KARACHI: Industrial activity in the port city was caught in the crossfire on Thursday as a dispute over payment arrears between Sui Southern Gas Company Ltd (SSGCL) and K-Electric Ltd (KEL) erupted suddenly.
K-Electric is SSGC’s largest customer, and in a midday public announcement, claimed that its request for enhancement of supply of natural gas due to onset of summer demand has been ignored by the gas utility.
Karachi is in the midst of heatwave-like conditions, and demand for electricity has spiked since the start of the week.
KEL had asked SSGC for enhancement of gas supply, which it says is currently at 90mmcfd, so it can operate its Bin Qasim Power Station (BQPS) generation units, which run only on gas. “We need at least 190mmcfd to operate this unit, and cannot run it on the current supply,” said Sadia Dada, spokesperson for KE while speaking with Dawn.
K-Electric and SSGC stand-off causes 500MW power shortfall in metropolis
“As temperatures rise, the peak demand touched 2,600 megawatts on Wednesday and is expected to continue escalating in coming days,” the company said in its announcement. “Due to a reduced gas supply, 500MW gas-fired plants are currently not operational creating an additional shortfall in the system.”
Industrial areas began seeing power cuts of up to seven hours from late night Wednesday. On Thursday they received a notice saying that another power cut should be expected by midnight, to last till 4:00am, though sources in SITE industrial area said that they expect revival of power to take much longer.
The city’s industrial areas have not experienced loadshedding in many years since the power utility exempted them from the practice. As a result, most industries do not have backup captive power plants. “We have offered to arbitrate this dispute between SSGC and KEL to end the stalemate,” said an irate Zubair Motiwala, one of the leaders of the SITE Association of Industries (SAI). “Even the chief minister Sindh offered to arbitrate, but was told by the SSGC managing director that no meeting is possible before April 5.”
The Bin Qasim Association of Trade and Industry (BQATI) also conveyed its alarm over the situation. Rasheed Jan Mohammed, former president of the association, said that the situation was critical as it would badly impact industry.
“Gas supply must be raised to enable KEL to fully utilise its generation capacity and cater to the growing demand for power, especially in the summer,” he said. “This is critical to avert any revenue impact on the industries due to additional loadshedding that may happen,” he added.
In official remarks, SSGC first said that it has not curtailed supply to KEL. When told the matter is about refusing a request for enhancement of supply to meet higher generation needs due to onset of summer, Shehbaz Islam, the spokeperson for SSGC said his company cannot meet the request for enhancement of supply without hurting domestic consumers. “Our first priority, as per government policy, is to domestic consumers. Our second priority is to those with whom we have a Gas Sale Agreement, and the third reason for not honouring KEL’s request is their failure to make timely payments on outstanding amounts owed to SSGC,” he said.
KEL bristles at this characterisation of the dispute. “We have chased SSGC for a long time for a GSA, even sent them written drafts of an agreement in line with national gas allocation policy, but no response thus far,” said Ms Dada. “And KEL only owes SSGC less than half of what the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board [KWSB] owes us, yet we do our best to supply KWSB uninterrupted power despite their mounting dues also in the greater interest of the citizens of Karachi,” she added.
SSGC claims it is owed Rs78 billion by KEL, but the amount is disputed. “The principal amount we owe is Rs13.7bn at the moment,” said Ms Dada. “Any other amount, whether late payment surcharge, mark-up or interest, is sub judice and therefore not included here.”
She said KEL has not missed a single current payment over the past five years since the agreement for repayment the recognised outstanding amount of Rs24.5bn was reached. About Rs10bn of that has been paid as per a payment plan that was agreed at that time.
Another source in SSGC, who did not wish to speak for attribution, told Dawn that the whole dispute is solely about the outstanding payments. “We received a request for enhancement of supplies from them awhile back,” the source said. “To which we wrote back basically saying pay us our outstanding dues and you will get your gas.”
A source in KEL, who also requested anonymity, told Dawn that the matter of enhancement of gas supply to meet rising summer demand was first raised with SSGC in February. “When there was no response to that initial communication, a meeting was held in Governor House on Feb 28,” the source said. After that, a letter was sent on March 7 to SSGC, again raising the issue of enhancement of gas supply.
“Reduction of 20mmcfd of gas results in a 100MW reduction in power supply” that letter states, a copy of which is with Dawn. It states that last summer’s average gas supply was 166mmcfd, lower than 208mmcfd and 193mmcfd for the years 2015 and 2016, respectively.
The dispute has taken its toll already, in less than 48 hours. “This is absolutely wrong,” said Motiwala, his voice soaked with indignation. “The dispute should be resolved on the table, but instead each side is trying to pressurise the other and in the meantime industry is hurting. Can you give me those days of loss back?, he asked.
KARACHI: Turmoil mounted at Dubai-based private equity firm Abraaj Capital as the company announced plans to lay off 15 per cent of its global workforce in the ongoing fallout from a damaging dispute with some of its powerful investors, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.
The company owns controlling share along with management control in K-Electric, Pakistan’s largest integrated power utility, as well as an oil refinery and has plans for a large investment in the healthcare sector.
“It is always difficult to separate talented people from the firm,” the Dubai-based buyout firm said in a statement quoted by Bloomberg. “The personnel changes we are making as part of this re-organisation will help ensure that Abraaj is better positioned for operational effectiveness and sustainable growth.” The firm employs more than 350 people worldwide.
Decision comes as troubles escalate at region’s largest private equity fund
Abraaj manages more than $13.6 billion through various investment funds and has been at the centre of a growing storm of controversy since Feb 2 when The New York Times first reported that four investors in its latest billion-dollar healthcare fund claimed their money had been misused. The investors include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Bank, amongst others. Specifically, the report said the investors wanted to know why $200 million invested by them in the healthcare fund had not been utilised.
The New York Times report, citing details from the meeting, said Arif Naqvi, the founder of Abraaj, told the investors that the fund had met with delays due to regulatory hurdles and government approvals. Evidently the investors were not convinced, so Abraaj ordered an internal audit by KPMG, which cleared the firm of any wrongdoing. But the investors appointed an independent auditor of their own, Ankura Consulting.
At issue is whether the company moved any funds out of the specialised Abraaj Growth Markets Health Fund where the investors had placed them for deployment in a host of healthcare assets for low income groups that the company is developing in four countries: India, Pakistan, Nigeria and Kenya.
The Ankura report is not out yet, but three days ago the Financial Times reported that it “is expected to report that Abraaj moved investor money into its own account, where it was used for ‘general corporate purposes’”. That report cited “people briefed on the process”.
Since word of its troubles hit the news, Abraaj has separated Arif Naqvi from the company’s main investing business and initiated a large-scale internal reorganisation. It has also seen a string of high-profile departures of senior executives and partners, frozen its activities in other funds, been hit by a round of redemptions from other investors, and held discussions for a sale of stakes in its main investing business. Thursday’s announcement of cuts to its workforce escalated the turmoil engulfing the company.
As the advertising profession marks 70 years of existence, Mariam Ali Baig highlights major themes that influenced its trajectory from 1947 to the present day millennial age.
There is something unique in the telling of the story of advertising in Pakistan. Consider how it started.
A group of men independently travelled to Karachi from near and from far... from Bhopal, Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta, Lahore, Lucknow... and many other cities in India. Others were Karachi born and bred.
They were poets, artists, art collectors, merchants, bon viveurs, writers, civil servants, musicians, raconteurs, bankers, philanthropists and gentlemen farmers; one was even a prince.
In Karachi, they set up offices that were cramped and sparsely furnished: oddly-assorted tables and chairs, a few pens and pencils. A peon to make the tea – the extent of their staff. They set up in Karachi, eager to be part of the great nation-building effort that Pakistan awaited. Their resources were limited, but their enthusiasm was boundless.
These extraordinary men were the founding fathers of Pakistan’s advertising profession. The industry’s first superheroes.
Ad Man dominates the urban landscape in the age of the millennial. (Illustration: Syed Salman Nasir)
Looking back 70 years, it is hard to encompass the scale of their achievement. Karachi in 1947 was an outpost far from British India’s centres of commerce and advertising which were located in Delhi, Bombay and Calcutta. Business had be to drummed-up, staff found, hired and trained, products and services marketed, brands built and customers wooed.
Those among them who were transferred to Karachi from their agency headquarters in India were marginally better equipped; at least they had experience of the business and a client base on which to build. The others had to start from scratch, set up their own agency and hope for the best. Yet, they ploughed on and laid the foundations of the profession.
So that when television came upon Pakistan’s advertising scene in 1964, a new generation of superheroes was ready to take on the mantle – and they did so, with a burst of original creative executions which remain the envy of today’s generation of practitioners. The profession had found its foothold and if this was a period of buoyant creativity, it was also a time of consolidation.
Functions and systems were in place, women were hired (albeit, almost entirely in the creative departments), the terms of engagement with the media were set and the building of some of our best loved brands had begun. The culmination of this second phase in Pakistan’s advertising history was marked by the AdAsia 89 advertising congress, which was held in Lahore, in February 1989.
Under the chairmanship of Javed Jabbar, the entire industry, including the media, coalesced together (in a way never seen before or since) to present a programme that included a roster of stellar speakers drawn from the international world of advertising. AsiaAsia 89 put Pakistani advertising on the global map.
If so far the story of Pakistani advertising has been linear, what follows is a marked change in tempo. The world was going global and Pakistani advertising was about to shed its insularity. The global paradigm that governed the rules of engagement between advertising agencies and their clients shifted.
Marketing assumed a central position within client companies and CEOs were hired on the basis of their ability to drive brand sales. The client was now in the driver’s seat.
In Pakistan, this change in paradigm found concrete expression in the emergence of the affiliated agency and the entry of the media buying houses. Formerly, clients appointed a single agency to handle their entire brand portfolio. Now, the portfolios were split among agencies and the brand became the sole client.
Then, as the media buying houses consolidated their presence in an increasingly competitive media environment, the media function moved from the agency and became a separate, specialist function. The established model of agency commission was compromised and new business models were introduced.
In the midst of these shifts came the internet which rewrote all the rules. Time compressed, the media fragmented, brands proliferated, consumers demanded and lifestyles went into transformation.
As a result, Pakistani advertising agencies were forced to reinvent themselves again and again; from full-service, to specialisation, to hybrids; from independent to partial affiliates to full-equity buyouts to whatever else worked in between.
Along with adapting to global influences, the advertising profession had to withstand the peculiarities of Pakistan’s own trajectory; the periods of economic boom and bust, the cycles of instability and the systemic uncertainties that suppress an innate optimism to do and think big. After all, it took an American-owned agency to instil in its people the belief that they could, and in so believing, they brought back to Pakistan, a Clio and a Cannes Lion. Yet, if the proof is to be found in the pudding, consider that ad spend in Pakistan went from zero in 1947 to approximately four million rupees in 1966 (Gallup Pakistan).
In 1983, it touched Rs 423 million (Marketing Review) and by the end of 2017, the figure amounted to Rs 87.7 billion (Aurora Fact File), representing a staggering increase of 20,632% since 1983. Superheroes indeed!
What will happen next is anyone’s guess. Fast paced advancement in technology is the only continuum that can be predicted. The traditional agency model remains under threat and the fact that it continues to exist in a recognisable form is because nobody has figured out what the alternative should be – yet. However, if the past can point to the future, then we know that we are dealing with a fundamentally resilient profession.
One that re-imagines itself with every successive change; builds solid brands, provides employment to Pakistan’s most talented young people, is now bringing home top international awards, and on a good day, delivers magic and delight to our homes.
For all of this and much more, we have to thank our superhero pioneers who wrote the first chapters of the story of Pakistan’s advertising.
The next chapters in the Book of Advertising now belong to yet another generation of advertising superheroes.
Mariam Ali Baig is Editor, Aurora. She can be contacted at aurora@dawn.com
Inception of Advertising
WHEN MIGHTY OAKS FROM ACORNS DO GROW...
S. M. Shahid looks back at the inception of the advertising profession.
I established Oscar in 1963. However, how I got into (advertising in the first place is another story.
My ambition was to become a journalist, but in those days, one could only enter into journalism if one was a graduate… and I was not.
