During the Raj  and After

WHAT did the British  do for Lahore  during the Raj  and what have we done for the city in 50 years of independence? Let me give you a chronology taken from the Guide to Lahore, written by Prof., Masud-ul-Hassan many years ago.

The Punjab  was annexed by the British  in 1849. In the 98 years that they were here, they did the following:

The Mall  was constructed in 1851.
A post office was established in 1854.
A telegraph office was set up in 1855.
The railway committee station was completed in 1861.
The municipal committee started functioning in 1862.
The Government College  was opened in 1864.
The Chief Court started work in 1865.
The Montgomery Hall  was constructed in the Lawrence Gardens  in 1866.
A law college was established in 1868-69.
The Mayo  Hospital was set up in 1870.
The zoo came up in 1872.
The Oriental College  was commissioned in 1872.
A vast railway workshop, spread over an area of 126 acres, was established in 1874.
The Mayo School of Arts  (now the National College of Arts ) started functioning in 1875.
The Senate Hall of the University College  was constructed in 1876.
The Kinnaird  High School  for girls' college was commissioned in 1879.
The Central Training College  was established in 1880, for teachers.
The telegraph office building was completed in 1881.
The water works were inaugurated in 1882.
Lord Ripon  opened the University of the Punjab  in 1882.
The Lahore  Medical College building was completed in 1883.
Sir Charles Atchison  opened the Punjab  Public Library in 1885.
The Punjab  University Library was opened in 1912.
The Kinnaird  School was made a college in 1913.
Lord Hardinge inaugurated the King  Edward  Medical College in 1917.
The Chief Court was given the status of a high court in 1919.
The Law College came up in 1922.
The Lahore  College for Women was opened in 1922.
The Lady Mac Lagan Training College for women was established in 1923.
The Mac Lagan Engineering College  was inaugurated in 1923.
A new building of the Senate Hall of the Punjab  University, named the Hailey Hall was constructed in 1926.
A common hall to serve the Law College and the Oriental College  called the Manyard Hall was constructed in 1926.
The Hailey College of Commerce  was built in 1927.
The Punjab  Dental Hospital was opened in 1930.
The DeMontmorency College of Dentistry  was inaugurated in 1934.
The Lahore  station of All India  Radio went on air in 1937.
The Punjab  Assembly building was opened in 1938.
The Craik Technical Institute  came up in 1939.
The Municipal Committee  was raised to corporation level in 1941.
Several other landmarks are missing in this list, such as the Atchison  College, but it does not matter.

          What have we given to Lahore  since independence? Ugly structures like the AI Falah Building, WAPDA  House, and dozens of obscene commercial plazas. The institutions built by the British  are in decline and the city is a huge slum with islands of affluence here and there. Shops have multiplied even in strictly residential areas. Order has given way to disorder. The Anglo-Mughal  Lahore was one of the most beautiful and well put together cities in India . Today, 50 years after the Union Jack  was lowered for the last time, Lahore has become, according to an international report, the most polluted city in the world.

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THE recent ban on smoking in public places did not come a day too soon. However, in a society, which is becoming increasingly contemptuous of law, it will be extremely difficult to ensure compliance with the new restriction. Everyone knows that smoking is injurious to health; but how many of us care? In Pakistan , the number of speakers--most of them young addicts to the reed--has risen astronomically. While expensive brands with low tar contents are still dangerous, the cheaper varieties of cigarettes smoked by the poorer classes are deadly.

          A World Health Organisation  (WHO ) report says that smoking in any form is a major cause of fatality and morbidity. It says that smoking causes 95 percent of lung cancer, 85 percent of bronchitis and 25 percent of cardiovascular disorders.

          This report was quoted from by Mr. Justice Aqil Mirza  of the Lahore  High Court while banning cigarette advertisements on Pakistan  Television and Radio.

          These two state-run organisations were ordered by the learned judge not to show or broadcast commercials and other programmes "which might induce people to smoke." The ban takes effect from April 1. An exemption has been made, for a period of three years, for cigarette companies, which sponsor live sporting events. But even they have been barred from showing a person smoking.

           This is all to the good in so far as it goes, but other measures are needed to wean people way from tobacco.

          One way might be to impose a prohibitive sales tax on tobacco and tobacco products; to put them out of the reach of most people. However, grower may not fancy the idea, especially in the NWFP , where tobacco is a major cash crop and thousands of farmers depend on it for their livelihood.

          Moreover, there is no guarantee that reduced local production will lead to a decrease in cigarette smoking.

          The better off among us already don't use locally made cigarettes because of the abundance of smuggled brands available to them. It is amazing how a packet which cost pound 2.20 in Britain  should be sold for as little as Rs. 28.30 in Pakistan . It is obvious that foreign manufacturers, faced with shrinking home markets, are dumping their products in the Third World  countries, and there is little that the latter can do about it.

          An American tobacco company, the Ligget Group, with just about 2% of the $50-billion industry has become the first in history to admit that smoking is responsible for lung and heart diseases, and that cigarette marketing is youth oriented. A rare case of self-indictment but we are a long way away from becoming a smokeless society.

Sunday , March 23, 1997