Taraqqi Pasand Media- ترقّی پسند میڈیا

Laal Band mesmerises audience at charity event

iFaqeer — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 21:14:00 +0000

Received this via Faceebook:

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010%5C11%5C22%5Cstory_22-11-2010_pg13_7

Staff Report

LAHORE: A fashion show followed by a musical performance by Laal The Band was held at the World Fashion Café on Sunday evening.

The event was organised to raise funds for flood victims. Designers Yellow and Uzma Rao presented their latest collection of clothing, which were appreciated by the guests. Laal performed after the fashion show and received huge applause from the audience.

A guest, Nadia, said that the lyrics of the band’s songs were remarkable and they had an intellectual appeal to them. She said that the songs were a message to the people to stand up and contribute towards the development of the country.

The funds generated through the event were donated to the Edhi Foundation to provide aid to the flood victims.

Pakistan: Crisis in Medical Sector and Health Care

khawerkhan — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:31:37 +0000

The following article was published on marxist.com on January 11th 2010.

Pakistan: Crisis in Medical Sector and Health Care

Written by Dr Ahmad ArslanMonday, 11 January 2010

The battle for universal health access for every Pakistani can only be won through joining it with the struggle for a socialist transformation of the society. So it is time for the doctors and nurses to join the struggle because now it’s the struggle to save the medical and healthcare system as well.

Photo by Gul Hamaad Farooqi.Pakistan has become a country of endless crisis. Crisis is perhaps the most heard and spoken word on national television in Pakistan these days. From sugar crisis to rice crisis, people of Pakistan are frustrated and unable to understand why in an agricultural country, with some of the best fertile lands in the world and some of the best harvest in recent years, according to the government’s own proclamation, they can’t get flour, sugar and rice from the market even at triple prices. Sugar for example is not available even at 100 or 150 rupees per kilogram. Its usual price ranged between 20 to 30 rupees. The government and Supreme Court fixed it at 40 Rs. This despite the fact that Pakistani farmers produced the best sugar cane crop last year and according to various economists there is no production shortage of sugar in the country. There is a very simple explanation for all of this, one which Pakistani intellectuals and political analysts don’t want to hear and that is: “It’s Capitalism!” Its the wonders of capitalism where you can produce the best of wheat and sugar cane and still can’t find sugar and flour in the market. The crisis which I am going to discuss has a similar color to it where you can produce some of the finest doctors and nurses in the world but have one of the worst health care systems.

Some Background Information

Pakistan is a country which has an organized, structured and planned health care system, at least in theory and on government papers. Most of it is in a state of organic decay which is the result of bureaucratic incompetence and red tape. A very important cause of this decay is the deliberate and conscious assault on the Public Sector health care system by the ruling elite of Pakistan in the name of “reform”, “devolution” and “de-regulation”. These reforms have destroyed not only the health care system but have also created a crisis in areas like medical education and specialist training thus threatening the very survival of health care system in the country.

From the very start Pakistan had two parallel health care systems, public and private. The private sector’s share in health care was very small. Most of it consisted of the private practice of doctors in their communities. Initially this private practice was part-time and not very expensive. The bulk of health care existed in the Public sector. It was organized in the late 60s and early 70s especially after Pakistan People’s Party first government came to power on a socialist program. The public health care system was organized in 3 layers which were hierarchical. A network of Basic Health Units was envisioned and later built to serve the community at grass roots level. The BHUs existed at the level of villages and were concerned with “Primary Health Care”. They were also to be the basic vehicle for the Public Health Campaigns, like conducting mass immunization programs (Started in first PPP government), Malaria, Tuberculosis and Diarrhea control programs, programs for reproductive health, contraception and family planning. At the level of towns and small cities, a network of secondary health care units was set up which acted as centers for basic specialist care and supervisors of BHUs. At the top of the chain was “Tertiary Care System” or centers of advance specialist care, teaching hospitals, research centers and medical colleges.

To regulate and monitor various aspects of health care system regulatory bodies were made. Pakistan Medical and Dental Council or PMDC is the primary watchdog and regulator of medical education and practice, modeled on the General Medical Council of the United Kingdom. College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan or CPSP (modeled on Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons UK) regulates the teaching hospitals and is concerned with specialist and post-graduate medical education. National Institute of Health is concerned with Public Health. .