After my father’s death, we went through a great deal of turmoil. Before Partition, we lived in Bihar. After Independence, we moved to Chittagong and then came to Karachi in 1951. I had to look for employment to make ends meet and my education was left half way.
I worked for a couple of years for Sui Gas Transmission Company and then moved to Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL). The idea of doing something of my own appealed to me and I thought about advertising because there were many non-graduates in the profession. My brother Mazhar was a friend of S.H. Hashmi and was working at Orient Advertising. Truth be told, neither Mazhar nor Hashmi were very well versed in advertising at that point.
In fact, it was Hashmi’s elder brother Mateen (he worked for Alpha Insurance), who opened Orient in a room in Dawn’s offices in New Challi in 1953. He told Hashmi to sit there and do some work. Any client who came to put an ad in Dawn was directed to Orient, and in this way, Orient earned a commission and the agency flourished. In those days, the clients were mostly textile companies.
Orient started doing well and Mazhar was sent to Dhaka to open a branch there. When he came back in 1963, I suggested we open our own agency. In order not to burn our boats, I intended to keep working at PPL. However, to my surprise, my boss A.Y. Khan (the Chief Accountant at PPL) called me in one day and said I would never make it as an accountant. He then gave the key to his old office at Oriental Chambers and told me to start my advertising business. I was speechless. I didn’t have words to thank him. The next day I took possession of 15 Oriental Chambers.
Our office had three tables, seven chairs of which four were broken, one stool and a rack, a phone that was out of order on account of non-payment, one bell, one ashtray, one lock and two keys – just enough to start an agency. Mazhar and I painted the office ourselves. I then asked Irfan Haleem who was my colleague at PPL, to join Oscar as a partner. We decided to call the agency Oscar as Mazhar and I felt it had good recall.
In those days, the big players were foreign agencies such as D.J. Keymer, Grant Advertising, JWT, Stronach Advertising and Crawford Advertising. After Partition, there were hardly any trained professionals, except for those who came from India.
I divide the admen of those early years into two categories. The pioneers; they were the ones who had no experience in advertising, yet they started their own agencies and trained themselves on-the-job. They included people such as Mohammad Mushtaq (National Advertisers); Chaudhry Abdul Ghafour (United Advertisers) who was well-read in Persian, Urdu and English literature; Sultan Mahmud, who previously worked in the Ministry of Finance and then joined Ghafour in 1950; Ashraf Muhammad (Spotlit Advertising); Aziz and Bashir Khan (Manhattan); Lutfullah and Amanullah Khan (Kays Advertising); Nawabzada Wajid Mahmood (Adarts); Jamil Siddiqui (Marketing & Advertising) and Sadiqul Khairi (Khairi Advertising).
In the second category were those with agency experience and who later set up on their own. They included Akhlaq Ahmad, who initially worked for National Advertisers as an Art Director after which he joined Stronach Advertising. He then rejoined National Advertisers and in 1959, started Adcom. Iqbal Mir worked for United Advertising as an Account Executive before starting Prestige in 1960. Taher A. Khan worked for MNJ as an Account Executive and then moved to Paragon. He finally set up Interflow Communications in 1983.
The only two people I know who were trained in the real sense were Javed Jabbar and Naseer Haider. They both were sent to the UK when they were at IAL. Javed was trained as a concept writer. He established MNJ in 1969, in partnership with Majeed Ahmed and Nafees Ghaznavi. He is, in my opinion, the most brilliant advertising man in Pakistan.
In the sixties, creativity was the most important thing. It was more about illustrations and photography was not a very active part of advertising. In those days, every agency had an English and an Urdu copywriter.
Small agencies which could not afford to hire copywriters would hire them on a part-time basis. People such as Mr Enwary who worked for the British Council is an example; Anwar Mooraj an English copywriter; and Shahid Salamat, a great Urdu copywriter at Lintas.
In those days, once the copy was written, it was sent to the visualiser who would think of an illustration to go with the copy. The image would then be sketched and the text typed out on a manual typewriter. The graphic artist would mark ‘bold, upper case, lower case, 36 points’ on headlines and similar things on the body copy. This text would then go to a typesetter; most of them were located on McLeod Road. The typesetters would set the text using Letraset and print it out on an art paper. Then it would be put on a board, each line was cut individually and pasted on the design.
For an Urdu ad, the handwritten copy was sent to a calligrapher, after which each line would be cut and pasted in the same way done for English ads. Putting together a single ad would take about two to three days. And there was no guarantee the client would like it. He might tell you to do it all over again.
S.M. Shahid is an advertising veteran, a photographer, a columnist and an author of books on music. S.M. Shahid established Oscar Advertising in 1963, in a little room in a commercial building. The agency remained in business for over three decades. He played an instrumental role in organising both the first Pakistan Advertising Congress in 1979 and AdAsia 89. The logo and publications for the event were designed by Oscar Advertising. He acted and scripted a satire on advertising called Client, Client, which was later published as a book. In order to pursue classical music, photography and writing, he handed over the agency business to his daughter Sadia and her husband. He went on to study vocal classical music with Ustad Wilayat Ali Khan. Melody Queen – Tributes to Pakistan’s Superstar Noor Jehan, is a book accompanied by a CD of 20 immortal songs compiled and edited by him. Among his other books are Classical Music of The Subcontinent – an Introduction, Immortal Film Songs – inspired by Raags, Abba Bataeaye, Prem Sangeet, Jungle Ki Dunya, Sketches by Salman, Pappoo Yaar Tang Na Kar, Ghalib Kay Urain Gay Purzay and Tuzk-e-Ziaee. S.M. Shahid is one of the advertising industry’s pioneers and is listed in the 70 Years of Game Changers in this Special Report.
ADVERTISING IN BRITISH INDIA
In this extract, Douglas Haynes writes about the rise of professional advertising in British India
A calendar print published by Oriental Calendar Mfg. Co., Calcutta, meant to promote a cigarette brand among the upper strata of society. From the collection of Priya Paul. (Courtesy: Civic Archives, New Delhi)
In the early 1920s, global businesses relied on advertisements drawn up in Europe or America without consideration of the values of Indian consumers.
An ad for Bata Shoes, published in Art in Industry, Vol.1, No.4, 1947. (Courtesy: Visual Archives)
Such marketing methods increasingly seemed inadequate to many global businesses. These firms turned to advertising specialists headquartered in India’s larger cities. Such specialists worked under three different kinds of arrangements.
First, they could be members of advertising firms that were setting up offices in India, such as J. Walter Thompson, which came to India in 1929 to promote General Motors’ automobiles, but soon took up a number of smaller accounts.
An ad for the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation, the precursor to K-Electric, which came into being in September 1913. (Courtesy: The Daily Gazette - Karachi Resident's Directory, 1932)
Second, advertisers could work for agency firms that managed the distribution of the products manufactured by their clients. For instance, the makers of Ovaltine hired the firm of James Wright as their agent in India; this firm designed and placed many thousands of ads in Indian newspapers.
Finally, some professional advertisers worked as in-house specialists for the biggest businesses, such as Lever Brothers.
Archival research combined with an analysis of advertisements suggests that professional advertisers conceived of the Indian market in the three broad segments. First, there were the European expatriates and wealthy Indian consumers, who may have been small in number but who had high disposable incomes.
Advertisements targeting these buyers were printed in the English-language press, such as The Times of India. Second, there were the middle-class consumers, a much larger category of people but with more modest earnings and with significant anxieties about liberal spending on commodities. They could be reached through vernacular newspapers and English-language papers with nationalist reputations, as well as through billboards and cinema ads. Finally, there were the rural population and the urban under-classes.
The Age of Broadcast
DAYS OF GLORY IN RADIO PAKISTAN
Mamun M. Adil recalls a time when Pakistan’s radio was at par with international broadcast standards. An impeccable training programme acted as a springboard to further the careers of these early radio professionals.
Talat Hussain relives his days as a drama artist at the Radio Pakistan studio, near M.A. Jinnah Road in Karachi. It was here where he, like many other prominent actors, began his career in the sixties. In the seventies, Hussain went to London to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Ever since, he has been a household name in terms of acting. He has appeared in an extraordinary number of TV dramas as well as in films. His distinctive voice and style of dialogue have set him apart from his contemporaries. One of his most memorable roles was of a refugee in Jamil Dehlavi’s Jinnah (1998), which is based on the life of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and whose image can also be seen in this photograph behind Talat Hussain. (Photo: Arif Mahmood/ Dawn White Star)
At 11 p.m. on August 13, 1947, the well-known presenter Zahur Azar announced from All-India Radio’s (AIR) Lahore station: “At the stroke of twelve midnight, the independent sovereign state of Pakistan will come into existence.” An hour later, Azar stated eloquently: “This is Pakistan Broadcasting Service, Lahore. We now bring to you a special programme on ‘The dawn of Independence’.”
Azar’s announcement, which was in English and followed by an Urdu translation by Mustafa Ali Hamadani, was important for two reasons. One, it made radio the first medium to announce the creation of Pakistan; two, the Lahore station, which a mere hour ago was part of AIR, was officially part of the Pakistan Broadcasting Service (PBS), which subsequently became known as Radio Pakistan.
Prior to Independence, AIR (established in 1926) comprised nine stations. Post independence, six remained (Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi, Madras, Lucknow, Tiruchirapalli) while the Dhaka, Lahore and Peshawar stations became part of Radio Pakistan, led by Z.A. Bokhari, the first Director General.
On April 16, 1948, the Rawalpindi station was inaugurated, followed by the Karachi station on August 14, 1948. This station initially began broadcasting on August 5, 1947 as the Sindh Government Broadcasting Station; during its 10-day existence, it aired live coverage of landmark moments such as Mr Jinnah’s oath-taking ceremony as Governor- General, as well as dramas and music; the reason why it was shut down was because it violated the Wireless Telegraphy Act, according to which a provincial government could not operate a radio station.
Increasing the reach
Over the next few years, more shortwave and medium-wave transmitters were purchased and put into place to increase Radio Pakistan’s reach across both wings of Pakistan, as well as overseas, through a ‘Priority programme of development’. As a result, by 1949, Radio Pakistan could be heard in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, the Far East, Europe, as well as in Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey.
Due to its diverse audience, by 1954, Radio Pakistan’s news bulletins were broadcast in at least 15 languages, including Afghan-Persian, Arabic, Balochi, Balti, Bengali, Burmese, English, Gujarati, Iranian Kashmiri, Parhari, Pushto, Sindhi, Shina and Urdu.
Training and high-quality programming
In addition to news bulletins, Radio Pakistan aired dramas and feature programmes which, according to A History of Radio Pakistan by Nihal Ahmad, centred on “nation building themes”, as well as “history, culture, the freedom struggle, crime detection and social issues.”
There were also programmes covering science, music, farming, education, poetry and sports. Religious programming was not limited to recitations from the Quran and included readings from the Geeta, the Tipiaka and the Bible.
In fact, despite the fact that the BBC, Voice of America, All India Radio and Radio Ceylon were available to listeners, Radio Pakistan was able to hold its own. To produce high-quality programming, Radio Pakistan placed a great deal of emphasis on training their actors, producers, directors and technicians. To this end, a training institute was established as early as 1949.
Radio stars
Given the emphasis on training, the people who worked at Radio Pakistan as newscasters, voice-over artists, writers and producers eventually went on to make their careers in cinema, theatre and television.
These include film actor Mohammad Ali, television actors Neelofar Aleem, Talat Hussain, Santosh Rassal and Qazi Wajid, and prominent writers such as Syed Imtiaz Ali Taj, Rafi Peer, Syed Abid Ali, Khwaja Moinuddin, Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, Hasina Moin and Bano Qudsia.
Other notable personalities include Omer Kureishi and Jamshed Marker, whose cricket commentaries are remembered to this day. Prominent Urdu newscasters included Shakeel Ahmed and Anwar Behzad; Anita Ghulam Ali and Edward Carapiet (who hosted the popular Hit Parade) were well-known English newscasters.
