafia Siddiqui, the U.S.-educated Pakistani neuroscientist who for years has been designated a “missing person” by human rights groups and wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for questioning, is in U.S. custody as many have suspected.

But the U.S. government narrative on her arrest claims that it was recent, rather than years ago.  The time line and details its offers are not only suspect, but ludicrous.

Siddiqui has been transferred from Afghanistan to the United States, where she will appear before a federal court in Manhattan today to face charges of “attempted murder and assault of United States officers and employees in Afghanistan.”

The doctorate in neuroscience has ‘evaded’ intelligence agencies for years, yet managed to get ‘caught’ in mid-July in a central Afghanistan province by Afghan National Police (one of the country’s most incompetent and corrupt institutions) with information on U.S. landmarks, an amateur book on bomb making, and sealed containers with undisclosed contents — all conveniently in the same handbag.

The 5′4″, 110 lbs. middle-aged mother of three also managed to launch a Rambo-like attack on U.S. military officers and an FBI agent.

All this information comes from a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release and complaint seemingly written under the influence of narcotics and Fox’s 24.

NOT-SO-DEEP BACKGROUND

Of all the stories of alleged al-Qaeda members, none was perhaps more peculiar than that of Aafia Siddiqui.  A practicing Muslim born and raised in Pakistan, Siddiqui received her B.S. from MIT and a Ph.D. from Brandeis University — a secular, Jewish institution.  None of Siddiqui’s university colleagues or neighbors offer anything to suggest an inclination toward militancy.  She apparently got along well with those she interacted with.  Indeed, Siddiqui is said to have estranged from her first husband because he wanted their children to be raised in Pakistan, while she preferred that they be brought up in the United States.

Since 2003, the FBI has said that it “has no information indicating [Siddiqui] is connected to specific terrorist activities” but “would like to locate and question [her].”  Khalid Sheikh Muhammad (KSM), allegedly the planner of 9/11, is said to have claimed in interrogations that Siddiqui was an al-Qaeda “fixer”  — perhaps after he was waterboarded.  The Directorate of National Intelligence (DNI) claims that Siddiqui–a U.S.-educated Ph.D. from Karachi–married Ammar al-Baluchi, KSM’s nephew, who appears to be a minimally educated Pakistani Baloch born and raised in Kuwait (i.e. there were ethnic, educational, and class differences).  The DNI also claims that Siddiqui provided administrative assistance to alleged al-Qaeda operatives in the U.S. and even shopped for blood diamonds in Liberia.  Despite the specific claims, no evidence has been provided.  More importantly, despite the severity of the allegations against Siddiqui, she was never charged with a crime.  The gap between media claims–serious they are–and legal action is considerable.  None of these allegations by the DNI are mentioned in her ‘extradition’ to the U.S.’

THE SILENCE ENDS

Until yesterday, the last reported sighting of Siddiqui was in March 2003, at her mother’s home in Karachi.  Media coverage of Siddiqui seems to have peaked around the 2004 Democratic National Convention, when there was speculation about a potential al-Qaeda attack against the moot — which never happened.

Siddiqui’s name stayed out of the headlines till early July 2008, when British journalist Yvonne Ridley claimed she was told that a female prisoner has been held at Bagram Air Base in Kabul for years and, after sexual abuse and confinement, has deteriorated physically and mentally.  Ridley’s speculation that it could be Siddiqui stirred up the issue in the Pakistani media.

In mid July, senior Pakistani journalist Nusrat Javed told his television program co-host and audience that U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson informed him at a dinner party that she looked into the matter and Siddiqui is not in U.S. custody.  Javed naively said the whole issue was a non-story.

The book on Siddiqui would reopen this Sunday, when the Boston Globe reported that she was alive and in U.S. custody.  Elaine Sharp, a lawyer for Siddiqui’s family in Houston was contacted by the FBI and said, “She is injured but alive, and she is in Afghanistan.”  Sharp added that Siddiqui’s brother was visited by an FBI agent and his request to learn of the fate of his sister’s three children was denied.  Siddiqui’s three children are U.S.-born citizens, one of the many factors that complicate this case.

THE SIDDIQUI ARREST STORY: 24 MEETS THE TERMINATOR

Yesterday, the DOJ formally announced the arrest of Aafia Siddiqui — almost a month after reports emerged of her detention in Bagram.  Virtually all facts claimed by the DOJ are puzzling.

It states that Siddiqui was arrested by Afghan National Police (ANP) on July 17 in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province.  Siddiqui is alleged to have been arrested a week and a half after the initial reports of her detention.  Curious, no?

Siddiqui is said to have been arrested while allegedly loitering around the Ghazni governor’s compound.  She speaks none of Afghanistan’s languages and could not interact with the police.  So why was she, conceivably a technical expert, on the ‘field’, especially without experience and a capacity to mix in and be independent?  How did she make her way around?  Strange, no?  Plus, she was allegedly picked up by the ANP — widely notorious for its corruption and incompetence.  That it could do something right is difficult to imagine.

The ANP officers are reported to have been suspicious of Siddiqui.  She is claimed to have in her handbag:

• “numerous documents describing the creation of explosives, chemical weapons, and other weapons involving biological material and radiological agents;”
• “descriptions of various landmarks in the United States, including in New York City;”
• “documents detailing United States military assets;”
• “excerpts from the Anarchist’s Arsenal;”
• “a one gigabyte (1 gb) digital media storage device (thumb drive);”
• and “numerous chemical substances in gel and liquid form that were sealed in bottles and glass jars.”

Wow.  That’s a bag full of smoking guns.  All that in a “handbag” while canvassing the Ghazni province governor’s compound?  Half of the alleged materiel has no relevance to that site.

So an MIT-educated neuroscientist had to rely on the Anarchist’s Arsenal?  Is that a ‘bootleg’ version of the ‘Anarchist’s Cookbook’?  Did she have any Rage Against the Machine tracks on her flash drive?

Adding to the incredulity is the story of how Siddiqui allegedly got into U.S. hands.  According to the narrative (mostly my paraphrasing):

Siddiqui is detained by the ANP overnight.  The next day (July 18th), a group of U.S. personnel (two FBI agent and several army officers) coincidentally arrived at Siddiqui’s detention facility.  They were “unaware that Siddiqui was being held there, unsecured, behind a curtain.”  One army officer sits down and by chance places his M-4 rifle on the floor near the curtain.  Another officer hears a woman yell.  When he turns, he sees Siddiqui holding the other officer’s rifle, pointing it at him.  Siddiqui said, “May the blood of [unintelligible] be directly on your [unintelligible, possibly head or hands].” I am not sure if this is a direct quote or paraphrasing from the epic film, True Lies.  Siddiqui fires two shots, but the rifle is pushed away by an army interpreter.  She was then shot in the torso at least once by an army officer.  Still, she continued to struggle with the officers as they were attempting to subdue her.  Siddiqui “struck and kicked them while shouting in English that she wanted to kill Americans.”  Then she temporarily lost consciousness and medical aid was rendered to her.