A complete and organized service structure was provided from being a medical officer in a BHU to being a professor of medicine at teaching hospital through Public Service Commission and MoH.

Pakistan also committed itself to “Health for All by Year 2000” initiative. It was a Moscow driven United Nation campaign in which the signatory nations pledged to provide universal health care to their people by year 2002. Now its 2009 and people still await the universal health care promised to them by their states. Most of this was happening in the 60s and 70s when a strong socialist movement existed in the country which was forcing the governments to do something about the health sector. The reconciliatory policies of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto led to the reactionary dictatorship of Zia-ul-Haq who corrupted and mismanaged the public sector opening the way to the private sector. Large private hospitals started to appear and the regulations on the pharmaceutical sector were removed. In the 90s Pakistan went into full “de-regulation” swing. During Musharraf’s time the private sector was given complete parity with the public sector with deliberate strangulation of public sector medical education.

The Myth of efficient Private Sector: Where is the Improvement?

Since the time of General Zia-ul-Haq a deliberate myth has been built by the politicians, governments, NGOs and certain intellectuals that the private sector is very efficient. By opening up the health sector to private investment, the public’s access to quality health care will increase. With the private sector, professional standards will improve. Tales of medical negligence and malpractice in public hospitals were propagated in mass media. There is no question that there were inefficiencies and shortcoming in the public sector (which itself was due to bureaucratic corruption) but the mania that was created was totally out of proportions.

As a result of these and government policies we saw a mushrooming of private medical hospitals throughout Pakistan. Some of them look like European Plazas with lavish rooms similar to those of five star hotels, having huge LCD screens to watch television. Contrary to all myths there was neither improvement in professional training nor professional standards. The standard of care actually deteriorated, medical malpractice reached new heights and the media filled up with reports of terrifying tales of corruption and exploitation in the private sector hospitals. The cost of health care increased thousand folds or so. On the top of it there are constant reports in the media on the development of illegal and unethical trade of “transplant organs” within the private sector hospitals. Exploiting the poverty of the people, these hospitals buy kidneys and other organs from the patients sometimes even without their consent. Cases have been reported where both kidneys of a patient were removed on pretext of doing an operation for appendicitis; Pushing the person towards a certain death.

There are horrifying stories regarding the Cosmetic surgery clinics and fertility clinics (which have mushroomed in the past decade). Their practice is totally unregulated and highly unethical in most situations. A similar unregulated medical business exists in form of controversial laser treatment and surgery to improve the eye sight. In most cases these businesses are not in the hands of doctors and there are reports that procedures are done by non medical technical staff (It’s not a mainstream medical practice).

Also private medical colleges and universities are mushrooming in the country, which have no proper teaching staff and hospitals and are producing incompetent doctors although extracting exorbitant fees from their students.

It needs 2 to3 million Pakistani rupees ($35,000 approx.) and five years for a student to become a medicine graduate in private hospitals. Also the situation in public medical colleges is not encouraging with one to a few hundred student:teacher ratio the standards can be understood easily.

Also the situation in public hospitals is miserable. Patients being treated in cruel ways and in hazardous premises only leads to more disease and illness. Corruption of management in public hospitals is a normal practice with selling of drugs to medical stores, embezzlement of funds, taking commissions from private medicine companies, defecting medical equipment by staff and other irregularities.

Even a bed in a public hospital is on sale, whoever pays the bribe can be admitted.

So millions die here without reaching the proper hospital and many die after reaching the hospital as they have not enough money to get treatment and to pay bribes. Also many die even in the hospital due to negligence and improper care.

Many cases of deaths due to negligence have been reported even in expensive private hospitals.

Facts Speak For Themselves

With active strangulation of the public sector and mushrooming of private hospitals, what is the actual improvement?

Pakistan ranks 136 out of 177 countries in the Human Development Index (United Nations 2007/2008). The index is based on social and health indicators of a country, putting Pakistan amongst the poorest.

According to Dr Mehboob-ul-Haq, from the center of human development, 73% of the Pakistani population lives below the poverty line despite the unprecedented “growth” due to economic liberalism (Dr Mehboob-ul-Haq was a capitalist economist and economic minister of Zia-ul-Haq).