Then, there were those great voices we still hear today, who either debuted or gained prominence on Radio Pakistan and include Madam Noor Jehan, Mehdi Hasan and Reshma. Another notable personality was Agha Nasir, who is considered a pioneer of Radio Pakistan and later served as Managing Director, PTV; he transitioned from radio to television with ease due to the training he received at Radio Pakistan.
During an interview with Dawn, Nasir stated that: “From the mid-fifties to the mid-sixties, Radio Pakistan was at the zenith of its success, not only because there was no competitive medium or source of information, education and entertainment, but because it was run in such a perfect manner; it was at par with many international radio services.”
Enter the commercials
When commercials began to be aired in 1961 (from the Karachi station) and subsequently from Lahore Dhaka in 1967, Ahmad points out that “there was a great rush to book commercial spots and the entire allocated advertising was booked, leading to demand for more advertising time.”
In the initial days, one hour of commercials were aired with the “objective of publicising locally manufactured products”; by the mid-sixties three hours and 10 minutes of commercials were broadcast on weekdays, and three hours and 40 minutes on Sundays.
A matter of media spend
Although there are no statistics with respect to ad revenue available from the forties and fifties, according to Gallup Pakistan, by 1966 media spend reached four million rupees. Of this, print, the undisputed leader, commanded 59% of the share. (At the time, leading newspapers included Dawn, founded by Mr Jinnah on August 14, 1947; Nawa-i-Waqt, established in 1940 by Hamid Nizami; Jang established in 1939 by Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman; and Pakistan Observer founded by Hamidul Huq Choudhury in 1949, which was published from Dhaka; after the 1971 war it was called Bangladesh Observer, and ceased publication in June 2010).
Such was radio’s prominence that it came second, securing 19% of total ad spend, followed by PTV (12%), the only television channel and outdoor (10%). Cinema too was a significant advertising medium, although statistics of its market share are unavailable. Since then, things have changed drastically. According to the Aurora Fact File published in the magazine’s November-December 2017 edition, radio accounts for a mere three percent of the total media spend.
Of this, Radio Pakistan’s share is four percent, and two of its music-based FM channels 101 and 93 (which, like Radio Pakistan, are part of the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation and were established in 1993 and 2014 respectively) have a combined share of three percent.
Consequently, the share of all three channels amounts to seven percent, which is relatively low compared to the revenue share of other networks and stations such as Radio Awaz Network, 106.2 and 100, which range between eight to 10%.
Today, Radio Pakistan’s audience is mainly confined to people living in rural areas, who do not have access to FM channels, yet. However, the station’s contribution towards training and nurturing talent should not be forgotten as it served as the first training ground for writers, producers and actors who went on to work on television, and thus contributed to the vibrant media scene that is prevalent in today’s Pakistan.
Mamun M. Adil is a leading advertising and communications expert at Aurora. He can be contacted at mamun.adil@gmail.com
BOVRIL WEDDINGS & SHIKAR IN RAHIMYAR KHAN
In 1952, Lever Brothers shifted their headquarters to remote Rahimyar Khan, the site of their newly constructed Dalda factory. An eyewitness recalls the heady atmosphere of those early days.
A glimpse of the flavour of life at the Dalda factory in Rahimyar Khan, where garden parties and sports activities played a not inconsiderable part. - Photo: Fifty Great Years in Pakistan, published by Unilever Pakistan)
The story of how Lever came to Rahimyar Khan is fascinating. It contains all the elements of a pot-boiler, set in the twilight years of the Raj.
The cast of characters include a Nawab, a powerful expatriate member of the landed gentry and a local contractor. On the other side is a group of negotiators representing Lever’s interests in India. Set in a Princely State, the backdrop is the build-up to Indian independence and the partition of the subcontinent.
Since the early forties, Lever had been looking for a site that could manufacture and supply vanaspati to the Northwest. Two local players appeared on the scene, equipped with political clout. Sir Maratab Ali, the force behind the Ali Group and William Roberts, a locally-based British landlord with vast cotton holdings. The two gentlemen were offered generous concessions by the Nawab of Bahawalpur, including the grant of a large tract of land in Rahimyar Khan, access to canal water, attractive tax holidays and other perks.
The men were equipped to go ahead with the textile mill as they had experience of cotton spinning processes. What they lacked was technical expertise in the manufacture of edible oils or soap. This is where Unilever stepped in.
After prolonged negotiations, a deal was struck. Although Rahimyar Khan was remote and infrastructure and skilled labour in short supply, it had a number of advantages. It was located halfway between Karachi and Lahore and situated along the North-South railway line. Rahimyar Khan was also located in the heart of an important cotton-growing area. As a result, there was an abundance of cotton seed from which oil could be extracted.
Construction of the factory began in 1949. The Sadiq Oil & Allied Mills was inaugurated in 1952 and Khwaja Nazimuddin, the Prime Minister of Pakistan presided over the grand affair. The mill initially processed cotton seed with the aim of providing crude cotton seed oil. The oil was then processed in a refinery. In parallel, the factory began to make vegetable ghee (vanaspati) and in 1952, the first tin of Dalda banaspati rolled off the production line.
Lever Brothers first made their appearance in British India in 1888 with the introduction of Sunlight Soap bars. This was followed in 1895 by Lifebuoy and shortly after by Lux and Vim. Vanaspati was launched in 1918 and Dalda entered the market in 1937. - Photo: Fifty Great Years in Pakistan, published by Unilever Pakistan
Life in Rahimyar Khan in those days was not easy. During the construction of the factory, the chief engineer, H. A. Snowdon, lived in a tent. His wife was extremely supportive and would join him for extended periods, before returning exhausted to England.
In 1952, Lever decided to shift its headquarters to Rahimyar Khan. Given that there was no accommodation available in town, a huge estate had to be constructed. The first building was a bungalow, housing the offices and three massive hangars brought in from Sri Lanka. Gradually, a handful of bungalows began to appear.
There was only one phone in the town. The only entertainment was in the shape of a dingy cinema hall. The factory was surrounded by agricultural fields and people were afraid to venture out at night for fear of jackals. There were no shops and acquiring a loaf of bread was something of an ordeal. The bread would arrive from Karachi on the Khyber Mail and cooks would rush to fetch it every morning. In the initial days, the expatriate community comprised only men, but as new bungalows were built, families began to arrive.
Lever Brothers India was formally launched in 1933. In the early 1940s, Levers started looking for a site that could manufacture and supply vanaspati to the less accessible part of north-western British India and this is how the site of the Dalda factory came to be located in Rahimyar Khan. - Photo: Fifty Great Years in Pakistan, published by Unilever Pakistan
Gradually, social life emerged. Ken Chambers, the chairman in the fifties, recalls how in the midst of a tea party held to celebrate the completion of the estate, a fire broke out and engulfed the shamiana. Chambers describes the scene:
“What a panic; cups of tea were thrown up to the roof which was on fire, but did not make too much of an impact on the flames. Finally, the fire came under control, not due to the teacup throwers, but by our own fire brigade.”
T. A. Shah describes how he used to organise hunting trips. He would gather guns from a local dealer, and get shikaris who knew the terrain to accompany hunting parties as guides. Deer and partridge hunting were the favourite pastimes, and anglers too managed to come home with a fairly healthy supply of fish. Riding was quite the rage; particularly among expatriates.
Eventually, a club was built and a high-spirited social life emerged around it. Everything from riding to cricket, hockey, swimming, tennis, volleyball and table tennis were organised.
Another important task was keeping the housewives well-stocked with their favourite food items. Fish, such as pomfret would arrive from Karachi, as would fresh fruit and vegetables. A highlight of life in Rahimyar Khan was the arrival of food parcels from England containing everything a nostalgic expatriate community could possibly want; from marmalade and cheese to Bovril.
This quaint custom began when John Hansard, a senior Unilever official and his wife visited Rahimyar Khan. They were upset by the lack of availability of certain items of their daily diet.
“Mrs Hansard must have convinced her husband that something had to be done, and from then on, every month managers sent a list detailing foodstuffs to the value of £3 to Leslie Smith of OSC, who forwarded them to Harrods,” says a former chairman.
Shopping trips to Lahore and Karachi were organised for managers and their wives. Holidays in Nathiagali also broke the monotony. The legendary parties thrown by the chairman were only for managers. The problem was that these were ‘dinner jacket and bow tie’ affairs and gentlemen’s bespoke tailoring was not exactly Rahimyar Khan’s forte.
In this world within a world, there were unexpected shortages which needed improvisation. When Alan Jones, a manager, decided to get married at Karachi’s Trinity Church, he needed a supply of confetti. Bashir Ahmed, puzzled by the request, decided to find a solution in the office. He emptied out all the punching machines and the wedding ceremony proceeded along traditional lines. The gentleman’s fiancée was willing to tie the knot with Jones but was wary about the prospects of marital bliss in Rahimyar Khan.
To alleviate her fears, she was flown in from England and lodged at the bungalow of an expatriate family. Chambers, keen not to lose Jones, decided to give the young woman the time of her life. Parties were organised, trips laid on, and every attempt made to convince her that Rahimyar Khan was Shangrila. The efforts were not in vain. The punching machine wedding in Karachi soon ensued and Mrs Jones became part of the Rahimyar Khan scene.
It was, however, not all fun and games. Life was hard, and the officers worked tirelessly from seven in the morning often until late into the evenings.
Looking back, it is hard to believe how difficult it was to market some of today’s household names. This was perhaps the inevitable downside of being a pioneering company. Dalda, in its early days, was fraught with controversies and suspicions.
Clarified butter (ghee) had been the favoured cooking medium across the subcontinent. However, in certain urban centres in India, given shortages and adulteration, banaspati had gradually emerged as a favoured cooking medium. This was not the case in the area that now constituted Pakistan.
The early salesmen of Dalda had a tough time. People believed that the product was synthetic and viewed it with suspicion. In this hostile environment, Lever launched a counterattack. First, it stressed the health factor by pointing to the vitamins Dalda contained. It sent off salesmen with large frying pans to cook pakoras at makeshift stalls across the country. A massive advertising campaign was launched to counter the false allegations about Dalda, which ranged from making you weak and bald to impotent.
In all this, Lever has had the support of Lintas, now R-Lintas. This was originally the advertising arm of Unilever in countries where advertising was not developed. Over the years, Unilever began to dispose of these agencies. R-Lintas was bought by C.A. Rauf, a former Lever man. He was licensed to use the name, subject to Unilever conditions.
In 2002, Lintas was bought over by Lowe & Rauf and R-Lintas became Lowe & Rauf. In 2016, Lowe affiliated with Mullen (an American advertising agency) and Lowe & Rauf became MullenLowe Rauf.
Excerpted from Fifty Great Years in Pakistan, published by Unilever Pakistan.
A truly iconic brand, Dalda has found its way into the annals of our food and pop culture history... from cookbooks and cooking shows to hummable and endearing jingles. Yet, always keeping mamta as its essence.
How is it that a brand relevant to my grandmother and mothers’ generations can still be relevant to mine? By understanding the subtleties prevalent within the winds of cultural change... and staying ahead... through insight, technological expertise and innovation.
From our grandmothers to our mothers and to ourselves, food and the cooking of it, plays a central part in expressing our love and in the nurturing of our children, making the cooking medium an important ingredient in any recipe!
This has not changed... what has changed is the context within which these recipes are prepared, lives are lived and motherhood is expressed.
Dalda ads from 1952, 1961 and 2017
One cannot understand the changing context of maternal love unless one understands the changing context of womanhood. Women have worked hard to break gender stereotypes and evolve their roles to become a force, both within the home and outside it! There has also been an evolutionary change in our food trends as we have grown more aware of what we consume and how we consume it.
Dalda have used their technological expertise and insightful wisdom to embrace this change in the lives of women and in food trends. They have supported it unquestioningly... moving with the change to give them Banaspati, Cooking Oil, Sunflower or Olive Oil.
For Dalda, what is important is that no matter how many roles they balance or how they choose to nourish their families, a mom is a mom and an expert in her own right; one that requires appreciation, honour and respect.
Dalda have not just given us innovative products; they have brought to life the essence of mamta, a timeless emotion that knows no bounds...and is indeed the hardest, most challenging and fulfilling job in the world!
Amber Rauf is Director Strategic Planning and Corporate Communications, MullenLowe Rauf.