Sounds like Terminator meets 24.

CONCLUSION

The above strongly indicates there is far much more to Siddiqui’s story than the initial New York Times article, which all too often are overwhelmed by official press releases.  The narrative presented in court documents is wildly cartoonish.  If it is true, then I would say Siddiqui might be mentally ill.  Her alleged behavior is erratic, non-methodical, and unscientific.  It counters the DNI profile of her being the ‘patient sleeper.’  Its veracity, not only in the court but also in the realm of public opinion, is clearly contestable.  It defies a nominal personality profile available from personal acquaintances of Siddiqui.

Moreover, it serves to counter a context/competing narrative that is troubling for the prosecuting authority.  In other words, if Siddiqui was arrested years ago on grounds that not only lack a legal/practical basis, but also serve to damage the reputation (and even security) of involved governments, then this ’story’ provides the seemingly absent basis to try, incarcerate, and shut up Siddiqui.  The Ridley-suggested narrative — that the the U.S. unlawfully detained (and even abused) a U.S.-educated Pakistani Muslim mother and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) assisted in whatever shape or form — would be immensely damaging to both countries.

Before us, it seems, are two competing narratives.  But I would not rule out other alternatives.  The actual details, of Siddiqui’s arrest — whether it occurred five years ago or two weeks ago — is unclear.  The initial claims made against her years ago are cause for concern.  But it is puzzling as to why, if they were true, there was no legal followup.  Even now, those claims go unmentioned in the present legal action against her.  Siddiqui is not being treated as an enemy combatant; rather, she’s being prosecuted in conventional U.S. courts, albeit in a more closed anti-terrorism context.

And so Siddiqui’s arrest provides not answers, but more questions.

There are so many.

Where are her children?  They’re U.S. citizens.

If she was in Bagram, were the children also there?

Is it true that Siddiqui’s estranged/ex-husband, who seems to have been a person of interest, is now freely practicing medicine in Karachi?  Why?

How could Siddiqui operate in Afghanistan without knowing the local languages — especially in a city that is 70% Tajik and Hazara?

The role of U.S.-Pakistan relations, particularly in terms of intelligence, is likely critical.  Is the ‘arrest’ of Siddiqui a product of cooperation or competition between U.S. and Pakistani intelligence agencies, or none of the above?  Is either, or both, being provided with some sort of deniability in this case?

And who exactly were Yvonne Ridley’s sources?  Was the Siddiqui story leaked to her by intelligence officials from Pakistan, the United States, or another country?  Or did she simply find out from former detainees?

Alternatively, was this a ’sting’ operation designed to reel her in and provide a context to arrest her (after being arrested or in hiding)?

Who knows?  But all one can say at this point is that the article you’ve read in today’s paper likely offers very little toward the truth.

Missing in Pakistan.

Please do watch this heart rending documentary titled “Missing in Pakistan”. This is Latin America of the 70’s brought to Pakistan in the age of the war on terror. This was made several months ago but it starkly demonstrates the importance of a rule of law and an independent judiciary to combat arbitrary and brutal state power. The CJ taking up this case is what truly got him in trouble with Mush and the military in March.
 
Please share this with as many people as you can.
 
http://pakistanmartiallaw.blogspot.com/2007/11/missing-in-pakistan-documentary.html
 

Spare a minute for Pakistan

Spare a minute for Pakistan
The media organizations are referring to Mr. Hameed Dogar as the Chief Justice of Pakistan, which should be strongly opposed considering that the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) had been declared as illegal by the Supreme Court before its judges were put under house arrest.

This wont take much of your time. All you have to do is copy and paste the message to all the News organizations, if you agree, be it print, radio or television that you can. I’m providing a list of emails with the message feel free to add more addresses to it. If you feel any change must be made in the text of the message, please feel free to do so and send it to the media organizations.

And also Fwd this email to every single person that you can and urge them to do the same too.

Email Addresses
aajcomments@aaj.tv, ed.khi@br-mail.com, editor@dawn.com, re.lhr@dawn.com,
re.isb@dawn.com , feedback@dawnnews.tv/com, editorial@dailytimes.com.pk,
newsroom@dailytimes.com.pk, feedback@geo.tv , imran.aslam@geo.tv

Message
All local and international News media organizations are forthwith urged to stop referring to Mr Hameed Dogar as the Chief Justice of Pakistan. He was placed in this position through an illegal action by the Chief of Army Staff, an action which was struck down in a unanimous verdict by a seven member bench of the Supreme Court headed by the Honorable Chief Justice of Pakistan Mr Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry.

It is utterly unconscionable that the Justices of the Supreme Court and the High Court, who have refused to take the oath under the PCO have been treated as they have. They have stood up for the country, for the law of the land, for the rights of the people,  and for once in our woe begotten history of the past 60 years, they have brought truth to the words “JUSTICE FOR ALL”.  They have let the Hukumrans (Rulers) know that they cannot just pick people up from the streets and throw them in a hole without being held accountable, they cannot beat up, torture, kill their own citizens and not be held accountable.

That these honorable citizens of this nation should be treated in such a absolute ignominious fashion by the Humkumrans(Rulers) should come as no surprise to anyone, but what is disconcerting is that the News organizations who themselves have come under attack by the Hukumrans (Rulers), by referring to a person of Mr Dogar’s creed as the Chief Justice, are equally responsible for trying to legitimize the Humkumrans illegal actions. This is no more than a slap on the face of the honorable justices who have rendered tremendous services to the nation.

Such regretful and unfortunate actions by the News Media Organization must stop NOW!!! The people of this nation demand that their voices be heard. There is only one Chief Justice of Pakistan and that is most certainly not Mr Dogar.

Regards,
Executive Council
LUMS Students action committee

Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) students protest.

Moderates protesting against Musharraf.

