Raising funds for major charities can be a tough task in the city; but there are a few persons who are willing to donate large sums anonymously and insist on that anonymity, but the cause should be good and really convincing.
When the Medical Aid Foundation headed by Dr Saira Khan held a fund raising gala last week, a donor gave Rs 10 million and insisted on being anonymous. Others gave lesser sums, anonymously or otherwise.
The tall Dr Saira Khan, who looks stately when dressed in white with pearls to embellish her on major gala occasions, is a former tennis champion of Pakistan. She says her father, who was rich, told her she was becoming a doctor to serve the poor and not to make money. She is living up to her father’s expectations former banker Iradat Hussain, now head of Modaraba Al Mali, is her active vice-President.
The Medical Aid Foundation with its base in Defence Housing Authority has four divisions to deal with cancer, primary health care & family planning, social service and a large mobile service unit with its fleet of six fully equipped & air-conditioned ambulances which are operational 24 hours a day.
Dr Saira Khan said since others were raising funds through dancing galas, they decided to do the same. So lively singer Michelle was flown in from Dubai for a nominal fee, while a disc jockery came free to serve the cause and made it merry evening. The music was so good even yasin Lakhani, President of Karachi Stock Exchange, and Munsif Raza, Managing Director of Pakistan Petroleum, did not want to leave the floor.
The foundation is also setting up Rahat Kada, the first extensive nursing facility for cancer patients in Pakistan totally free at 144-K Hali Road, Karachi. The former prime minister was scheduled to open the project next month.
The foundation truly helps the poor, inclusive of those in Neelam Colony. Dr Saira has a number of dedicated helpers and among them are Ovais Ahmad of the Pierre Cardin outfit & his ebullient wife Irum and Aban Jamal.
Tajikistan day the Tabanis who own Aero-Asia Airline have a virtual monopoly when it comes to representing Central Asian states in Karachi. Three of them represent Tajikistan, Kirgistan & Turkmenistan as honorary consul generals here. The Tabanis were in those regions for a long time, and have excellent business connections there.
When Abdul Rauf Tabani and his wife celebrated the national day of Tajikistan, Governor Mamnoon Hussain was there to cut the cake, while the former governor Moinuddin Haider was greeted by a great many persons.
Hanif Tayeb, member of the Sindh Advisory Counsil, was a late arrival there, while the MQM MNA Babar Ghori and former Sindh minister for housing Wasim Ahmad arrived in time.
Russain Consul General Yuri Materiy and China’s Ain Qigung were among the many diplomats there. Consul General of Tajikistan and trade representative Bobojan khodjiev came down from Islamabad to join the celebrations and greet the guests.
Diplomats there were happy as the State Bank had finally decided they could get their salaries in dollars instead of rupees and can have their dollar accounts. Deputy Chief of protocol Mohammad Ali Siddiqui, who was there, had made his contribution to reversal of the earlier SBP decision.
First Secretary of Tajikistan monali Saidliev, who is posted in the city, was there. He said by next year Tajikistan would have its consul general in the city. I presume by that time Rauf Tabani would represent another Central Asian state here.
Saeed Sattar of Nina Industries was there with his wife. He used to export most of his knitwear products, but lately he has opened local outlets and he says he is selling just as well here.
Another Tabani there was Saleem Tabani, for long with the Austrian Trade Mission. He has now become Administrator of Adamjee Foundation.
Ahasn Mukhtar Zuberi, honorary consul of Romaina, was there. Following his collectivist hospitality, he had earlier a dinner in honour of heads of all Asian diplomatic missions here and Gen. Moinuddin Haider.
The Mail Anniversary
As more and more persons become honorary consuls of other countries in the city, confusion among the socialites increase in respect of who represents whom. For example, while Basir Hasan now represents Mali, in Africa, Zafar Tapal has been representing Maldives, whose capital is Male.
When Basir Hasan and his wife Muneeza held a reception to celebrate the independence day of Mali, its Young ambassador from Tehran flew down to stand in the receiving line. And Muneeza stood apart from the men receiving the guests.
Karachi society was well represented there. Official representation there was Dost Mohammad Faizi, Information adviser to the Sindh government, long before the other advisers joined in as Ghous Ali Shah became Adviser to the P.M on Sindh.
The French consul general, Gilles Bonnaud, was among the diplomats. He was happily telling guests that Mali, with a population of 10 million, is a predominantly French speaking country. There were several diplomats in Arab dress. When those who usually wear western dress switch over to Arab dress it becomes rather difficult to identify them.