Dinner and Dance
WHEN NIGHT WAS A CABARET
Advertisements for cabaret shows held at the Beach Luxury Hotel, Hotel Metropole and Palace Hotel were regularly published in Dawn in the fifties and sixties. Other hotels well-known for their cabaret shows included the InterContinental Hotel and The Excelsior.
From elegance to sleaze, Leon Menezes evokes a time of night time adventures when newspapers could publish daring ads without fear of reprisal.
It was the best of times. With nightlife to rival Beirut, Karachi was alive and well and living it up in the years after independence – all the way up to the mid-seventies. As the capital of a new, vibrant country, the city was primed to help one enjoy a good night out (week after week at that). How many are out there who remember that era?
The performances went from classy sophistication to downright sleaze. Many of the performers came from Turkey, Lebanon and Russia. They toured various countries with their ensembles, giving nightly performances at pre-booked venues.
The names evoke images from elegance to sleaze, just like the actual clientele catered to. Hotel Metropole and Palace Hotel, The Beach Luxury Hotel and later, the Inter Continental Hotel were the crown jewels, while the Excelsior, Imperial, Taj and Central hotels offered a more risqué set of entertainment. And the artists were flown in from around the region; there were Turks, Lebanese, Australians, Egyptians and other nationalities regularly performing on the circuit.
The evening’s entertainment was billed as ‘Dinner, Dance, Cabaret’, and the belly dancers almost always called themselves ‘Princess’. Further adjectives used to describe the female artistes included ‘hot’, ‘scintillating’ and other alluring names, designed to conjure up images of magical evenings.
Newspapers carried ads with pictures of the performers that one could hardly imagine in this day and age. Besides the afore, alluded to belly dancing, other acts included comedy/singing duos, limbo dancers and even a frequent striptease artist or two.
Panna, featured in the above ad, was a Pakistani film star and dancer. She was the star attraction at Le Gourmet, which was possibly Karachi’s first nightclub and was located on the ground floor of the Palace Hotel.
Speaking of the ads, readers who have no inkling of what that era held would probably be scandalised by the images and promise: red-blooded entertainment for a discerning audience. Since we had not yet become a ‘Nanny State’, newspapers could publish them without fear of punitive action.
With the city full of embassies and served by a host of foreign airlines, the mix of international and local patrons enjoyed themselves into the early hours of the morning. The hotels had fully-stocked bars, including local brews, and catered to a wide selection of tastes.
The glamour quotient was suitably maintained at the upper end of the spectrum by elegantly-dressed ladies and smartly-turned out gentlemen. Dancers and dance floors were smoothly polished and the latest gyrations were always on show.
The locations of these nightclubs was within a small radius and included some of the old city areas: The Roma Shabana was somewhere near Napier Road; the Lido (Imperial Hotel) near the PIDC Bridge; the Taj across from CM House; and the Penthouse was housed in the Excelsior Hotel, right in the heart of Saddar. Slightly further up the road, the Beach Luxury Hotel also had some dynamic acts in its two venues. As part of the milieu of the time, low-end bars and off-licence liquor stores dotted the city, not even earning a second glance.
Karachi’s once-vibrant nightlife has given way to restaurants and fast-food outlets. Malls and cinemas now make up for whatever entertainment we have with the occasional theatre thrown in for good measure. We now speak of a time long, long ago in a country far, far away.
Leon Menezes is a former member of the band The In-Crowd and currently professor of practice.
Throwback to a vibrant Karachi
IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES...
If confessions from Karachiites in the fifties and sixties are to be believed, food fetishism achieved an all-time high, writes Mamun M. Adil.
This effigy of a rotund chef once greeted the patrons of Mexicano, a continental restaurant located where Zainab Market is situated today. Mexicano was very popular in the sixties and the ‘chef’ was accompanied by a ‘butler’ who welcomed visitors as he held a domed-dish upon a tray, with a certain panache. He rather resembled Cadbury, Richie Rich’s butler. Mexicano closed down after several years. Like Mexicano, many of the restaurants people remember fondly from that era no longer exist. (Photo: Arif Mahmood/ Dawn White Star)
It may be the past; but it wasn’t that long ago. Karachi was the capital of a new country and boasted of streets that were washed every night. The city was peaceful, street crime was unheard of, life was gentle and the nightlife vibrant.
There were no malls and Saddar was Karachi’s vibrant heart, drawing crowds from across the city. It was to Bohri Bazaar that citizens went to buy fabric and crockery and have their children’s school uniforms made. Bohri Bazaar was famed for its plump jalebis, spicy bhel puri, chaat (at the original Nimco store) and colourful sherbet stalls. Empress Market (a lot cleaner than today and worthy of its name) was the hub for fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and poultry. In the vicinity were several coffee shops, which acted as crowd pullers for the ‘intellectuals’ as well as a few ‘toddy’ shops, establishments which sold low-priced alcoholic drinks.
The centre of the universe
It was Elphinstone Street (now Zaibunissa Street) and referred to affectionately as ‘Elphi’, which was considered to be the ‘centre of the universe’ even before Partition. In addition to shops such as Ghulam Mohammad & Sons, which specialised in men’s clothing and Bliss & Co, the chemists, there were several stores selling imported goods.
Of these, English Cold Storage was a favourite; it was there that cold cuts, Swiss liqueur chocolates, cereals, and cheeses, be they of the Danish or Dutch variety, could be sourced. Incidentally, the first cheese to be made in Pakistan was called Amson’s; it was made by Amson’s Dairy and instead of being available at a retail store, one had to go to the owner’s flat located in an impressive stone building, on the corner of Inverarity (now Sarwar Shaheed Road) and Victoria Roads (now Abdullah Haroon Road) to purchase it, where it was packed in paper like butter, which Amson’s also sold.
Give us our daily bread – and butter
For people who wanted to buy imported butter, the selection included American brands such as Clearavall or Sylvester; both were available in tins. Otherwise, butter was mostly purchased from small bakeries, such as PF Pereira (housed in a restaurant of the same name and specialised in Goan cuisine) and United Bakery.
Another hotspot for freshly-baked bread was the Monastery of Angels on Ingle Road (now M.R. Kiyani Road), where European nuns made and sold fresh loaves at 11:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. daily. In addition to white bread, they made raisin bread and peanut and almond brittles, all of which would be sold out within hours.
Foodie trails
Eating out was equally popular then as it is today, although the number of restaurants was limited in number. For desi food, there was the Pioneer Coffee House, which was especially crowded on Sundays and primarily patronised by people who had spent the day at the horse races or at the nearby cinemas. In addition to a vegetable thali on Monday, Pioneer served khichra (a variation of haleem) and dhansak (a Parsi delicacy) and Bombay kulfi and falooda. Then there was Bundu Khan, which was famous for its flaky parathas and succulent kababs and tikkas.
Qaiser Hotel, which is still located on Pakistan Chowk, was best known for palak gosht and raan. Although western food was not as popular as it is today, Shezan, one of the first restaurants to be air-conditioned, served chicken sandwiches and later at Shezan Ampis, ‘chicken flying saucers’ made with plenty of green chillies for extra zing. Shezan also made birthday cakes, which were a rarity and only available at a few other places such as Metropole Hotel. The most commonly available cakes were the yellow pound cakes, which are still found at many bakeries today.
The French connection
Le Gourmet was one of the high-end restaurants of the time. It was located in the Palace Hotel (Mövenpick Hotel today) and specialised in French cuisine and possibly introduced Chateaubriand and Chicken A la Kiev to Karachi; it was also reputed to have the best wine list on offer. Le Gourmet was also one of Karachi’s first nightclubs and introduced cabaret to the city.
Here is how Anwar Mooraj, in a chapter of Karachi: Megacity of our times, describes the restaurant: “Le Gourmet had the usual ingredients which made for a successful night club – good food, a well-stocked cellar, wonderful music and a congenial atmosphere. Everybody who was ‘a somebody’ wanted to be seen there. Le Gourmet, however, introduced a new element – cabaret. Besides the usual assortment of heavily rouged Can-Can girls, who threw their long legs into the air while the Italian orchestra played a selection from Orpheus in the Underworld, there were also sophisticated magic shows, experiments in levitation and solo performances by a sensational local classical dancer called Panna.”
The China factor
In terms of food, the China factor was apparent way before the CPEC. ABC, which was established after World War II, and stood for America, Britain and China, was one of the most popular Chinese restaurants and was predictably located on Elphinstone Street.
For less than five rupees (considered pricey in those days), one could dig into a plate of egg fried rice and sweet and sour chicken, as well as noodles and fried prawns in a crisp batter. Another popular Chinese restaurant was the South China Cafe near Paradise Cinema. Here, the flavours were more Cantonese.
There was also Canton adjacent to Happy Book Stall on Inverarity Road and Hong Kong on Victoria Road. Soon, Chinese restaurants opened in Tariq Road and included Tung Nan and Yuan Tung, which was initially located near Bunder Road (now M.A. Jinnah Road).
The American influence
For young people, there were two trendy ‘hangout spots’. Topsy’s, near Rio and Rex cinemas, which served a wide variety of fizzy drinks (soft drinks were not stocked at home in the quantities they are today and going out for a soda was an outing), including Coke, Pepsi, Vimto, Canada Dry and Pakola (available in raspberry, orange and lemon flavours) and a brand called Rogers, which no longer exists.
Nearby was the Manhattan Soda Fountain, which specialised in American-style sundaes such as Knickerbocker Glory, Green Goddess, Purple Prince and Hangman’s Blood. The first burger that came to Pakistan, was of the desi variety – Hanifia’s hunter beef burger, accompanied by the sharp mustard sauce that is still relished today. For the longest time, it was the closest thing to a burger people in Karachi could have, and the first outlet in Nursery was jam-packed at all times. The real western style burger was introduced by the InterContinental Hotel in their coffee shop The Demi Tasse. An eight-ounce cheeseburger would set people back five rupees.
Looking back – with rose-tinted glasses?
Although there is a tendency to look back at the past with rose-tinted glasses, given the vibrant nightlife Karachi was known for in the fifties and sixties, not to mention the multitude of cinemas, coffee shops and restaurants, one cannot help but think that despite the progress that the city has witnessed over the decades, the Karachi of the past was, in many ways, a better place to live in.
As Mooraj states: “Karachi of the early fifties [was] a city that was safe and peaceful and where nobody ever seemed to be in any kind of hurry. People were also very tolerant, especially in the coffee houses where it was fashionable to hold left wing views and to express anti establishment sentiments. What a pity those lazy, carefree days are gone forever, like picture postcards, yellowed with age, stored in a half forgotten trunk, never to be opened again.”
Mamun M. Adil is a leading advertising and communications expert at Aurora. He can be contacted at mamun.adil@gmail.com
Painting the icons
INVESTING ICONS WITH STAR POWER
Durriya Kazi evokes the artists who created Pakistan’s iconic cinema posters.
During the sixties and seventies, often dubbed the ‘golden age’ of Pakistani cinema, hand-painted film posters were the most popular form of promotion. This was at a time when the industry released more than a 100 films annually, making it one of the largest in the world. As the fortunes of the industry took a turn for the worse, the art of hand-painting cinema posters also began to wane.
In today’s multiplex cinema world, it is difficult to imagine how vibrant cinema was in the first three decades of a new country – Pakistan. From once there being between 1,500 and 2,000 cinema theatres across Pakistan, the number has, in the last 10 years, dwindled to less than 300, of which 70 are expensive multiplexes. This, when the worldwide audiences for cinema are rapidly increasing.
There has been much soul-searching about the reasons for this decline. An overlooked casualty of this trend is the end of the hand-painted cinema banners and posters. In 2007 alone, 75 artists from Lahore’s cinema distribution centre, Royal Park, lost their jobs due to digital posters and banners.
The film distributors considered the elaborate hand-painted banners and posters essential for the promotion of films. They were the trailers of films. It was impossible to miss a 150-foot long and 90-foot high banner, with its bright colours and larger-than-life stars. Tongas, with film posters strapped on either side, advertised the film street by street. The building façades of Royal Park were barely visible with multiple posters and mini banners announcing the newest films.
