The Beggars of Islamabad

On the closed and steamy evening of Friday, the 4th of July, 2008, I was planning to go for my weekly grocery shopping when I remembered that the washed and shrunk fabrics had to be delivered to Master Bashir if I wanted my jodas to be ready by the beginning of Sawan. So, off I rushed to Jinnah Super Market in F-8 to the establishment of Master Bashir, knowing full well there would be no time later to cook a proper meal.

There were still 08 minutes left for the load-shedding hour to end in Jinnah Super but the market was by no means dark and desolate. Almost every big shop there has a generator with enough capacity to run the air conditioners, because their well heeled clients cannot be expected to do their shopping in a stuffy atmosphere. Master Bashir's establishment also has a generator, which has been giving trouble since the first day. Apparently, someone sold him one with a lower capacity than required to operate the sewing and embroidery machines, and all that can be run on it are two or three lights and two fans. Quite disgusted after this discovery, Master Bashir doesn't bother to switch on the generator unless there are customers when the load-shedding starts at 8 p.m., when it is yet not dark due to the Daylight Saving Time that is followed now, and at 8 p.m. it is actually only 7 p.m.! By 8.30, it is time for the Maghrib prayers, and Master Bashir leaves to offer namaz at a nearby mosque. He tends to linger there, coming back only in time for the electricity to come back at 9 p.m. Yesterday, the shop was dark, and two or three of his employees were standing at the head of the stairs leading to the shop. I understood that he was not yet back, but went up nevertheless. Just as one of his staff put out a chair for me, both the power and Master Bashir were back, and after exchange of the preliminary alaik-salek we got into the details of each joda - the kind of neck, sleeves and other embellishments for each piece were discussed and finalized. Master Bashir would note down the details on a piece of paper and tie it in a knot at one corner of the fabric, to be opened and studied by him before laying out the fabric for cutting.

It took us almost an hour to go over every fabric, discuss how best the particular fabric in hand could be utilized, and finalize the designs. We also made small conversation to fend off the technical monotony, and this conversation was interspersed with his small questions about India and tailoring practices there. He told me about another good place to shop for fabrics at a very competitive price - at the small local market of the Naval Officers Colony in Sector E-8, to the right from the first shara after the Faisal Mosque shara as one goes out from F-8 on Margalla Road. I asked him if anyone can go there. He said, well, normal people from Islamabad have no problem going there. Of course, there is a gate with sentries, who let you in after a cursory check and making sure about your identity. I said, well, with the red CD plates on my car, I would rather not even try, and we both had a good laugh! Then, remembering something suddenly, I asked him what was the reason for so many beggars in and around Jinnah Super, beacuse at no other market complex in Islamabad have I witnessed them in such hordes.

My query sent Master Bashir into a long and philosophical monologue on the beggars of Islamabad. Aided by one or two gentle questions, here is a gist of what he had to say:

The beggars of Islamabad do favour Jinnah Super Market the most, because they know that this is where the very rich people come to shop and eat and who, seeing the dirty, poorly clad, hungry-looking beggars are overcome by feelings of Islamic piety, which tells them that they must share their wealth and good life by way of zakat (charity and alms). They forget whether this zakat is wajib or is being given to people who are entitled to receiving zakat. They forget that they are only perpetuating the habit of begging and begging as a lifestyle.

A lifestyle? I asked.

Yes, a lifestyle, he answered. The beggars of Jinnah Super, of all ages and descriptions, descend on the market by noon. They come in shared taxis, 8 to 10 skinny ones often crammed into one and leave in the same manner by midnight, 'working' 12 hours every day. Very young children just beg; as they grow older, they often begin to pawn useless things that at least the rich neither need nor would buy, such as plastic hand fans or plastic torches. They approach their 'hosts' pestering them to please buy, quickly descending into a pleading narrative of woe and want, of how they need some money for food, for medicine, for an inhaler for an asthamatic mother, for crutches for an invalid father...the list is long and innovative each time! Pregnant women keep begging till they almost deliver, and resume begging barely two or three days after their baby is born, bringing it along wrapped in a bundle of rags and carrying it pressed to their shoulder for better effect.

Can't they get employment? I saked.

No, they won't work. They have their own biradari, and working for wages is prohibited. In fact, anyone who doesn't beg for a living cannot find a match from within the biradari.

Why so many women and children only beg?

Its because their husbands often stay at home, playing cards or doing drugs, and thrashing the wife soundly if she doesn't go out begging because she has just delivered a baby or is sick. Of course, once married, the males have the choice to live off their women!

But where do they live, so that they have to take a cab to come here, I asked?

Master Bashir said they have slum settlements near Pir Wadhai Bus Stand on the road joining the Motorway to Lahore; there is another settlement at Khanna Pul along G.T. Road as it leaves Islamabad.

Where do they come from?

They flock to Islamabad, by far the most prosperous city in Punjab after Lahore, from Faisalabad, Jhelum, Attock...

What happens if the government wants to clear the land they are living on?

Nothing...they are simply chased off by the police. In this country, they cannot protest at being 'evacuated' nor do they have any squatters' rights.

I informed Master Bashir in brief about the squatter and slum politics of Delhi. It amused him no end and his eyes brightened at the ideas therein....trust a Punjabi to appreciate any kind of B&C....B&C being an acronym for 'Bribery & Corruption' borrowed from a wise old Punjabi lady in Delhi who has successfully multiplied her savings using B&C in land deals. In her personal account books, she actually has a column with the header B&C, and records the amount paid to various govt functionaries as bribes!

Does it matter that she originally hails from Lahore?