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Qurratulain Hyder (Aini Apa), 1927-2007

Qurratulain Hyder (Aini Apa), 1927-2007

Surood e rafta baaz ayad kay nayad
Nasim e az hijaz ayad kay nayad
Saramad rozgar e ein faqeeray
Dagar dana e raaz ayad kay nayad

AaIt was a lovely winter evening in 1983 when I first met Aini Apa at the home of my beloved Misdaq Khala Jaan (Saleha Abid Hussain, the prolific Urdu writer) in Okhla (New Delhi). She looked even grander in person than I had imagined and by the end of that evening, I was completely ravished forever by her palpable charisma, her sharp intellect and her great good humor. She, on the other hand, thought I was a snob and said so to my dearest friend Sughra Mehdi (a famous writer in her own right and the adopted daughter of Misdaq Khala Jaan and Janab Abid Hussain Sahib). The reason she thought I was a snob is quintessential Aini Apa. My visit to Delhi, along with my mother, had been hastily arranged from Karachi, while I was home from the USA for two short weeks and our stay in India was going to be quite rushed. The dinner had been arranged by Misdaq Khala Jaan so Ammi and I could meet our friends and relatives in one evening. Aini Apa was living in Zakir Bagh at the time, being the first occupant of the Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan Chair at Jamia Millia, and was a frequent presence at my aunt’s home. She considered Sughra Mehdi as her friend and confidant (Aini Apa bestowed the title of “Musheer Fatima” on Sughra as Sughra is forever being solicited for practical advice by the young and old alike).

Like every other reader of Urdu literature, I worshipped Aini Apa and was dying to meet her, but had been duly forewarned by Sughra not to show my adoration as Aini Apa was known to be irritated by all manner of people claiming to be her fans. As a result, I spent the entire evening regaling her with juicy gossip about our common acquaintances (she loved to gossip), jokes (she had a fantastic sense of humor and she roared with complete abandon if she liked the joke), poetry (I lay claim to knowing hundreds of Urdu verses, including some wicked and funny ones) and conspicuously avoiding any acknowledgment of her as the greatest living writer of her time. The fact that Aini Apa minded my deliberate avoidance of the subject is why I say it was quintessential Aini Apa. She was full of surprises and contradictions. For example, she once asked a famous critic repeatedly to tell her what he thought of her latest book, while he tried helplessly to excuse himself modestly from doing so because he felt he was not good enough to critique her work. At her insistence, he finally caved in and feebly critiqued a few very minor points in the novel. Aini Apa’s subsequent unbridled wrath which immediately and ferociously descended upon the miserable chap and lasted late in to the night, lived up to its legendary reputation. Paradoxically, when the famed Urdu writer and tri-lingual poet, and my flamboyantly gay best friend (we were known as the Hag-Fag couple in Chicago, and he insisted that he was the hag) Ifti Nasim was invited by Jawarhlal Nehru University in Delhi to give a series of lectures, one of his major attractions was to be able to meet Aini Apa. He asked me for an introduction to her and I called Aini Apa to request some time for Ifti. She was completely smitten by him forever as on the first meeting, he promptly produced a lipstick from his pocket and said, “You will love this Aini Apa because I use the same shade.”

Aps_and_aaIt took two more meetings before we really became friends, and then stayed in touch ever since. I invited her as a guest of my literary club Urdu Mehfil in the summer of 1992 to Cincinnati [photo on the right shows us at that time], and during the few weeks that she stayed with me, we traveled (Buffalo, Niagara Falls), laughed hysterically, had serious bitching sessions, ate out at fancy restaurants, and talked endlessly about subjects ranging from Masnawi e Zehr e Ishq, Dilli kay karkhandar, Mir Anis, and Bollywood to how sweet she thought EM Forester, Arnold Toynbee and John Dos Passos were in person, and how arrogant Steinbeck. During this stay, I taped many hours of serious conversations with her. She agreed to be interviewed only if I would write out my questions in advance and she would decide whether they were worth answering or not. I will transcribe these in Part Two of this article. She had very definite likes and dislikes and two things she hated with a passion were any mention of her writing and all deserts. The latter prompted my darling Zakia to compose the following parody of Ghalib’s ghazal on the spot while we were all together in Cincinnati:

Zindagi youn bhi guzar hi jaati
Kyoon jawani ka figure yaad aaya

Munh mein rasgulla na aya tha hanooz
Aini Apa ka qahar yaad ayaya

Some years ago in Chicago, I was complaining about the malice and political acrobatics of a peer to my dear friends Arjun Appadurai and Carol Breckenridge when Arjun cut me short and made the following profound statement: “Azra yaar, there are very few people who are truly the A-team (Beethoven, Einstein, Freud, Michelangelo…..you get the picture). The rest of us are all just B-team. What difference does it make to complain or feel competitive within the B-team?” I can safely say that of the five A-team people I have met in my life, Aini Apa heads the list.

She was born with a silver spoon in her mouth and grew up among the exclusive elite circle of her famous parents Sajjad Hyder Yildirim and Nazr Sajjad Hyder. At 19, she astounded the world of Urdu with her first novel, Meray Bhi Sanam Khanay which dealt with the theme that occurs repeatedly in her subsequent works; the tragedies and social betrayals resulting from the partition of the subcontinent. Where history is concerned, the devil definitely lies in detail. With profound insight, exquisite sensitivity and heartbreaking prose, she chronicled the stories of families and individual lives as they were rent asunder in parallel with the fissuring of the country. This is what C.M. Naim, Professor of Urdu Literature and Languages at the University of Chicago says in his introduction to “A season of Betrayal” which contains the English translations of her short story Patjhar ki Avaz and the two novellas, Sita Haran and Housing Society:

The days and months that preceded and followed August 1947 – when the Indian subcontinent became free of colonial bonds – were filled with most horrific acts of physical violence. It was also a time of other, equally rampant violations that were not any the less scarring for not being patently physical. These were violations of trust; they wounded and maimed the psyches of their victims, leaving the bodies intact. And their time – that season of betrayals – lasted longer than just several months. At the time, most major Urdu writers – they were almost all men – wrote about the horrors and brutalities that some human beings could deliberately inflict upon others in the name of religion. Only later did some of them –Rajinder Singh Bedi, for one – turn their attention to the other, less overtly bloody tragedies: what had happened and continued to happen to individual and families at that human site where there had been no “riot” and yet there were any number of victims. Prominent among the latter was Qurratulain Hyder, who may also have been unique among all writers, women and men, for having experienced and written about such tectonic upheavals in all the emergent borders – in India and in both West and East Pakistan. Interestingly, she first responded in the form of novels, as if the magnitude of the events demanded a larger canvas, and only later turned to shorter genres. In some sense however, she never stopped examining the consequences of those events, as is evident even in her most recent works.