Cinema art has two distinct types of artists; the banner painters who paint canvases – large enough to cover the theatre frontage, usually in makeshift studios at the back of the cinema theatre; and the more refined poster painters who work in small, office-like studios.
The canvases are repainted over and over again and many repaired with patches of canvas not visible at street level. Watching a banner artist work deftly with wide, wall-painting brushes on an enlarged scale fills one with awe.
The banner painters insist that they make stars of actors. They make them larger-than-life, enhance their muscles and curves, fill their eyes with rage and turn tears into rivulets of sorrow. Fellow artists visit cinema theatres to admire or critique the latest work. One of the posters and banners most admired by fellow artists was for Ehsas, which had a realistically depicted plaster across Shabnam’s forehead. The style of the posters reflects the melodramatic nature of Pakistani films. Emotion is laid bare – rage, passion, desire, sorrow. In a country that increasingly encourages the covering of bodies, male and female, cinema art exists in a parallel reality of revealing clothes, seductive poses and overt sexuality.
The film distributors share stills of the completed film with the artist, who selects which scenes best represent the story. A compositional jargon is used for which actors or scenes should be ‘in’ (in the foreground and in full colour) and which ‘out’ (in the background and in mono-colour). Banners were painted in four stages – drawing, single, ground and finish; each stage having a different assistant.
Cinema art came to Pakistan from Bombay. The three main poster ustads trained in Bombay were Moinuddin Azad, Sardar Khan (better known as S. Khan) and Mustafa Chughtai.
Chugtai worked with an airbrush and was known for his fine, idealised images. He was equally criticised by fellow artists for this refinement and for not stylistically distinguishing male and female characters. Azad was considered the more realistic artist with his emotive brush strokes that better depicted the action and mood of the film and for showing male actors with more weather-beaten skin. S. Khan modernised Azad’s style, and with his son, Sarfaraz Iqbal or S. Iqbal, added more contemporary compositions and lettering. Their work came to define film posters of the sixties and seventies – Bano, Jehangira, Aashi, Sita Maryam Margaret (and even the whacky) Hunterwali. S. Iqbal adapted to photo collages and then compositions for panaflex, working right until his death in 2017 – the last of the great poster artists. The father-and-son team defined the public image of Waheed Murad, Rani, Neelo, Nadeem, Mohammed Ali, Shamim Ara, Babra Sharif, Badar Munir and in more recent times, Rahi, Shaan and Saima. Film-maker, Farjad Nabi documented S. Iqbal painting a poster of the film Rashoman for an exhibition of film posters in Japan, ‘Lollywood! Pakistani Film Posters’ (2006).
The best-known Karachi poster artists were: Wazir, who bought a lithographic machine from Azad, and is best-known for Begum Jaan; Kasim and A.H. Mahver (known for their more monochromatic palette) and banner painters who travelled between Karachi, Faisalabad and Multan, M.M., a favourite of Satish Anand, Pervez, Aslam and Jeewan who made banners for English films; Majid, Ghulam Rasool (Chota) Sarwar (better known as Arif Githa and Akhtar who was both an actor and an artist. There are only a few banner painters left in Karachi and in Lahore of whom Ajmal is the best-known. While some cinema artists such as Rafique, son of Mustafa Chughtai, went to an art school, most apprenticed at a young age. Ustad Allah Buksh was greatly respected by all and trained many a cinema painters.
The early cinema posters were printed as lithographs in single or two-colour. When technology grew in the sixties, these became of a better quality with four-colour printing. From the mid-eighties, pasted photographs were embedded into hand-painted artwork before completely succumbing to digital prints. Now it is difficult to distinguish an ordinary advertisement poster from a film poster. No more stars are ‘made’ by poster artists; they simply remain actors.
With digital printing taking over, this skill of hand painting posters, passed on from generation to generation, is on the verge of vanishing.
Today, while vintage posters fetch high prices, out-of-work cinema artists are driving rickshaws, painting political posters or churning out small paintings for galleries in Pakistan or Dubai. Ironically, handmade posters are still being produced in the digital west.
Only recently retired, Drew Struzan painted the most posters for American films in the last three decades including Back to the Future, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones and the Star Wars films. James Jean, who also exhibits in art galleries, has painted the poster for the 2017 film Shape of Water, which had 13 nominations for the Oscars and won four, including one for the best picture.
Would Maula Jatt have become such a success without the blood-stained posters of Sultan Rahi? Would Neelo or Mira have looked quite so sexy? Mohammad Ali and Waheed Murad so romantic? Rani quite so tragic? Badar Munir so fierce? Hotspot and Guddu and a handful of poster enthusiasts have given poster art its due recognition, but the film industry, with the exception of Farjad Nabi and Meenu Gaur’s Zinda Bhaag, no longer commissions hand-painted posters.
Durriya Kazi is a Karachi-based artist and heads the Department of Visual Studies at the University of Karachi.
Cover to cover
SPLENDOUR AMIDST MAGAZINES
Is there anything more satisfying than the simple act of a cover girl flipping through a hand-held magazine? Tauqeer Muhajir rediscovers the pleasure.
Atiya Khan, the cover girl of the eighties, flips through a copy of Eastern Film, one of the most popular magazines among Pakistani film buffs in the sixties. Copies of the Illustrated Weekly of Pakistan, a popular and slightly risqué magazine (it was renamed the Herald in 1970 and is published by The Dawn Media Group) can be spotted strewn around her. Atiya Khan was one of Pakistan’s first super models and graced the cover of many magazines in the late eighties. In the early nineties, she found herself behind the camera, and worked as a freelance commercial director for brands such as Servis, Rafhan and Bubble Up. Since then, Atiya Khan has endorsed several brands, including Mobilink Indigo (now Jazz) and State Life Insurance. She has directed a documentary on Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, hosted television shows and acted in several dramas. - Photo: Arif Mahmood/ Dawn White Star
Reading magazines is one of the sedentary pursuits still considered a preference of many. Even though most of the magazines are enjoyed online, the content being more up-to-date and lively, printed magazines have a market of their own.
Their look and feel, the authenticity, accuracy and reliability of their information supersedes any other media, even today. Facts and opinions are quoted, believed and retained as records for references. Each one is like a time-capsule, with its articles and advertisements taking one back to a long-lost era and long-lost writers, whose opinions can now be evaluated in the light of what has transpired since then.
Many would argue and debate otherwise, but none can deny the impact of magazines on the advertising industry. One of the interesting aspects of a magazine on which its success is dependent, is the specific genre it represents in capturing a certain target audience. The bond with advertising is probably most evident in magazines for women, since they are the biggest and greatest buyers of consumer goods.
Women being one of the larger target audiences for magazines in Pakistan, we see more of fashion, beauty, food and household magazines surfacing since 1960. Back in the early days, only a handful of magazines existed under different genres. An entertaining and informative magazine for women called She surfaced in 1963, and its counterpart, Women’s Own in 1987. Published by Riaz Ahmed Mansuri, Women’s Own became popular and captured a fair share of advertising. Likewise, food magazines including Masala,Good Food and Dastarkhwan among others, enjoyed a large women readership and continue to do so.
On the fashion front, key publications, such as Fashion Collection (1991), Diva (2002) and Glam (2012) published by Hum Network, and the most recently-launched, international magazine Hello in 2012, have been quite successful.
Some of the well-established magazines also had an impact on social issues. The Mirror of the Month, better known as the Mirror, was a popular, Pakistani, social, monthly magazine which ran from 1951 to 1972. Its founding Editor, Zeb-un-Nissa Hamidullah, became the first woman editor in Pakistan. Her mission statement was to “foster feelings of unity and amity throughout the country.” The magazine was published at Din Muhammadi Press until the 1960s.
In October 1962, Begum Hamidullah wrote an open letter to President Ayub Khan. Titled ‘Please Mr. President!’ it expressed concern about the government’s treatment of student protests. The letter was published in the Mirror. It was an emotional statement, describing the feelings of the people, as they saw “the blood that stained the streets of Pakistan.”
She stated that owing to his authoritarian rule, she was losing her faith in him and had placed his picture upside down. In the November edition of the Mirror that year, she published his reply; a breakdown of the statements in her letter, each being justified. He concluded by saying, “I request [you] to ascertain facts before publishing highly emotional editorials.”
In 1969, before he stepped down, she republished ‘Please Mr. President!’, alongside a new editorial, ‘No, thank you, Sir’, in which she said that the problems which she talked about in ‘Please, Mr. President!’ were still very much there and that “Pakistan will continue to erupt as long as you, Field Marshal Ayub Khan, remain its President.” This editorial angered Ayub Khan, but, ironically, he took her advice in the end and abdicated in favour of General Yahya Khan.
Because of these events, the Mirror became highly controversial in the sixties. The tension between Begum Hamidullah and Ayub Khan escalated, resulting in the magazine being banned twice, and government advertisements almost completely revoked from the periodical.
In 1971, Begum Hamidullah moved to Ireland with her husband and the magazine folded the next year.
Two other monthlies on current affairs that reign above the rest include The Herald, published by The Dawn Media Group in 1970 and Newsline in 1989. Both magazines are looked upon by readers as authentic, reliable, political and social content.
One of the genres to gain popularity since the beginning were the showbiz magazines.
The word ‘Lollywood’ was first coined in the summer of 1989, in the now-defunct magazine Glamour, published from Karachi by gossip columnist Saleem Nasir. The film industry in Lahore started in 1929 with the opening of the United Players’ Studios on Ravi Road. Eastern Films Magazine, a tabloid edited by Saeed Haroon, became the most popular magazine for film buffs in Pakistan. The magazine had a questions-and-answers section called ‘Yours Impishly’ which the sub-editor, Asif Noorani, took inspiration for from I.S. Johar’s page in India’s Filmfare magazine. Another such magazine, Nigar, a brainchild of Ilyas Rashidi, also known as the pioneer of film journalism, was launched as a weekly film magazine in 1948. In 1957, the Nigar Awards were instituted as an extension of Nigar.
Urdu magazines enjoyed a larger readership than their English language counterparts. Much before the formation of Pakistan, a monthly magazine by the name of Hoor was launched in Lahore in 1938, with Khaula Qureshi as the Editor.
For general reading, Urdu Digest enjoys the privilege of being Pakistan’s first digest published in 1960. Weekly Muslim World was published in 1961 and Akhbar-e-Jahan, a weekly, Urdu language news and entertainment magazine, in 1967. Anchal, a monthly magazine started publication in 1969 with Agaz-uddin Qurashi as its Editor. During the early seventies, the magazine that gained popularity was Subrang Digest, launched in 1970, followed by Pakeeza in 1971 with Mairaj Rasool as Editor. Hassan Nisar started his career as a journalist from Dhanak Magazine in 1972. In 1982, Dosheeza, positioned as a family and fictional digest, emerged from Karachi with Saham Mirza as its Editor. Other popular Urdu language magazines in Pakistan include Khawateen Digest (1971), Kiran Monthly (1988), Hina Monthly (1979) and Mussarat Digest (1982).
For kids, the most notable magazine Hamdard Naunehal, published by Hakim Said, started in 1953 and still holds a large readership. Taleem-o-Tarbiat, established in 1961, published by Ferozsons in Lahore, became another popular magazine for kids.
Magazines and newspapers flourished from the sixties to the nineties. Print advertising was the most important advertising medium, although not the only one. The other choice was posters and billboards. More promising was film advertising, which lagged behind print advertising but remained a strong choice until Radio Pakistan allowed advertising in the sixties. When TV arrived in the mid-sixties, advertising moved towards the new medium.
As we stand at the beginning of 2018, the magazine sector may not appear to be a lucrative business proposition to many, with digital printing reigning high. However, the significance of print media, its steadfastness and accuracy is undeniable. Opinion makers and leaders rely on print media and quote information published in newspapers and magazines. Print will continue to go to bed, to rise and shine every morning.
Tauqeer Muhajir is Editor and Publisher of Nigaah and Money magazines. He is also the co-author of two art books: 20 Pakistani Painters You Should Know and Six Decades Of Art In Pakistan.
The editorial content of this Dawn Special Report has been prepared in collaboration with the editorial team of Aurora, and designed by the Creative Department, Xpert Services Pvt. Ltd.