In the 10 year review of the social and health indicators and economic growth in South Asia by the center in form of “Human Development in South Asia” published last year, it was noted that “The progress of life expectancy in Pakistan in last 10 years is slowest in the region”

The percentage of malnourished children under five years of age remains stagnant at 38%

The maternal mortality rate per 100,000 live births actually increased from 340 deaths in 1993 to 500 deaths in 2000. (Please note this is the time period of most active de-regulation and economic liberalism and booming of the private health sector in Pakistan)

Incidence of Tuberculosis per 100,000 populations increased from 150 in 1995 to 181 in 2004.

Public Spending on health came down from 0.8 % of the GDP in 1995 to 0.4% in 2004

There is general deterioration or stagnation in every social and health indicator, thanks to the Capitalist neo-liberalism and economic growth.

The ratio of doctor to population is 1 to 1254. Even today 80% of all deaths and 90% of all illnesses in Pakistan are due to diseases which are preventable.

Thanks to rotten capitalist policies of the ruling elite of Pakistan today’s 80% of total health care expenditure is private expenditure and that too is in the form of “out-of-pocket” money. In a country where 73% live on less than 2 dollars one can imagine how hard it is to get health care.

A Comparison with Cuba: Miracles of planned health care

Although I don’t consider Cuba an ideal socialist republic, the overthrow of capitalism and a planned health care system and economy has done wonders in terms of human development. Cuba is a tiny country with scarce resources as compared to Pakistan. At the time of the Cuban revolution, there was a mass exodus of doctors from Cuba to United States. Only 3000 doctors and 16 medical professors were left in Cuba,

Castro started a program of nationalization and regionalization of health care in the 1960s. Emphasis on preventive rather than curative treatments was given; now there are 66,600 doctors, 83,800 nurses, its density of doctor to population is 5.91, better than the USA and the UK.

Life expectancy in Cuba is at par with the developed nations and infant and maternal mortality rates lowest. The Cuban government operates one of the largest, if not the largest, medical school in the world, the Latin American School of Medicine. Cuban doctors are providing services in Venezuela and other fraternal countries. After the disastrous earthquake in Pakistan in 2005 Cuba sent the largest aid contingent there were around 2,600 medical personnel, which included 1,430 doctors, sent to treat the earthquake-affected people from Cuba.

Cuba also donated 30 mobile hospitals and a large quantity of medicines and equipment to Pakistan. These medical personnel not only lived with the affected people in the same surroundings but stayed on longer than other medical professionals from different countries. This is in sharp comparison to the traditional friends of Pakistan’s ruling elite like the USA and Arab countries.

The Cuban health care system has been declared better than that of USA and UK in terms of Universal Access. Cuba built all this while facing a continuous American Embargo while Pakistan has always been receiving “aid” from USA.

Stop the Private Sector and Save the Public Sector

The only solution to the crisis of health care and the intolerable cost of caring for the sick is to stop making health care a business. It is time to stop the Privatization of the health sector, and increase the investment in the public sector.

The defense budget must be cut and spending on health increased and new hospitals and medical colleges should be opened in the rural and backward areas.

Priority must be given to Primary Health Care and Preventive Medicine.

Immediate end to the contract system and restoration of Public Service Structure for the Doctors and Nurses

Complete rejection of the present People’s Party government program of “Public-Private Partnership” which is nothing but privatization in disguise

Zardari Visit Threatens Workers Strike in PC Karachi

khawerkhan — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:31:05 +0000

It now appears that the visit of President Zardari to Karachi is treathening to break the strike of PC Hotel workers.

According to Riaz Ahmed, an academic that has been monitoring the strike, the following has occured:

“PC workers camp visited by Pakistan Peoples Party Karachi chieftains Najmi Alam and Usman Ghani (also chief of over 120 day protest camping Muslim Commercial Bank sacked workers) at about 10pm PST on March 04.

The police are threatening to remove the camped workers outside PC hotel sometime tommorow on the pretext that President Zardari is visiting Karachi and may pass through the intersection where the protesters are camping.

The PPP Karachi supremos are reportedly negotiating with the PC Hotel management that the occupiers will not be harmed once the outside camp is removed for 2-days!”

It is tragic that the President of Pakistan, who is also the co-chair of the Peoples Party which originally sought to create a socialist society, is so insensitive to workers struggle.