The second last paragraph sums it up beautifully:

In almost all her writings Hyder has been concerned with Time, that faceless presence which transforms all appearances and which we ignore only at our own peril. Though this inevitability of change is our only permanent reality, Hyder persistently urges us to recognize both its faces, one of gain and the other of loss. A linearly progressing time brings about changes. Should we then take sides? Should we say that change is progress? Or should we sat it is decline? Either according to Hyder would be simplistic and perilous, for such issues are not settled by a reference to the material world alone. What counts for her is the human spirit and relationships it generates and nurtures. That is where the linearity of time seems to curve into a spiral, urging us to recognize a past that never quite disappears.

I may be stretching the point but it seems to me that what Hyder tacitly offers us is nothing but that wise Candidean response: even in the best of all possible worlds, it is best not to neglect to tend our garden. Certainly, through the several thousand pages of her writings, she has shown herself to be an eloquent witness to that truth.

A Season of Betrayals (Oxford University Press).

At 28, she published her magnum opus, the landmark Aag ka Darya, which is arguably the best book in fiction, occupying that coveted place in Urdu which Garcia Marquez’s One hundred years of Solitude occupies in Hispanic literature. The world of Urdu changed forever after this book was published since every subsequent writer has been influenced by Aini Apa (yes, including Salman Rushdie):

It was the season of beerbahutis and rainclouds, some time in the 4th century B.C. In a cool grotto Gautam Nilamber, a final year student at the Forest University of Shravasti chances upon Hari Shankar, a princeling yearning to be a Buddhist monk. He falls in love with the beautiful, sharp-witted Champak. And thus begins a magnificent tale that flows through Time, through Maghadhan Pataliputra, the Kingdom of Oudh, the British Raj, and into a Time of Independence. This fiery river of Time flows along the banks of their lives as they are reborn and recreated, weaving through twists and turns, the flows and eddies, keeping them together, keeping them apart. The story comes full circle in post-Partition India where Hari Shankar and his friend Gautam Nilamber Dutt meet in a grotto in the forest of Shravasti, and mourn the passing of their lives into meaninglessness, their friends who have left for Pakistan, and what remains of their country of which they were once so passionately proud. What happens between then and now is history, full of the clangor of conflict, the deviousness of colonizers, the apathy of maharajahs, and the irrelevance of religion in defining Indianness.

(Publishers note on River of Fire).

I read this mesmerizing book once every 2-3 years, and to me, in addition to its captivating prose and the stories themselves, it also represents one of Aini Apa’s central and profound tenets: current events, history, and most importantly, the past, have a nasty habit of intruding into our lives no matter how private a citizen we wish to be. Should we then abandon society and lead the life of an ascetic Jain? Well, as she deftly shows in the interconnected stories, even that does not protect us. In fact, one of the major messages of the book is exactly the message which Ghalib sends in the following brilliant couplet.

Dair naheen, haram naheen, dar naheen aastan naheen
Baithay hayn rahguzar pay hum, koi hamayn uthai kyoon

Aini Apa’s memory was extraordinary and flawless, her intelligence was dazzling, her knowledge of Urdu, Hindi, and English literature, archeology, dance, classical music, (her last book is a biography of Ustad Baray Ghulam Ali Khan), painting, etymology and history was astonishing. I never heard her utter a platitude in all the times I have spent with her, and she was equally brilliant in both Urdu and English. Aini Apa was a fantastic mimic and could adopt a series of perfectly authentic regional accents. She thoroughly enjoyed a good joke, especially if it involved her. She loved the hajv written by her cousin which begins with the following lines:

Qurratulain hayn adab may dakheel
Jaisay Mulk e Arab mayn Israel

Aa_youngShe was a stunningly good looking young woman and cut a striking, imposing and graceful figure when older, and when she was not writing, her pet hobby was painting. I have never met anyone who valued her family more than she did. There was unconditional love in her heart for each and every member of the extended Hyder clan and for that of her mother’s side as well. Her glorious personality sparkled and lit up every room she was in. When I was in Delhi in 1992, Shabana Azmi had come to see me at my lovely friends Zakia and Akku Zaheer’s home in Ashadeep. Aini Apa was also there for dinner that night. It was a magical evening with Sughra, Saiyeda (Hamid), Zakia, Aini Apa, Shabana, my friend Mehro and her husband Samar. Sparks of wit, hypnotizing Urdu couplets, and funny lines ranging from Ajit epigrams to Blonde jokes were flying all over. I saw Shabana, who is no less magnificent a person, an icon of Bollywood cinema with hundreds of millions of devoted followers, being completely blown away by Aini Apa. Such was her charisma, such her charm.

Aisa kahan say laain kay tujh sa kahain jissay?

I never met anyone whose set of values was as decent, who combined her celebrated wisdom with mind-boggling innocence and vulnerability, who was truly the kindest, gentlest, most sensitive person around and yet who did not suffer fools lightly. Javed Akhtar once said to me that the names of people Aini Apa really likes can be written on a grain of rice (secretly, both he and I were unabashedly confident that we were among those) and yet her circle of friends and acquaintances was exceedingly wide. She was compassionate to a fault and could feel the pain of the haves and have-nots with equal sensitivity.

As a friend, she was breathtakingly generous and thoughtful. During one of my visits to Delhi, she arranged an amazing evening for me. My favorite Urdu poet (who I think is as great as Ghalib) is Mir Anis, the acknowledged King of elegiac poetry (marsias), and whose unique style of reciting marsias was legendry in Lukhnow. Aini Apa invited the grandson of Sir Sultan Ahmed for a majlis at her place because Tanveer has learned to copy Mir Anis precisely, from gestures and voice intonations to the angarkha and dupalli topi he wore. I was more deeply touched by her thoughtful gesture of holding a majlis for me because she was not a practicing Shia (although her mother was), but did it because she knew of my absolute devotion to Anis. She was also a great admirer of Anis and her story, “Qayd khaney main talatum hay kay Hind aatii hay” is a lovely reminder of that.