The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) landed flat on Friday with the benchmark KSE-100 index gaining 71 points to close at 45,560.
The index floated in the positive range in the first half of the session, however, it shed points after opening for the second half before touching the day's low of 45,392 points.
In all, 230 million shares worth Rs9.5 billion were traded on the exchange. Of the 357 traded scrips, 146 advanced,194 declined and 17 remained unchanged.
The chemical sector dominated trading with 39 million shares traded while technology and commercial banking sectors followed with 30m ad 29m shares traded respectively.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Friday announced to maintain the interest rate at 6 per cent as it announced its monetary policy for the next two months.
According to a statement released on their website, the SBP has decided to continue with the recently revised interest rate so that the effects of the change can accurately be ascertained.
The central bank is hopeful of achieving an 11-year high growth rate with inflation remaining under control.
It, however, points to the high current account deficit which, combined with the high fiscal deficit, may affect medium-term stability of the economy.
In this context, the regulator is banking its hopes on the greater exchange rate flexibility, monetary management and increasing remittances, read the statement.
The bank also estimates that the average inflation rate for financial year 2017-18 will remain below the 6pc target. It also expects the agriculture, industrial and large-scale manufacturing sectors to continue on the growth path.
The monetary policy statement by the SBP states that a 12.2pc increase has been posted in exports between July 2017 and Feb 2018 compared to a 0.8pc decline in the same period last year.
However, growth in imports has also been high which has led to a current account deficit of $10.8bn.
SHANGHAI: China should take “punitive” measures against Canada if new regulations from Ottawa against dumping of aluminium and steel target Beijing, Chinese tabloid Global Times said in an editorial on Friday.
The widely read Global Times is run by the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily, although its stance does not necessarily reflect Chinese government policy.
The editorial excoriated Ottawa for what it characterised as vacillation between the US and China, referring to recent comments made by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about steel and aluminium dumping.
Canada has “sound trade ties and ... no major disputes,” with China, it said.
Canada’s imports of Chinese steel make up a small proportion of its total imports, and it imports nearly no aluminium from China, the editorial said, adding that “Canada is more like a US colony economically". However, a “self-seeking and greedy Canada” would be unlikely to cut itself off from the Chinese market completely, it said.
On Tuesday, Trudeau said that Canada will act to prevent the smuggling of cheap steel and aluminium into the North American market.
“By following the US suit, Canada is acting like a crafty merchant. Chinese people used to hold full respect for Western countries.
But as their exchanges grow, these countries begin unveiling their selfish and cunning nature,” the editorial said.
“We have professional teams to cope with small countries of this kind,” the editorial said.
ISLAMABAD: The government on Friday decided to issue a national security certificate for the sale of shares held by KES Power Ltd in K-Electric Ltd (KEL) to the Chinese multinational Shanghai Electric Power Ltd (SEPL).
A meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCoP) on Friday, chaired by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, decided that the issuance of the national security certificate, however, would be subject to the ratification by the federal cabinet.
The issuance of the certificate is also linked with the clearance of billions of rupees debt on K-Electric’s balance sheet and obtaining approval of the regulatory authority, Nepra, it was learnt.
The Dubai-based group, in partnership with Al-Jomaih Group of Saudi Arabia and National Industries Group of Kuwait, holds a 66.4pc stake in K-Electric through its parent company known as KES Power.
The committee also discussed various issues related to the privatisation of Pakistan Steel Mills and restructuring of PIACL. The committee asked the sponsoring divisions to resubmit the proposals in a cohesive and comprehensive manner in light of earlier decisions on the subject.
According to Secretary Privatisation Commission, the matter of rehiring of financial advisers for PIACL was also discussed during CCoP meeting. The prime minister told the meeting that the rehiring financial advisers should be decided by the board of privatisation commission as the issue does not come under the jurisdiction of CCoP.
The board of Privatisation Commission will now meet to decide the rehiring of the financial advisers whose term ended in October 2017 on the same terms and conditions or to hire fresh financial advisers.
KARACHI: Iran’s former foreign minister Kamal Kharazi has said the perception in Pakistan that Iran’s Chabahar port, including subsequent development of roads and railways networks for enhancing the country’s trade, is a ‘rival project’ of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), is not correct.
He was speaking at a roundtable discussion with journalists, former and current diplomats and research students at the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs, a foreign policy think tank, here on Friday. A multitude of foreign policy issues related to Iran and Pakistan relations and their impact on the region came under discussion during the programme.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Kharazi was of the opinion that though it was true that India had massively invested in the Chabahar project, it was an open platform for all regional countries to participate in. “The Chabahar project is aimed at connecting Iran with Central Asia, and the ultimate goal is to uplift the Iranian economy,” he said, adding that the project was under deliberations for a long time, hence, it was not correct to link its launch with that of the CPEC.
“While we are engaging with India on the economic front and India is investing in Chabahar, we have not given exclusive rights on the project to them,” he said, adding that Iran “was considerate of the situation of Muslims in India and in the region” while making economic partnerships. “We have urged India a number of times to resolve the Kashmir dispute in a peaceful and justly manner,” he said.
Kharazi says Tehran is ready to mediate between Islamabad, New Delhi on Kashmir dispute
“We are even ready to mediate between Pakistan and India on the 70-year-old dispute, but we haven’t got a positive response from India on it ever,” he said. “But if we talk about economic partnerships, then Pakistan also has relations with the United States which has put a number of sanctions on us, but [Iran] doesn’t mind it,” he said.
He was of the opinion that bilateral trade between Iran and Pakistan suffered due to a number of reasons, including reluctance of Pakistani banks to do business with Iranian entities due to a fear of US sanctions. “It is one of the most important factors that has affected the trade relations between the two countries,” he said. The two governments are in talks with each other to enable small Pakistani banks that don’t deal with the US so that more trade could be carried out between the neighbouring states. “The Free Trade Agreement between the two countries is currently under negotiation, and once signed, it will open doors for more business,” he added.
Mr Kharazi, who served as Iran’s foreign minister from 1997 to 2005, said that another issue that had negatively impacted the bilateral trade was the “lack of political will from Pakistani side due to intense pressure from the United States and middle-eastern countries”.
“We have completed the Iranian side of the gas pipeline project, but the Pakistani government seems to be under international pressure [which is] stopping it from proceeding any further,” he said, adding that the perception created by some circles that the projects were stalled due to Iran offering gas at exorbitant rates was based on speculation.
Talking about the US presence in Afghanistan, he said that in his view, the US would not be leaving Afghanistan any sooner as it had ambitions to stay in the region because of its strategic goals. “Iran supports any kind of peace negotiation that is held between the Afghan government and the Taliban, and if such a deal is reached its conclusion, the US may not have any excuse for its continued presence in the country which it invaded 17 years back,” he said. “All neighbouring countries have a role to play [in bringing stability to Afghanistan]”, because, he said, all the [regional] countries were suffering from the conflict at the heart of the region.
In reply to a question about Iran’s alleged interference in regional conflicts, he said that one of the pillars of Iran’s foreign policy was to oppose the interventions of world powers in other countries, especially the Muslim ones. “We did support Iraq [after the US invasion] and we are supporting Syria as well, but governments of these countries invited [Iran] to help them defeat the militant Islamic State group. It would have been intervention had it been an uninvited exercise,” he said.
In response to another question, he said economic sanctions had hurt the Iranian economy for a long time, however, it was still doing better than the economies of other countries which were not under US sanctions. “Our people have tolerated the sanctions for a very long time and have suffered at the hands of it, but we are fighting the problems with our intelligence, wisdom, and resilience,” he said.
ISLAMABAD: Except for a substantial cut in petrol price, all the other petroleum products are estimated to become slightly expensive for a month mainly because of currency depreciation, according to official calculations.
However, the government is expected to keep all the prices unchanged except for a minor cut in petrol price to protect its revenue stream at the existing level, an official said. He said the international oil prices had slightly come down in March but the impact of currency depreciation was having adverse impact.
Based on existing tax rates and import prices reported by Pakistan State Oil (PSO), the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) on Friday worked out a reduction of Rs5.26 per litre in the price of petrol for April.
The regulator also recommended an increase of 65 paisa per litre for high speed diesel, 55 paisa per litre in light diesel oil and 13 paisa per litre in kerosene.
Interestingly, the next month prices have been worked out on the basis of higher than notified tax rates for HSD on the orders of the Ministry of Finance to enable the government to announce a relatively lower rate for political objectives.
As such, if the regulators’ calculations are approved by the prime minister, the price of HSD would go up by 0.7 per cent, kerosene by 0.2pc and LDO by 0.8pc. The petrol price on the other hand is estimated to fall by 6pc.
In a summary sent to the government, Ogra maintained that the adjustment in prices of petroleum products was required to pass on the impact of fluctuation in international oil prices and the rupee against US dollar during March.
Therefore, on the basis of existing tax rates and imported cost of PSO, Ogra calculated the new ex-depot price of HSD at Rs99.10 per litre instead of existing rate of Rs98.45 per litre.
For petrol, the ex-depot price was worked out at Rs82.81 per litre instead of existing rate of Rs88.07 per litre.
Likewise, Ogra calculated ex-refinery price of kerosene at Rs76.59 per litre against existing rate of Rs76.46 per litre, showing an increase of 13 paisa per litre. Also, it proposed 55 paisa per litre increase in the price of LDO to Rs65.85 instead of existing rate of Rs65.30. The summary has been forwarded to the petroleum division that would seek its approval from the prime minister through the ministry of finance.
In an order, the finance ministry has ordered calculation of prices on the basis of 31pc GST on high speed diesel (HSD) and 17pc on all the other products. This is despite the fact that notified-GST rate on HSD at present was 25.5pc at present.
In addition, the government is also charging Rs8 per litre petroleum levy on HSD, Rs10 per litre on petrol and Rs6 and Rs3 per litre on kerosene and light diesel oil (LDO) respectively.
Under the practice in vogue, oil prices are revised on the last day of every month.
Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has been allowing gradual increase in the price of LDO and kerosene to bridge a price differential with petrol to minimise mixing of the two projects.
Interestingly, kerosene is the only regulated petroleum product but unavailable at fixed rates anywhere in the country while all other products are deregulated and are available reasonably within the price band announced by the government.
The petrol and HSD are two major products that generate most of revenue for the government because of their massive and yet growing consumption in the country. HSD sales across the country are now going beyond 800,000 tonnes per month against monthly consumption of around 700,000 tonnes of petrol. The sales of kerosene and LDO are generally less than 10,000 tonnes per month.
The Washington visit of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS) may have yielded him more space on the Middle East political chess board, letting him operate as per his agenda, yet there are hints that MBS and the US oil producers could not agree on a joint market strategy.
Crude market stability is crucial to the political pursuits of MBS. With the Aramco IPO in mind and fresh from his Washington yatra, in order to strengthen the oil markets, he came up with another idea – of long-term ‘crude’ cooperation with Russia. The crown prince seems to be looking seriously towards Moscow to help Riyadh stabilise the global oil markets that have been rattled by the development of US shale.
His goal seems simple at this stage — garnering the highest valuation of Saudi Aramco, so as to maximise the Aramco privatisation yield. MBS has two issues, he needs to show to his own constituency — the Saudis — that he has the capacity and acumen to alter the regional geopolitics and that he could achieve the valuation for Aramco, which everyone else felt unattainable.
Of course, MBS needs all the cash possible from the Aramco IPO so as to be able to continue playing the Game of Thrones in Riyadh and in the wider region. And despite all the chants of swaying the Saudi economy away from oil and its volatility, the fact remains; crude assets and its prices remain key to his ambitions. And MBS realises it well.
With American crude producers not ready to play in tune with him, MBS is now turning to Russia.
During an interview with Reuters, MBS revealed that in order to stabilise the crude market, Riyadh and Moscow were considering a long-term alliance between the Opec and Russia. “We are working to shift from a year-to-year agreement to a 10 to 20-year agreement,” the crown prince told Reuters in an interview in New York. “We have agreement on the big picture, but not yet on the detail,” he underlined.
The idea to extend the current oil supply cooperation between Opec and the Russia-led non-Opec producers into a kind of long-term framework of cooperation has been in making for some time now.