Senator Iqbal Haider was there as also Hamid Maker of the Helpline talking of his Trust’s next moves.
Some guests were enquiring from Muneeza about the health of her ailing doctor, Nazia. She asked them to pray for her.
VIP Business club
Discussions at one end of the VIP business club are getting serious and very light at the other. In his efforts to get serious speakers, Syed Haider of the Club invited Zahid Zaheer, Secretary General of the Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry, to speak on world Trade Organization Agreements and their ramifications for developing countries. And on the other side, he had scheduled jokes and humorous exchanges for 90-minutes preceding that, to keep the atmosphere light.
Zaheer, who loves quoting Urdu poets, said Pakistan’s rush towards globalization should be in measured stages and not a head-long one, a view with which others agreed.
But not enough guests came prepared with their battery of jokes. May be by and by the guests would take to joking earnestly to seriously.
A good meal
The new Carlton Hotel instead of opting for major advertisement campaigns prefers entertaining potential clients in a big way. For the opening of its “Beyond Rangoon” restaurant, its Norwegian general manager invited almost 500 guests to dinner. Most of them turned up to taste a good meal of Chinese, Thai and Indonesian dishes.
The restaurant is the kind of place one would love to take visitors to Karachi. It is something out of this world. The ambience is truly that of a Indonesian or Malaysian village with the place having a thatched roof, the ripple of water running around, and solid wooden structures. The crockery too goes along with that quasi-rustic set up.
You have certainly a vast choice of restaurants there, beginning with Lebanese and Middle Eastern cuisines at the Olive Tree-restaurant, and Italian cuisine at La Torre, in addition to the East Asian fare at ‘Beyond Rangoon’ with its ample shrimp fare. And now it has the Kolachi restaurant to serve Mughlai dishes from all over Pakistan. The focus is on variety and it succeeds handsomely in the plush surroundings by the sea.
Reformers Welcomed
More and more of his friends are feting Nisar Memon, former chief of IBM, Pakistan, for setting up the ‘Reformers’ and trying to save us all from our archaic moorings.
The last to give a dinner in his honour, following Zahid Firoz was Mumtaz Ali Memon, who retired as a senior executive of the United Bank recently.
Among the large number of guests was Lt. Gen. Ali Kuli, who resigned as deputy chief of army staff for being by passed when Gen. Musharraf became chief of army staff. He now manages the Bannu wollen Mills and received a certificate of excellence in management from the Management Association of Pakistan last week.
Sindh politicians were in plenty there, including Zulfikar Jamote, younger brother Shafqat Ali Jamote, and Mujib Pirzada.
Nisar Effendi was there talking of the problems of water-logging in Sindh neglected by WAPDA.
New Dutch Consul
The tall and popular Dutch consul general Bert Schortinghuis and his wife were introducing their new vice-consul Harry Simmons and his wife. The have come all the way from Uruguay in South America to an entirely new setting, but the Dutch adjust themselves pretty well in the city.
The diplomatic corps was sizable in strength there and ranged from David Merry of Britain and Abdur Rahim of Bangladesh. Schortinghuis was posted in the 1970s in Bangladesh and knew the Bangladesh leaders of those days, including Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, well. He has plenty of interesting anecdotes to tell about them. He has also a number of paintings from Bangladesh.
Sri Lanka’s honorary consul general Shaikh Mohammad Obaid and his wife were there. He has been promoted honorary consul general by the Sri Lankan government. He was being congratulated by his friends, including Aziz Memon of the kings Apparel, who represents Suriman. Both are in textile manufacturing. Obiad makes towels, while Aziz Memon makes hosiery.
Michael Mates of the US, who is the second secretary for consular and political affairs, was there. He is one US diplomat not seen around often.
Neighbour M.I Akbar was among the guests. KLM is one of the airlines of which he is not a general sales agent in Pakistan. KLM remains stay put in Pakistan, while some foreign airlines have shut their offices here.
Art fest
Sheraton Hotel is getting socially and culturally more active. It had a largely attended dinner to bid farewell to its long time General Manager Siegmund Steber and welcome the new G.M J. Thomas C. Van Opstal, and the new executive chef Guido Scarpellino.
If it had a special Chinese cuisine week to celebrate the golden jubilee of China, it had a musical evening “Hooray for Hollywood” directed by Barbera Segel, and then “exit” A Hamlet Fantasy, a puppet Theatre production for adults based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet. All that, along with the annual Artfest ’99. |