Aini Apa could do no wrong as far as her diehard admirers like me were concerned for one simple reason:

Wu tu iss funn ka Khuda hay yaaro
Uss ko har baat rava hay yaaro

(She is the Goddess of her field
Everything is permissible for her)

Last year, we were chatting on the phone when something I said reminded her of a wonderful anecdote about the great Ismat Chughtai. Ismat Apa was trying to give some extra money to her washerman, an extremely poor, illiterate man from some hinterland in UP. He asked her what he was supposed to do with the money, and Ismat Apa said what do you mean what are you supposed to do with the money? Buy toys for your children. His response was a drawled out “Phaiiiiinh???” (the Purbi version of phir which means and then?). And Ismat Apa said, well, buy some new clothes for your wife, and he said “Phaiiiiinh???” And on and on. So Azra Begum, this is what life is all about…..a never ending series of “Phaiiiiinhs???” I got the Sahitya Academy Fellowship …. “Phaiiiiinh???” I got the Bharatiya Gnanpith (India’s highest literary award)……..“Phaiiiiinh???” I get the Nobel Prize tomorrow …… “Phaiiiiinh???”

During my last trip to India in 2004, I drove from Janpath to Noida every single day to see her. Her breathing problems caused by severe and progressive pulmonary fibrosis were getting visibly worse. One afternoon following lunch, I cornered Aini Apa and suggested immediate re-evaluation of her condition by a fresh team of specialists. She was adamant in the beginning, insisting that she had the best physicians taking care of her already, but over the next few days, was finally convinced to follow my advice, and subsequently, did better for a long while.

The first evening I went to see Aini Apa in 2004, I had taken my 9 year old daughter Sheherzad with me. Aini Apa was exceedingly attentive to her, had her recite lots of poetry by Ghalib and Iqbal which I have made the innocent one memorize since she was three years old, encouraged her on during and after each poem by applauding loudly. When she found out that Sheherzad had been taking Kathak dance lessons, Aini Apa was visibly delighted and insisted that she does a few steps for the guests which included the Vice Chancellor of Jamia. Such was Aini Apa’s aura that without a peep, my daughter got up and performed an entire song for her.

On my last day in Delhi, Aini Apa insisted upon coming to see me herself for lunch at Abid Villa in Okhla. Walking into the house from the car which had been pulled up in the driveway almost to the front door, Aini Apa was completely out of breath and had turned blue. It took many puffs from her various inhalers, and the connection to her portable oxygen tank before she could catch her breath sufficiently to be able to talk. Then she was unstoppable. During this memorable afternoon, as we sat in Sughra’s verandah, enjoying what Josh Sahib has named the gulabi dhoop of a January afternoon, the front door bell rang. Sughra’s young niece Zehra answered the door, and then to our great delight, yelled out in all earnestness, “Sughra Apa, the beggar is here. What do you want to give him today, lunch or lecture?” At last, the time came for us to part. We walked Aini Apa to the car, a few short yards bringing on another severe attack of breathlessness. When she was safely seated in the car and had caught her breath somewhat, she asked the driver to open the trunk. “I have been thinking about what to give you” she said, “and decided upon a very special gift.” Out of the trunk came a huge, beautiful, bright yellow satin quilt with silver stripes on top and brown lining at the bottom. “I got this made in Radoli because I always felt cold in America, so I know this is one present you will definitely use.” Needless to say, I had to borrow an extra large suitcase from Sughra to fit this lihaf in for the trip back home to Chicago, but it remains one of my prized possessions. She gave me a big kiss and we stood on the road waving to her until her car turned the corner and went out of sight. This was the last time I would see Aini Apa.

Aa_lastIn March of this year, as my other A-team member friend Sara Suleri Goodyear and I were working on our book Ghalib: Epistemologies of Elegance, we agreed that the best person to write a foreword for our book would be Aini Apa. Given the highest esteem in which we both hold Aini Apa, we felt it called for a trip to India in order to make the request in person. Sara by the way, who has never met Aini Apa, but is nonetheless an admirer of hers, reminds me uncannily of Aini Apa: the same regal personalities, equally intelligent, classy, wise, witty, sensitive, generous, and above all, both have a wonderful sense of humor. Had they so chosen, each could have become a great actress. It was one of my wishes to see them together in the same room. We called Aini Apa and asked her if she could spare a week for us, to which she readily agreed and insisted that we stay with her. As our bags were packed and all preparations were complete, including a menu for our various meals at Aini Apa’s by her devoted housekeeper Rehana, at the last minute Sara was denied a visa by the Indian consulate in New York. We later learned that this was a tit-for-tat game being played between Pakistan and India. Pakistan had denied a visa right around the same time to Javed Akhter, so India was going to do the same for a prominent Pakistani. We were heartbroken. When I called to tell Aini Apa about the visa situation, she was incensed and threatened to call the Prime Minister and protest. Unfortunately, it was too late as Sara’s Spring break at Yale was going to be over soon and she had to start teaching again. We decided to go during her Winter break. Alas, Aini Apa did not wait for us.

My last phone conversation with Aini Apa was some six weeks before the end came. She was her usual sparkling self and we gossiped and chatted for a long time. In early August, I had some kind of a premonition, and called her only to be told that she had been admitted to the ICU that very day with a severe pneumonia. I called regularly, and received increasingly ominous reports from Sughra, Bacchan (Aini Apa’s grand-niece Huma Hyder who was adored by Aini Apa like a daughter and who did more for Aini Apa than any other soul) and Rehana. I talked to Dr. Shukla, her personal physician, and learned that even as she was improving in some ways and had been transferred from the ICU to the step-down unit, her lungs were not cooperating since almost no functioning pulmonary tissue was left. At 11:00 p.m. on August 21, Sughra called with the news that Aini Apa was no more.

Kaheen andheray say manoos hu na jaayey adab
Chiragh taiz hava nay bujhaaey hain kya kya

–Kaifi Azmi

Aini Apa no more? That can never be. Even if it sounds clichéd, as long as Urdu is alive, she truly will always reign as one of the most dominant writers, and she will live through the several generations of writers she has already and indelibly influenced, with many more to come. So instead of saying Inna Lillah, I am going to say:

Aini Apa Zindabad!

————————————-
Note: This article is dedicated to my brother Abbas who first requested nicely that I write something about Aini Apa and when I did not respond (so heartbroken I felt by this terrible loss), he browbeat me into it.

Posted by Azra Raza at 12:05 AM |

BAANDER

Baander, means ‘monkey’ – but for some reason, the word monkey does not reflect the full intent and meaning of what the word ‘baander’ does. In my opinion, MQM is the latest victim of the anti-politics military establishment of Pakistan, which works relentlessly to make the politicians and political parties discredited in Pakistan. MQM is the latest baanders in that long list of baanders. Before them were the sirkari Moulvis who signed on the 17th ammendment, Muslim League, and People’s party and countless other riff raff. Now the number of baanders in the political process is far exceeding the number of decent and principled human beings. Meaning, there is no hope.