The President ought to consider an alternative route. The PPP government should lend all possible support to the workers strike. But instead, we see the opposite happening. The mere presence of the President Zardari is being used to break up the protest.

Hotel Workers Occupation in Karachi being Blacked Out by Media Gurus! Is this press freedom? – By Riaz Ahmed

khawerkhan — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:22:42 +0000

It has been 9 days that over 150 workers at Pearl Continental Hotel Karachi are protesting against the sacking of 4 union and over 98 other workers. In protest they have occupied the basement of the 5-star hotel for the last 9 days and despite police raids and bullying and threats by security guards they have not left the site of occupation. This is a historic protest by workers in Karachi, the largest industrial city, where workers movement is generally luke-warm in manners. Occupation by a large number of workers at a prime site means that they have been pushed against the wall.

However the media in Karachi are pretty quiet about the situation. The PC management, chaired by the 5th richest person in Pakistan Mr Hashwani, has managed to keep the media silent, the police raids and arrests of male and female workers and their manhandling all have been hushed-up.

The only media which is reporting about the strike is the stinking right-wing press named Daily Ummat. The entire liberal, pro-democracy, pro-human rights English and otherwise ‘fighting for freedom of media and democracy’ press have managed not to report the protests, arrests and the occupation of PC workers in Karachi.

Today, March 04, 2010, Express TV crew came to cover the protest at the 2nd site of the protest ie the camp in front of PC and interviewed and filmed many agitators. Reportedly their entire story was killed by one Director named Fahd Hussain for no obvious reason. The only reason is ‘its is not allowed’.

PC hotel workers share a very tiny fraction of the billions earned by the Hashwani group. Since 2001 about 250 sacked workers have been protesting but their is no response. Now a new layer of sacked workers and those showing solidarity with them have been targeted by the rich management. It is time media wakes-up and express its neutrality about the protest.

150 Workers Occupy Karachi PC Hotel

khawerkhan — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:11:15 +0000

The following first appeared as on Riaz Ahmed‘s Facebook.

Strike: 150 Workers Occupy Karachi PC Hotel

Over 150 workers of -star Karachi hotel Pearl Continental have occupied the basement for the last 8 days. About 50 workers have set up a camp outside the hotel. Armed guards of PC hotel have stopped media and other activists from going into the basement of the hotel. However they can be contacted by mobile. In a rapidly developing strike which started from after the sacking of 4 union activists in Karachi PC, 27 from Pindi PC and 70 from Peshawar (already closed and about to be given to Blackwater). The sacked workers first started protests 24 days ago when they protested at constitution avenue. The managment started negotiations but then backed out and thus the second phase of protests have begun in Rawalpindi PC and Peshawar PC as well.

The strike at PC is the first of such intensity after a long time. Workers have risen up to the bosses and have taken measures which are not common in Pakistani trade union struggle ie occupation. However the bosses of Pearl Continental are billionaire Hashwani group and they managed to blackout news from print and electronic media. Almost all major papers are situated at a 1 km distance from PC Karachi but none of them have reported the occupation by workers.

Two comrades of IS, Asim and Shafiq went to the Karachi PC camp and managed to talk to the occupiers on phone. They report that the occupiers are in high spirits but certainly need a large number of people to express solidarity. Outside the Karachi PC the police attacked the camp on tuesday and arrested the protesters but later released them. The attack has not deterred the protestors neither those occupying inside our those outside. Now the protesters are sitting in the open.

The strikers have asked everyone to assemble at the PC hotel at 12noon on Thursday 4 March 2010 to express solidarity.

PC workers have been fighting sackings since 2001. But the current struggle errupted in an atomosphere where the Pakistani ruling class is on an offensive. Throughout the country they have attacked occupying peasants, protesting clerks and other working class protests. However the occupiers and protesters have not taken the attack laying down. The occuption by PC workers is therefore critical to the struggle of a huge number of working class struggles, that is why the ruling class and its media are united and blocking its spread using all means of violence available to them.