Last month, UAE’s Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei hinted — probably for the first time — that the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and Russia were planning long-term cooperation and that the draft to create a ‘supergroup’ of oil producers, could be ready by the end this year. The statement from MBS, at the end of his Washington yatra, basically formalises the move.
This seems a win-win scenario for both Riyadh and Moscow. Cooperation with Russia would definitely help Saudi Arabia, the oil Kingdom, in gaining upper hand in the oil markets. It would also help stabilise the oil markets, so crucial to the goals, objectives; and the overall profile of Saudi Arabia.
And on the other hand, the move also strengthens Russia’s (political) hand in the Middle East where the United States has long been the dominant super-power. “It is a very important strategic development,” Helima Croft of RBC Capital Markets said. It is a “sign of a major reversal in Saudi-Russia relations. Saudi Arabia was a staunch cold war ally of the US Now this Russia-Saudi alliance appears to be thicker than oil and seems to be driven by the personal affinity between Putin and MBS,” underlined Croft.
And Croft has a point.
News of the potential oil alliance comes at a time when the two have been working to cement an economic relationship despite being at odds over the conflict in Syria, where they back opposing sides. Riyadh supports rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s army, while Russian and Iranian forces have backed Assad – meaning that Russia effectively sides with Iran, Riyadh’s regional arch-foe.
The question here is; how would this growing ‘crude’ amity between Moscow and Riyadh be viewed in Washington? While Trump has made it clear, his interest basically lies in Saudi money, as he indicated in the Oval Office, while MBS was sitting alongside, by sharing the numbers of jobs the Saudi orders would generate in the US.
Being a businessman that Trump is, he is ready to extend some carrots to Riyadh too, in form of political acrobatics on Iran and Syria.
The current state of Saudi-US relationship thus remains a business deal, whereas, in the longer run, Saudi ‘crude’ interests seem more entwined with Russia. The outburst from MBS was just an indication of the reality.
KARACHI: Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has urged the government to reduce the penalty for failure to furnish statements under Income Tax Ordinance 2001.
The FPCCI believes that the present amount of penalty of Rs500-2500 per day with a maximum penalty up to Rs10,000 is too high.
The apex body of trade and industry also believes that the rate of penalty mostly proves to be much higher than the actual tax liability of a taxpayer.
It further added that taxpayer is required to pay default surcharge at a much higher rate than the compensation paid by the FBR due to delay in refund under the ordinance ie at KIBOR+0.5pc.
KARACHI: Shortage of quality cotton kept lint prices higher as ginners kept asking for more rates while spinners on their part were reluctant to exceed certain limits and looked for other options including imports.
Though the market remained steady but activity was extremely poor as ginners were reluctant to dispose limited quality cotton stocks at lower rates.
As a result of short supply of quality cotton, prices were firm. Despite strong demand from spinners, ginners were not ready to enter into deals at lower prices.
The cotton deals generally finished between Rs6,300 to Rs8,000 per maund while phutti (seed cotton) prices were quoted in the range of Rs2,600 to Rs3,100 per 40kg. However, very little quantity of phutti is reported to have been left in the fields.
Meanwhile, acute shortage of irrigation water is badly hitting cotton sowing in lower Sindh and growers are also complain about damage to saplings due to excessive heat wave. The Punjab government has imposed ban on cotton sowing before the month of April.
However, there is some hope of getting better cotton crop next season because growers this season (2017-18) got good prices for phutti while sugarcane growers badly suffered owing to higher supply of cane and lower price.
The estimated final production of current cotton season is reported to be around 11.6 million bales — a growth of 8 per cent over the previous year.
The world leading cotton markets — after giving mixed trend throughout the week — closed firm.
The Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) spot rates were unchanged at overnight level at Rs7,500 per maund.
On the ready counter only one big deal of 5,192 bales from Rohri was reportedly done at Rs6,175.
ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue recorded revenues at Rs2,621 billion in the first nine months of 2017-18, up 16 per cent year-on-year from Rs2,260bn in the same period last year.
The revenue collection in March stood at Rs361bn on account of book adjustments. A senior tax official said the monthly collection looks encouraging and the receipts received in treasuries of remote areas may further swell the revenue figures.
The target for the year has been fixed with an annual increase of around 19pc over the previous year. FBR has projected an annual revenue collection target of Rs4 trillion for 2017-18.
The tax machinery will have to collect approximately Rs1,361bn in the last quarter — April-June in order to reach the original target.
But tax experts believe that revenue collection may reach around Rs3,892bn by end June 2018, which would be almost twice the revenue when PML-N took over the government in 2013.
KARACHI: Bulk clinker exports will resume after over a decade as one of the leading south-based cement manufacturers has received export order from West African countries and Kenya.
Sources in the cement sector said Attock Cement would export 150,000 tonnes of clinker from Pakistan International Bulk Terminal Ltd (PIBTL), where a ship carrying clinker would sail out next week. They added that another major southern player of south is also in the process of finalising the export of clinker.
The same company had last exported 105,000 tonnes of the product in 2003 to the growing market of UAE.
Some cement players had been exporting small cargoes of 2,000-5,000 tonnes of clinker in containers for the last two to three years. However, bulk movement of clinker would restart after 14 years.
With the state of the art loading facility at PIBTL and competitive rates offered by the terminal operator, more international buyers would now look towards the country.
A cement maker said the government and the Port Qasim Authority should consider the abolishment of royalty rate on export of clinker from Pakistan in order to make the product more attractive for foreign buyers.
He said the excess cement capacity, coupled with devaluation of the rupee against the dollar, can be attributed to the recent export order. The participants in the recently concluded cement conferences (CEMTECH and INTERCEM) held in Dubai in February and March also took strong interest in Pakistan’s cement sector’s changing dynamics, especially with reference to growing demand and huge incoming capacities. The industry supply would increase by 20 million tonnes in the next three years and reach 70m tonnes in 2020, he added.
Clinker is a semi-finished product which is grinded with gypsum and iron ore in the cement mill.
Cement price: In the current month, brokerage houses have been running reports regarding the frequent increase in cement price in March, while industry participants offered a different view.
According to Nabeel Khursheed of Topline Securities, north producers increased the cement price by a cumulative Rs40 per bag with another Rs10 per bag expected in the next one to two days which would take north prices to Rs520-530 per 50kg bag. However, prices in the southern region have thus far remained intact. An analyst at Shajar Research said cement prices had recovered by Rs40-50 per bag in the north which would improve margins of manufacturers.
A cement maker in south contradicted, saying the actual rise in cement price in March was Rs20 per bag. Another noted that there has been an unprecedented surge in demand which has forced the market to adjust and in some cases withdrawn the concessions on maximum retail price (MRP) while one or two companies had raised MRP.
He said the prices are still below last year’s level despite the increase in federal excise duty (FED) by Rs15 per bag, followed by increase in coal and diesel prices. He added the price trend in North is still lower than South and the industry is continuously increasing its capacity.
Rise in the cement demand was predicted long ago and the government was asked to review some of its policies as input cost was being pushed up due to the surging coal prices, he continued. The industry had urged the government to abolish FED and import duty on coal to bring down the cost of production.
KARACHI: The investors went off to enjoy a happy weekend at the closing of trading on Friday for it marked the end of a gainful quarter (January-March 2018). In the outgoing week, the KSE-100 index gained 530 points (1.18 per cent) to close at 45,560 points.
Over the month of March, the index made hefty gains of 2,321 points (5.37pc), which took the quarterly surge to 5,089 points (12.57pc) – highest return after 4Q2016.
The maximum contribution to the quarterly gains came from three stocks: Habib Bank, higher by 27pc, Lucky Cement 33pc and Bank Al Habib Ltd 39pc, translating into an addition of 1,474 points.
In the outgoing week, which also was the rollover week of future contracts, positive contribution came mainly from fertilisers (138 points) on hopes of increase in demand, cement (107 points) on the back of robust off-take and rise in prices; commercial banks (104 points) as market participants were expecting an rise in interest rate, oil and gas exploration companies (58 points) on the back of recent devaluation of the rupee and power generation and distribution with an addition of 42 points.
On the flip side, sectors that remained under pressure included technology and communication, decreasing by 28 points, tobacco 16 points.
Leading gainers during the outgoing week included United Bank, up 109 points, Fauji Fertiliser 85 points, Lucky Cement 76 points, K-Electric 41 points and Pakistan State Oil 33 points while HBL, down 39 points, MCB Bank 34 points and Pakistan Tobacco 26 points were the laggards.
The growing confidence of investors in the stock market was underpinned by a thaw on the political rivalries in the country, expectations of a market-friendly budget 2018-19, hike in prices of international crude oil and rise in domestic cement prices.
The market ignored the troublesome issues of widening external accounts and drawdown on reserves. A bout of profit-taking was experienced in the third session of the week near the index’s resistance level of 45,000 points.
However, stocks bounced back as investors considered the depreciation of the rupee as an attractive incentive for foreign investors.
Pakistani market came under the investment radar of foreign fund managers, resulting in inflows of $1.9m. Foreign interest was concentrated in E&P sector with net buying of stocks worth $2.6m. On the domestic front, individuals were major buyers of $8.5m equity, followed by insurance companies adding shares valued at $5.2m to their portfolio.
On the other hand, mutual funds were biggest sellers at $10.5m, followed by corporate offloading stocks valued at 3.7m.
The average daily traded market volume rose 24pc over the earlier week to 240 million shares while the value traded clocked in at $85m, down 13pc week-on-week.
Major news flow during the week included State Bank of Pakistan keeping its key rate unchanged at 6pc for the next two months; Honda Atlas increasing prices by up to Rs100,000; Ghandhara Nissan Ltd to relaunch Datsun car; Engro to inject a minimum Rs3 billion into its chemical subsidiary; K-Electric taking the spotlight as Shanghai Electric submitted fresh intentions to acquire majority stake in the company and reports of potential increase in prices of petroleum products.
GILGIT: Gilgit-Baltistan is an important part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project and residents of this region will be provided maximum benefit, Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Yao Jing said.
“The Chinese government wishes for the development of the residents through trade activities between GB and neighbouring Xinjiang province,” the envoy said on Friday while meeting a delegation of the Gilgit-Baltistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GBCCI) in Islamabad.
The delegation was led by GBCCI President Nasir Hussain Raki.
The envoy said hydropower projects, Gilgit-Chitral road, Karakoram Highway (KKH) upgradation and maintenance schemes have been initiated in the GB region.
The ambassador said the two governments have approved a plan under the ‘green channel’ to allow imports and exports of fresh and dried fruits including apricot and cherry. However, the Pakistani customs officials are not implementing the mechanism.
The Gilgit-Baltistan region is one of the most attractive areas in the world and its economy could get a boost from tourism and trade with China, he added.
Mr Jing said a plan is under consideration to issue visas to Chinese citizens for visiting Pakistan via the Khunjerab Pass.
The Pakistan-China border at Khunjerab remains open from April 1 to November 30 every year. The GB government issues border pass to locals for visiting Xinjiang.
The envoy said that he will talk to relevant officials for special visa relaxation to increase the stay duration for Pakistanis holding the pass.
He assured the delegation that complaints about the behaviour of Chinese immigration officials at the border will also be addressed.
Talking about the issue of detained Chinese wives of Pakistani residents (mostly merchants) in Uighur region, the envoy said, “The women are being interrogated as Chinese citizens.”
“The issue is not complicated. The Xinjiang province administration has recently started investigation of its citizens who are in a relationship with nationals of foreign countries. The women will be freed after completion of the inquiry process.
The women are being interrogated for security purposes, with an aim to avoid any untoward incident in the country,” he explained.
GBCCI president Mr Raki said traders in the Gilgit-Baltistan region want the volume of trade via KKH to increase as this will open up more economic opportunities.
The federal government announced a new tariff for petroleum products on Saturday, reducing the per-litre price of petrol and diesel by Rs2.07 and Rs2.00 respectively.
From April 1, 92 RON petrol will be sold for Rs86 and high speed diesel for Rs96.45, while prices of kerosene and light diesel will be maintained, a press release by the Ministry of Finance stated.