The creation of MQM by military was in fact an attempt by military establisment to feudalize the biggest urban and civic center of the nation. The attempt was successful. Today Karachi stand just as any other feudal fiefdom as in any other rural part in country, where nothing happens unless feudal lords want it. Karachi is now the same where new MQM feudal establishment has its own revenue collection (bhatta), private jails, torture cells, death squads; police and bureaucracy cannot lift a finger without the approval of the “feudal lord”. God! what a regression.

So I would welcome all Karachiiites into the fold where the rest of the country is. Bohat uchchla karte they tum log. Who is the monkey now, Paindoos?

Muhammad Asad

Karachi Bleeds

Two Entries on the situation in Karachi.

1) Shahab

 

An historical day in Pakistan has just commenced. The events of the 12^th day of May, 2007, were preceded by political parties drawing the proverbial battle lines with MQM and PML(Q) on one side and the remainder political parties on the other. MQM from the outset is a mismatch in this equation.

 

The PML(Q) was a party built up by the military establishment by buying the loyalties of “lotas” in order to give a humane look to its belligerent political designs. So it is understandable why the PML(Q) was siding with Musharraf on the judicial saga. However, the MQM’s existence is independent of Musharraf’s political aspirations and has existed before and will surely exist after he is long gone. The political activists of MQM have also come out clearly in support of Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and Altaf Hussain has acknowledged the wrongdoings of the government in the present judicial crisis.

 

 

So why did the MQM take an unpopular stand on the 12^th of May and exacerbated matters by not even staying neutral on the matter? Wouldn’t it have been more appropriate for the MQM to ride on the popularity wave of the honorable Chief Justice who is receiving great support from all quarters of Pakistan? May I also stress here that the matter of the present judicial crisis IS a political matter so there is no sense in condemning political parties with carrying out their duty of taking the CJs matter to the public and making a “court matter” a “road matter”. In any case, perhaps there is an answer to why the MQM acted the way it did.

 

 

As an urdu-speaker, I was watching the events of Karachi with great concern and dismay. I had already known that such scenes were to be expected, but as a Karachite and urdu-speaker who supports the MQM, I felt I had to break my silence after hearing the speech delivered by Altaf Hussain. I believe that closer inspection of this speech will bring forward all the answers that political analysts might be looking for.

 

 

Firstly, I was disappointed at how the MQM leader used this incident as a parallel to the events of Karbala. His reference to Yazid – I think he was pointing at the PPP – and painting himself as Imam Hussain made me realize how the MQM leader was grossly confused. Perhaps it might be a good idea to remind him the incident of Karbala so that he may put things in a more educated perspective.

 

 

Imam Hussain’s struggle was against the ruler of the time who was known for his irreligious ways. Imam Hussain knew, and Yazid proved it time and again, that Yazid was not fit to become the ruler of the Islamic State and that he was elected unconstitutionally. Just like Chaudhry Iftikhar was warned against traveling to Kufah, Imam Hussain was warned. In both cases the 2 personalities went ahead with their planned trip. Imam Hussain was traveling with a small band of 70 persons who supported his cause while the Chief Justice traveled with 25-odd supporters of his cause.

 

 

In both cases the central characters were the ruling dictators namely Yazid and Musharraf. Also, in both cases, there was a desire to quell a small band of people raising their voices against the establishment in a key state. Perhaps MQM doesn’t realize that by siding with Musharraf on this issue they have unwillingly become the Ibn Ziyad of this conflict. Ibn Ziyad, of course, was the brutal governor of Kufah appointed by Yazid to quell the procession and stopping it from reaching Kufah at all costs. Both Ibn Ziyad and MQM have done their jobs successfully as instructed. I suspect that just as Yazid disowned himself from this act, the government will disown itself from the acts of the Ibn Ziyads of Karachi. However, just like Yazid did, the establishment will not take any action against the MQM and will in fact pay them handsomely for their loyalty.

 

 

The MQM will find themselves on the wrong side of history very soon. They may be dancing in joy at their program being successful, but as soon as the dust will settle they will realize their folly of doing the establishment’s dirty work and taking their ambition to hang on to Karachi too far. Unfortunately for Karachi, it has become the Kufah that betrayed the Imam. Jinnah Terminal has become the Karbala of Ifitkhar Chaudhry. But, just as the incidents of Karbala turned out in favor of Imam Hussain, the events of yesterday will turn in favor of the Chief Justice and this will only add to his fame. The MQM will be left with their feet in their mouths doing “matam” to wash themselves of the sin they committed on the 12 ^th of May, 2007.

 

As for the Karachiites under the MQM, they were as helpless as the Kufans under Ibn Ziyad. This is the same Karachi that went out of its way during the earthquake that shook the entire Pakistan and played an exemplary role. Today, Karachiites stand humiliated by the acts of the MQM. The CJs processions have gone peacefully in all parts of Pakistan, but in Karachi not only was he not even allowed to set foot on the city, the entire city was bathed in the blood of Karachiites in a state-managed drama.

 

 

I personally feel that the MQM did what they did because of 2 reasons: (1) They are too intoxicated in their lust to hold onto Karachi as “their territory”; (2) Aitezaz Ahsan’s and the religious parties endorsement to the CJ makes them feel threatened that staying neutral on the issue would have made them lose political mileage in Karachi. While the first point can literally be reduced to one word, “ghundagardi”, I feel the second point is where the MQM has made a patently flawed assumption.

 

 

Instead of feeling threatened of losing its vote bank in Karachi, the MQM could have endorsed this popular movement that has even woken up the slumber Punjab for the first time in Pakistan’s history! The MQM rather than losing support in Karachi, would have earned more praise and acclaim from all of Pakistan who would have witnessed people from all political affiliations walking together hand-in-hand. The MQM could have, in a very civilized way, stamped their authority on Karachi, which is what they wanted to prove with what they did yesterday. Alas, the chance has gone begging and it will take a whole lot more to make up for it.

 

2) Wajahat

 

It is a black and bloody day for karachi today and a dark day for Pakistan. But this is not a new thing for this city as we have witnessed this before.

To give an unbiased picture, unlike others on this board, the power mongers of karachi, namely the MQM are showing their maniacal tendencies to demonstrate that they rule the roost in karachi. Combine these demigods (hear their psychotic leader from london) with the vengeful PPP and likes from Sindh and parts of Jamiat and its turns the city into a powderkeg. We have seen this before under the BB, there can be no peace in karachi with a PPP government as MQM/APMSO and PPP/PSF will never be at peace.