It is important that the news of OCCUPATION is spread as far as possible. We can learn from the expreience of PC workers that the media is ‘free’ to report that which is in the interest of a section of the powerful, otherwise not. So it is up to the working class to mobilize support, propagate and express solidarity with its own means.
Riaz Ahmed International Socialists Karachi0333-2298922www.worldtowinpk.net

Internationalist Socialists (Pakistan) Website, the NSF and more

iFaqeer — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 03:11:48 +0000

Ali Sajjad posted this on the Facebook Wall of the National Students Federation (NSF) last month: “International Socialists (Pak) website back online! Name changed slightly to www.worldtowinpk.net , now has a lot of new material and very soon some useful podcasts as well.“

We at TPM have been following the International Socialists for a bit and have an interview coming up with Riaz Ahmed, a Karachi-based academic associated with the group.

You will also have noticed the National Students Federation mentioned above. Veterans and veteran followers of the Pakistani Left and student organizing will now the name from history, but it seems a lot of the burgeoning radical organizing, especially in the Punjab right now is happening as a revival of that vehicle, so to speak. We look forward to covering the phenomenon and will keep you posted on what we are learning. Please do send us your own experiences, input, and info on this. [You can follow the history of the student movement the NSF was part of back in the day, so to speak, on the Dr Sarwar blog Beena Sarwar manages--for example here--and in the work done by Nadeem Farooq Paracha at length here, and by way of definitions here. And, yeah, not everyone agrees with NFP all the time--heck, I doubt he agrees with him all the time, so please don't come back to us with comments like "how COULD you quote someone who..." Useful information, input, historical stories, etc. are welcome--and taken seriously.]

Amrika Edition, Episode 0003, Khurram Ali Nayyar of the CMKP

taraqqipasand — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 07:31:30 +0000

CMKP Actvist at a demonstration (source: Wikicommons)

After a hiatus, TPM’s Amrika Edition is back with the second in our series of conversations with important figures on the Left in Pakistan with regard to current events and politics, as well as the place, state and direction of progressive politics in Pakistan and its society.

The Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party (CMKP) was one of the main vehicles for political activity once the dark, suppressive days of Gen. Zia ul Haq ended and communists started operating openly and in their own name again. It was formed from the (re-)unification of the Communist Party of Pakistan and the Mazdoor Kissan Party in 1995. The party is in the process of coming together with the National Workers’ Party in what one commentator has described as the continuing process of “getting the band back together”.

The guest in this episode is Khurram Ali Nayyar of the Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party in Karachi.

Listen to the show by hitting the play button below:

Coming up next, an interview with Riaz Ahmed of the International Socialists (Pakistan).

Pakistani Musicians–the New York Times Video

iFaqeer — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:42:35 +0000

NY Times Video about Pakistani Musicians

The following video from the New York Times website is going around. [Click on the graphic to view the video on their own site.]

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/11/11/world/1247465633296/tuning-out-the-taliban.html

This video is so hit-or-miss and done from one specific point of view!

Firstly, Pakistanis, including Pakistani musicians, can walk and chew gum at the same time. They see that Pakistan is stuck, as Ali Azmat’s current ideological guru puts it, between the twin jaws of fanaticism and neo-imperialism. The same video clips could have been used to say that Pakistani musicians and artists are actually taking the issues on in a more nuanced way and talking about both sides of that equation rather than leaning on side or the other. Except Ali Azmat, but we’ll come back to that.

Yeh hum naheen

To say that “Yeh Hum Naheen” (This is not us) is belittling the issue by not using the word “Taliban” is so ass-backwards! Pakistanis see that Taliban are only one face of terrorism and fanaticism. Take a closer look at the graphic on the left. That statement “Terrorism is murder. Murder is haram.” expressed in those religious terms, using a word–haram–that every Western Muslim pounds into their children with respect to eating pork, and wine, and so on is something I am still waiting for any “American Muslim” or Muslim government official to utter, 8 years after 9/11.

I try not to make sweeping statements, but to say that only the entity (or three entities, if you really follow US establishment rhetoric) known as “The Taliban” are our fanaticism problem is to follow the same shortsighted attitude of solving one problem and ignoring if not creating another that the US establishment has done again, and again–not least during the jihad, yes, jihad, against the Soviets.

Ali Azmat on his TV Show

And coming back to Ali Azmat. To have a discussion about Ali Azmat without bringing into the discussion the gentleman–and I am personally not allergic to him as others–that he has been hosting a show with and seems to be re-presenting the thoughts of is to miss the point. If you are not following Zaid Hamid and his influence on large swathes of Pakistani society, you’re not paying attention.