The statement said the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) had asked that the prices of light diesel and kerosene should be increased — recommendations that were not adopted and thus respective price for the products maintained at Rs65.30 and Rs76.46 respectively.
The ministry, however, also stated that Ogra had asked for a greater price cut for petrol — another recommendation that could not be followed completely as, the ministry explained, the price cut granted in previous months was more than what was asked for.
The prices will remain effective until April 30.
Based on existing tax rates and import prices reported by Pakistan State Oil, Ogra had recommended a reduction of Rs5.26 per litre in the price of petrol for April.
The regulator had also recommended an increase of 65 paisa per litre for high speed diesel, 55 paisa per litre for light diesel oil and 13 paisa per litre for kerosene.
KARACHI: Atlas Honda Limited (AHL) has increased bike prices by Rs500-3,000 due to devaluation of the rupee against the dollar despite achieving over 90 per cent localisation.
The company increased the price of CD-70 after a gap of three years by Rs500 to Rs64,000. The new price of CD-70 Dream and Pridor is now fixed at Rs68,500 and Rs88,000, up Rs1,000 while the price of CG-125 has been raised by Rs1,500 to Rs 109,000.
CG-125 Delux and CB-150 will now cost Rs129,500 and Rs165,000 from April 2, 2018 after a jump of Rs 3,000 per bike. Surprisingly, Pakistan Association of Automotive Parts and Accessories Manufacturers (Paapam) on its website claimed that 92pc localisation has been achieved for bikes.
Overall import bill for completely- and semi-knocked down kits of two wheelers rose to $69 million from $56m in same period last fiscal, up by 23pc.
Atlas Honda is expected to achieve sales of 1.1 million units by end of its financial year ending March 31, while it aims to hit sales of 1.3m bikes in its next financial year, a Honda dealer said.
He said improvement in law and order situation in Karachi has boosted the overall sales of Honda bikes to over 50,000 units per annum. The sales hovered around 10,000-12,000 units some three years back due to lawlessness in the mega city. Lack of public transport has also pushed up demand of two-wheelers.
The dealer said the share of Honda 70cc in company’s overall sales ranges between 42-45pc followed by 40pc market share by 125cc.
ACCESS to proper nutrition is one of the fundamental human rights and a precondition for overall human health and well-being. Adequate nutrition, especially in early childhood, is a prerequisite for optimal physical growth, brain development and the survival of children, leading to sustainable social and economic growth of a country.
Well-nourished children are better able to grow and learn, to participate and contribute to their communities and are resilient in the face of disease, disasters and other global crises.
On the other hand, malnutrition — in all its forms including under-nutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and over-nutrition — not only affects human health and development but also poses high economic, social and human development costs on individuals, families, communities and nations.
Malnourished children are much more likely to die as a result of a common childhood disease than those who are adequately nourished. Nutritional deficiencies in early childhood not only reduce a child’s chance of survival, but they can also have long-term consequences on cognitive and social abilities, school performance and work productivity. Malnutrition affects millions of children and contributes to an estimated 3.1 million child deaths each year, accounting for over a third of all deaths of children globally.
In KP, more than 85pc children aged six to 23 months do not receive the recommended amount and quality of diet, mainly due to ignorance
The economic consequences represent losses of 11 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) every year in Africa and Asia, according to World Economics data, whereas preventing malnutrition delivers $16 in returns on investment of every $1 spent.
Improvements in nutrition will contribute significantly to reducing poverty, and to achieving health, education, and employment goals. The co-occurrence of undernutrition, micronutrient malnutrition and obesity and overweight poses challenges and underscores the reality that malnutrition is a global phenomenon, affecting virtually all countries, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute.
Malnutrition results from the interaction of poor-quality diets and poor-quality health and care environments and behaviours, which are shaped in part by a host of underlying factors, such as political instability, poor economic development, conflict, inequality, and some dimensions of globalisation.
Achieving the goal of optimal nutrition encompasses the prevention, control and treatment of undernutrition, micronutrient malnutrition and overweight and obesity, promoting optimal care and feeding practices (eg exclusive breastfeeding) and dietary diversity, and addressing food safety and quality, and ensuring access to and use of health services and a safe, hygienic environment.
KP children suffer
Pakistan in general and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in specific have a huge burden of all forms of malnutrition. Every second child (an estimated 800,000 children under the age of five years) in the province is stunted (having low average height for a given age) and every sixth child (an estimated 100,000 children) is wasted.
The situation of micronutrient deficiencies is alarmingly high in children under the age of five years, with 68.5pc having vitamin A deficiency, 49pc being anaemic and 45.4pc having zinc deficiency.
Only 40.5pc of newborn babies receive mother’s milk within one hour of birth while 38pc infants less than six months of age receive exclusively mother’s milk, which means that more than 60pc of children under six months receive mixed feeding.
Recent in-depth analysis of complementary feeding practices in the country using data from the Pakistan Demographic Health Survey 2012-13 showed more than 85pc children aged six to 23 months in KP do not receive the recommended amount and quality of diet, mainly due to ignorance regarding types, quantity and frequency of recommended complementary feeding practices.
Awareness among masses regarding nutrition issues remains low and ideal nutrition practices remain very weak. Nutrient-rich food groups are rarely consumed, less than one in five children consume meat or fish, legumes or vitamin-A rich fruits and vegetables.
Common risk factors for poor child feeding are poor access to health and nutrition services in the community in addition to poverty. This underlies the need to improve the capacity of programmes, health professionals and community workers to support good complementary feeding practices.
The current status of malnutrition in KP can be translated into around a million children under five years of age suffering from stunting, anaemia or iodine deficiencies suffering deficits in mental and physical development, which may lead to lower school performance and lower productivity as adults, depressing the gross domestic productivity.
Realising the gravity of the situation, the Planning and Development Department of KP, under the oversight of a high-level steering committee chaired by the additional chief secretary, formulated nutrition policy guidance notes and a multi-sector integrated nutrition strategy to holistically address the problem of malnutrition in the province.
The Scaling Up Nutrition Cell in the planning and development department established in September 2016 is coordinating the implementation of the multi-sector integrated nutrition strategy encompassing both nutrition-specific interventions and nutrition-sensitive strategies through relevant departments, including health, education, local government, public health engineering, social welfare, food and agriculture departments.
In the current year, a multi-sector integrated nutrition project titled ‘Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Stunting Prevention and Rehabilitation Integrated Nutrition Gain’, or KP SPRING, was approved to reduce stunting in the province over the next three years.
The project will strengthen the capacity of different relevant departments in nutrition-sensitive and nutrition-specific intervention and establish a coordination mechanism through District Integrated Nutrition Committees and Steering Committee at the provincial level for effectively implementing KP SPRING.
The writer is consultant at the Scaling Up Nutrition Unit, KP’s Planning and Development Department
What is malnutrition
Malnutrition is an abnormal physiological condition caused by deficiencies, excesses or imbalances in energy, protein and/or other nutrients.
It manifests itself in many different ways:
Under-nutrition: A condition in which the body contains lower than normal amounts of one or more nutrients, ie deficiencies in macronutrients and/or micronutrients.
It encompasses stunting, wasting and deficiencies of essential vitamins and minerals.
Individuals suffer from under-nutrition if their diet does not provide adequate calories and protein for growth and maintenance or they are unable to fully utilise the food they eat due to illness.
Over-nutrition: It includes overweight and obesity. Over-nutrition is caused by consuming too many calories.
Diet-related: non-communicable chronic diseases due to excess intake of sugar, salt or cholesterol.
Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, April 2nd, 2018
WHILE the IT sector has transformed both urban and rural India and has brought millions of poor people into the economic mainstream; telecommunications has also wrought havoc on businesses and operators and the continuing changes in the segment are expected to worsen the situation.
The gross revenue of telecom service providers in India has fallen by 8.1 per cent for the October-December quarter of 2017-18, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). Worse for the government, the licence fee that it collects has dropped by 16pc during the third quarter of fiscal 2017-18.
Gross Revenue and Adjusted Gross Revenue of the telecom service sector for the quarter ended December 2017 added up to Rs610 billion and Rs385bn respectively.
The spectrum usage charge, another major component of government revenue, fell by almost 30pc. And the monthly average revenue per user was down by 5.37pc to Rs79.
India had almost 1.2bn telephone subscribers at the end of 2017, while the number of internet users shot up to almost 450 million.
A report last week by ICRA, a Moody’s Investors service company, said the telecom sector will continue to face cash flow pressures for a few more quarters.
Debt levels, which are quite high, are however, expected to ease a little after the end of the current fiscal (March 31, 2018), and could fall in the new financial year.
Reliance Jio’s dramatic entry last year has transformed the sector
“The debt levels, estimated at Rs4.7 trillion as on March 31, 2018, are expected to reduce to Rs4.3tr by FY2019 driven by asset monetisation and increased promoter support,” says an ICRA report on the sector.
Revenues are also expected to fall by 13pc for the current fiscal and operating profit before depreciation, interest, tax and amortisation are expected to decline by a whopping 34pc.
According to Harsh Jagnani, sector head and vice-president, corporate ratings, ICRA, the exit of smaller telcos has provided an opportunity for larger firms to garner subscribers. “The competition for them remains intense,” he says. “We expect the migration of subscribers from the exiting telcos to the continuing telcos to complete over the next six months,”
The aggressive entry by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio in September 2016 had a devastating effect on the fortunes of then existing biggies including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular. International major Vodafone and Idea (owned by the Aditya Birla group) are now planning a merger to take on Reliance Jio.
The merciless competition between the telecom majors has resulted in the industry’s consolidated debt ballooning to an unimaginable Rs5tr. Worse, the three main players have slashed jobs and about 40,000 were left jobless in 2017, according to reports. And job losses are expected to double in 2018.
The telecom majors have also seen dismal quarterly performances. Bharti Airtel, still the largest operator with 250m subscribers, has seen a dramatic fall in its quarterly profits in the current fiscal. And Reliance Jio has seen
consolidated net profits fall by almost 40pc in the third quarter ending December 31, 2017.
Reliance Jio’s dramatic entry last year has transformed the sector, with tariffs falling phenomenally. While Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea have been critical of Reliance Jio, Ambani recently claimed that his company’s entry has resulted in India emerging as the number one consumer of mobile broadband in the world, even overtaking the US and China.
Analysts following the sector expect things to improve in the new fiscal, especially with consolidation happening over the next few months and prices unlikely to drop further.
THE telecom sector in India is expected to witness dramatic changes over the coming months, especially with the introduction of 5G technology. Aruna Sundararajan, the telecom secretary, said recently that the government was working with all stakeholders to ensure that India emerges as a top 5G player in the world.
“A high-level forum on 5G, which includes global and industry experts, has already commenced work and done a fair amount of deliberation,” she said recently. “By June, India will have a full roadmap ready on this.”
The top telecom bureaucrat expects the 5G technology to boost new services connecting new industries, various forms of devices and also empower new user experiences. “We will soon see a transformation in the way we live due to 5G and I am glad that India is at the forefront of this change,” she added.
The Department of Telecommunications will also come out with a roadmap for the adoption of 5G mobile in just two months. Of course, 5G rollout in India is not expected before 2020.
Dubbed as the ‘industrial internet,’ 5G technology is expected to dramatically transform the economy. India has been slow in adapting to the new technology, with countries like the US, China and South Korea leap-frogging ahead.
Telecom industry sources point out that China had last year finalised spectrum bands for trial runs in 5G. The country is expected to roll-out 5G by early next year.
The Indian government has also started tuning spectrum for 5G services, which after being rolled out would ensure download speeds of over 1,000 Mbps on mobile devices.
Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha notes India is keen to collaborate with other countries for adapting new technological developments including 5G.
The telecom sector in India has grown phenomenally in recent years. This has also attracted increasing foreign direct investments into the sector.
According to government figures, FDI equity inflow into telecom touched $6.08bn in the first half of the fiscal (April-September 2017), more than four times that the sector witnessed in fiscal 2015-16 and 10pc more than in 2016-17.
With the expected emergence of 5G technology, the sector will continue to flourish in a country where just 20 years ago, most people had to wait decades to get a phone connection.
Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, April 2nd, 2018