And on matter of the CJP, he must see that he had become a tool of political forces (Specially PPP) and has become almost farcical in his actions. His principle are correct and Musharraf should be taught a lesson in the courts, but this should have been kept in the courts and not brought onto the streets.

I know what I am talking about as I grew up in a complex in Karachi which was a pinnacle of PSF(PPP) vs MQM(APMSO) wars. My flat, Time Square in Gulshan Iqbal was taken over by PSF terrorists who were mostly Muhajir boys with a specks of sindhis who had traditionally bought into the Bhutto dream of democratic emancipation. They took over all empty flats and set up “Moorchas” on all entry/exits points. I remember the crates of guns arriving in jeeps from the plain cloth army drivers, who were then under the command of BB (Unleashing the later genocide of 92). I was one of the young boys who stood in awe when those shiny weapons were taken out of their imported boxes. THe PSF guys, usually a friendly bunch unless drunk, would make us hold the guns and we would be fascinated by the whole thing.

And then there were the wars, APMSO terrorists arriving in the middle of the night in hijacked EDHI Vans, surrounding our flats and supported by the Crescent complex flat which they had similarly occupied. I remember that my father dismantled all the beds because they would be too high when the firing started. The front gallery of our old flat was littered with bullet holes. I remember lying on the floor with my brothers and trying to act brave as the guns blazed across for hours at end. In the morning we would get up and ammi would then send us to school which was a few streets away, where I would take shells from all types of weapons littered across our flat for freinds from other areas.

I am recalling this as this was a middle class place with a middle class community, and as we speak a similar battle is taking place on a flat in Sharae faisal.

The point, the people of karachi do not deserve the murderers either from the MQM or the PPP/Jamiat. And all because this is a war of egos between a politicised ex CJP , a president hell bent on retaining power, a PPP which is avenging and trying to blow up any and every powderkeg and an MQM which has to show its master in khaki that it is still the powerhouse in karachi.

Abhi tau rut badalni thi..

Abhi tau rut badalni thi abhi tau phool khilnay thay
abhi tau shaam dhalni thi abhi tau zakhm silnay thay

Abhi tau serzameen-e-jaaN pe ik baadal ko ghirna tha
abhi tau wasl ki baarish meiN nangay paaoN phirna tha

Abhi tau kasht-e-ghum meiN ik khushi ka khwab bona tha
abi tau sainkRoN sochi hui baatoN ko hona tha

Abhi tau saahiloN pe ik hawa-e-shaad chalni thi
abhi jo chal rahi hai ye tau kuchh din baad chalni thi!

What Ails the BPO industry in Pakistan?

What Ails the BPO industry in Pakistan?

By Noman Faisal

Historians in Pakistan noted with excitement the dawn of the Information Technology revolution and then cringed with helplessness as it went past us. Universities churned out thousands of IT engineers and programmers. Most of them are now working in sales or local call centers. As the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry made waves in India, changing the lifestyle of people in Bangalore and other cities, people in Pakistan watched with optimism that maybe just this time, we will get some where. But this too did not materialize.

The National Association of Software Services and Companies (NASSCOM) in India points out that “the motivating factors behind making India the great BPO/ITeS destination include strong quality orientation among players, ability to offer round-the-clock services based on the country’s unique geographic location, positive policy environment which encourages investments and a friendly tax structure, which places the ITES/BPO industry on almost equal footing with IT services companies”. By the year 2008, the ITES- BPO sector is expected to employ over 1.1 million Indians, with its sales expected to touch an amazing 21$ to 24 $ billion dollars. Now compare this scenario with Pakistan. Government in Pakistan has given amazing incentives to this sector. The cost of bandwidth has reduced to a very low rate over the last 5 years. We have the same geographic location, positive policy environment and, yet with all that, still in 2007, international companies are (investing in)/discovering new markets in Ireland, Philippines, China and Egypt. Pakistan is nowhere in sight.
According to a report released in January 2005 by the Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB), there were more than 110 call centers in Pakistan employing more than 2300 agents. Most of these operations have been setup within the last two years, and they have generated an estimated $50 million. Things have not improved much in the last 2 years.
This article aims to discuss the problems and the challenges which made Pakistan unable to appear anywhere on the map as a preferred destination for the BPO sector, whilst people with the similar abilities across the border have made great impact by intelligently taking the lead and investing in this lucrative sector.

1. Lack of Leadership:

Time and again we have seen organizations jump on the band wagon of technological revolution before they had a chance to do any serious thinking on developing a vision or come up with the metrics to identify if they are on the right track. This lack of vision or leadership is the biggest challenge of all for the outsourcing centers we have in Pakistan. Other than few BPO companies (and we have very few of them, not more than 100, as per a recent survey done by PSEB). Most call centers in this country are not the prime business priority for their owners. Despite this we have some ‘success stories’, if one can use that term in Pakistan! Companies like TRG, Ovex Technologies, Touchstone and Voxel to name a few. People get into this business not to establish a brand name like we have seen in our neighboring country, but to make a quick buck, and if the going gets tough, they simply move out. The entrepreneurs investing in the BPO industry are in it for short-term returns. They lack any long term strategy, exposure or experience to deliver the goods.

2. Lack of Human Resource

Its time we take our heads out of the sands, and admit to the fact that we don’t have the talent required to work in the Information Technology enabled Services (ITeS) companies. Entrepreneurs and staff working in the ITeS sector need a significant investment in training in order to be able to succeed. We have heard the slogan ‘We have the best talent’ so many times, that one wants to almost believe it. But ask any CEO of the BPO or International Call Center, and he will tell you his biggest fear is not losing customer (ok, that fear is still there), but the availability of human resource if he gets any project. The initial estimates made by TRG that Pakistan has 1.6 million English speakers turned out to be inaccurate. TRG however made lot of effort into training and developing the resource for call center, but obviously this needs the help and resources from the state. There is simply not enough number of people equipped with the skills to/possessing the skills to work in call center industry.

3. Training and Development

When there is shortage of skilled people in the market, the training and development costs go up. Ideally, someone with a graduate degree, or masters in business administration should be able to identify his / her role as a customer service person. But this is not the case. For something as basic as politeness needs to be taught to the new hires and it takes 2-4 weeks for basic customer service training. Universities can surely help in this by adding one more module on the MBA program. The lack of training and development has made another kind of business mushroom, which is training for call centers. The trend has gone unchecked with lot of people paying huge amount of money for courses aimed at preparing them for call center related skills training with a promises of lucrative jobs, and not getting anything in return. All these trained and skilled individuals still have to go through the training module prepared by their employers, meaning their money and time was wasted. There is a need for PSEB to step in and design and check the quality of training provided to make sure people don’t waste time and money.