[First published on my personal blog.]

Absurdity of War

khawerkhan — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:35:20 +0000

The small Left in Pakistan has been consistent in pointing out the futility of this war.

This report by Al Jezzera confirms the fears of anti-war activists, the Army is destroying lives! To date no major Taliban commanders have been captured in any of the operations. The only exception is Muslim Khan, a particularly visible spokesperson for the Swat TTP who the media had been able to track down a thousand times before the Army did.

Locals in each operation have complained that they do not trust the military to attack the Taliban. No sooner does an informant share information on the Taliban, that the Army turns in the information to the Taliban!

Urooj Zia, a Reporter for The News and CMKP activist has written a thoughtful essay on the role the Army is playing.

Progressive Academic Passes Away

iFaqeer — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:36:49 +0000

The following was carried by The News today, November 16th, 2009. You can read other tributes here, here, and here. The first and last require logging in to Facebook, but we’re working on fixing that; watch this space. The last one is significant as having been penned by a former student of his from a very different political point of view:

Prof Nauman bows out

Monday, November 16, 2009
By By Shahid Husain
Karachi

Professor Nauman in his element

Prominent Marxist, an associate professor at the prestigious NED University of Engineering and Technology and a social activist Mohammad Nauman passed away on Sunday morning, leaving thousands of his students, friends and colleagues mourning.

He was laid to rest at the University of Karachi graveyard on Sunday evening.

Born on December 19, 1951 in Bahawalpur, Nauman acquired his secondary education at Cadet College, Petaro, and then graduated from NED University in electrical engineering in 1974. He did his Masters in electrical engineering from North Carolina, USA.

After completing his education, Nauman initially joined Karachi Nuclear Power Plant for a while but his inquisitiveness prompted him to opt for NED University where he was teaching for almost 30 years.

He was a prominent student leader associated with left-wing National Students Federation (NSF) during late 1960s and early 1970s and actively participated in the democratic upsurge in 1969 against military dictator Gen. Ayub Khan.

Despite having a brilliant academic record, he preferred to teach rather than acquiring lucrative jobs at multinational companies. However, one could find thousands of his students in different organisations across Pakistan at key positions.

Committed to the well-being of the common man right from the beginning, he helped Edhi Foundation to develop its wireless service on a voluntary basis and also served as technical advisor to the defunct Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) in the early 1990s when Fahimuzaman Khan was its administrator. He wrote hundreds of research papers on topics such as bonded labour, and water and power and campaigned for the displaced people of Chotiari Dam and other similar causes. He was widely quoted in national and international media.

Prof. Nauman was quite well till Saturday and attended a dinner in honour of his friend Prof. Tauseef Ahmed Khan who has been awarded a PhD degree recently, at the residence of an old friend Abid Ali Syed.

“Many old friends had gathered at my residence where we had arranged a dinner in honour of Prof. Tauseef Ahmed Khan and Prof. Nauman was also there chatting with eminent lawyer Ali Ahmed Kurd, politician Yousuf Masti Khan and other friends,” Syed, former city editor of a leading English daily told The News.

“At about 6am he came out of his room complaining breathing problem and left us mourning,” his uncle who lived with him said. Prof. Nauman was suffering from asthma for the last couple of years.

Thousands of students, friends, political leaders and activists bode him farewell at the University of Karachi graveyard. Prominent amongst them were Prof. S. M. Naseer, economists Aly Ercelawn, Haris Gazdar and Dr Asad Sayeed, Executive Director Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) Karamat Ali, ex-president Karachi Bar Association Akhter Husain, politician Yousuf Masti Khan, B.M. Kutty, Hameed Haroon, Fahimuzaman Khan, educationist Dr. Syed Jaffar Ahmed and actor and academic Khalid Ahmed.

“I never saw him hurting anybody even if he differed with him,” said Tariq Saeed, a senior structural engineer and an old friend of Prof. Nauman. “He was always a helping hand and a true dervish,” he said.

“Right from the beginning Nauman was dedicated, committed and disciplined. He was never late,” said Shahab Aftab, another senior engineer and an old friend of Prof. Nauman.

Prof. Nauman’s Soyem will be held at NED University Staff Town on Monday afternoon. He has left behind an ailing mother, an elder brother and a sister.

Originally published at http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=208757