A situation is even grim when it comes to training for Team Leaders / Supervisors in the call centers. There is not a single institute in the country which offers such trainings. Team leaders are the difference between a well-managed, successful team and poorly managed, unsuccessful one. They are the difference between a good company and a mediocre one. Due to lack of training facilities for these key positions, most of the call center employees lack that motivation and the result is mediocre service.

Training is also required for those who want to get into the BPO sector. There is a strong need to train the entrepreneurs on the challenges like Data Security, redundancy in Technology and most importantly the quality service delivery. Institutions like PSEB and PASHA can help by starting focused trainings on these areas.
3. Career Planning

Most people, at some point in their careers, experience dissatisfaction at the job. Some call it job burnout. This is specifically serious issue with BPO or ITeS related jobs. Most universities don’t have career planning department. It means most of the students, when they graduate lack sense of direction. They simply enter the market with the purpose of getting a job. Any job! In the absence of any direction, they also keep changing jobs, losing total track of what fits their abilities.

Universities need to take up the issue of career counseling or Career Planning more seriously, guiding the graduates on what is available in the market. The BPO companies need to make more job available to the employees in various support functions instead of hiring from outside. Job rotation increases the employee retention in BPO or ITeS companies.

In the BPO sector, this trend has as very negative impact. People join this industry as a part-time or temporary employment. And without putting any serious thought into the possibilities of growth in this sector, they end up moving to other sectors or even from one call center to another, for small increments, and call center loses a good trained resource. Some even go as far as opening their own small 3-5 seat call centers which die down in 1-2 years as the young restless entrepreneurs find it hard to sustain these business ventures. This takes us to the next problem which is paralyzing the industry.

4. Unsustainable business ventures

Mostly people who go into call centre industry are not familiar at all, or have some experience of working in the call centers. They are not aware of the problems, technicalities or client expectations. This makes their business ventures unlikely to be successful for a long period of time. ITeS are capital intensive. Starting from a small one room call center, it is hard to sustain the growing financial needs of the business.

Lot of call centers became unsuccessful when the people working for the company decided they could do that too! They left the companies started their own small business but with their lack of any in-depth knowledge of BPO market and growing focus on quality went out of the business in a year. They also made their previous employees go out of the market too.

5. Coordination between Academia and Business

A lot has been written in the past on the lack of interest shown by the academia and business forums to join hands and come up with the focused and organized initiatives to take advantage of the new business trends. HEC has too much on its plate, so it would be fair to expect the public and private universities to take the initiative and sit with the leading business forums in the country to formalize the plan to root out the joblessness by investing into these ventures. This will help both institutions and students/businessmen.

What can be done? (It’s still not too late!)
1. Awareness events for business owners

Government needs to keep doing what it has been doing in the past. PSEB has provided great opportunities and even offered subsidized training program. But a more thorough study is needed to find out what has made all those efforts go into waste. The resources that the state has can be better utilized by providing quality training and awareness seminars which will be focused on bringing the BPO business to Pakistan.

A good initiative like COPC training offered by PSEB needs to continue and it can be seen as a test case of how good initiatives with bad follow ups can ruin the money of taxpayers and efforts of companies. COPC training was offered, delivered and then call centers were shortlisted for the certification. But all this happened without talking to COPC headquarters and in the end people realized that the route they have taken is counter-productive and all the companies dropped the idea of certification. People who are in charge at PSEB need to look at this case and continue to push for these performance management standards for the local players, this time avoiding the problems they faced the first time.

PSEB also need to add middle level management training for Call Center Operations.
We have absolutely no training facility for middle level management in ITeS/BPO sector. This includes Team Leads / Supervisors and Managers. In any business these middle level managers drive growth and customer satisfaction.

The existing companies will definitely benefit from implementing these global standards and it will also help them attract good business from Fortune 100 companies.

2. Encouraging Export Houses to take up Pakistan’s case for BPO

In India, success of BPO sector is primarily the result of great IT revolution. In Pakistan, the top software houses must make effort to get into this field. And not just software export business, Sialkot and Faisalabad can become what the Bangalore is to India. The established business houses that are into export business must be invited and encouraged to look into the amazing potential of this industry. It will have enormous impact, and eventually the people will benefit with increased job opportunities, better training facilities.

Pakistan Software Houses Association (PASHA) can play very important role by aggressively marketing the idea to the members by announcing 2007 as ITeS/BPO focused year for business development and co-ordinate with PSEB to help make the process of setting up BPO centers at software houses easy and simple.

3. Forget Call Centers, Focus on BPO!

To many people, BPO means Call Centers. We need to have more seminars on the whole BPO work. BPO does not only mean Call Center. It includes so much more! Companies are outsourcing Financial Functions, Legal and Medical Transcription, Content Development, Data conversion, Network Support, Data Processing, Data mining and Quality Auditing. And that’s not all of it.

Call centers contribute a large share to the revenue of the Indian BPO industry. About 70% of the BPO industry’s revenue comes from call-centers, 20% from high-volume, low-value data work and the remaining 10% from higher-value information work. In Pakistan, we will have to change our strategy. We need to focus more on high-volume, Low Value Data work. We have the right Human Resource for this kind of work. We need to come out of the Call Center mindset.

5. All is not lost!

In the last 5 years, we have seen some progress. One notices all the people who joined international call centers in the last 4 0r 5 years are now taking up management positions in the local telecomm contact centers. And yes, the customer service is great too. So now we get to hear a polite person on the other end who wants to solve the problem efficiently because his or her KPI’s depend on the quality of his/her work. It also means not many good projects and jobs are in the international call centers anymore.

The maturity of call center industry can be noticed by the fact that few local cellular service careers have outsourced their own call centers to the companies who are serving international clients. Prime example of this is Paktel and Instaphone outsourcing their call center solutions to Ovex Technologies and PIA outsourcing their contact center to NCR. And the results are impressive. This is making more companies follow the footsteps. So we have the processes right, the service delivery is great but for international business the talent is scarce.

With all the IT parks opening up around the country, we need to work more closely going beyond our self-interests to fill out these big glass buildings with trained and skilled BPO workers that we have in this country.

Useful links
www.ovextech.com
www.trgworld.com
www.pseb.org
www.pitb.gov.pk
www.copc.com

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