Gul Bahao

“BUSTI Benazir” a unique exhibition was held for two days at the Gul Bahao Complex located in Gulshan-e- Iqbal on Sunday and Monday. PPP’s General Secretary for Sindh, Mr. Taj Haider was the Chief Guest at the event which was sponsored by the Culture and Tourism Department Sindh.

The exhibition was a combination of the scientific and the cultural. The open air exhibition presented a lively scene of bright colors and popular songs of the Peoples Party especially very moving songs about Benazir Bhutto

From time to time people were exhorted on the sound system to study the different innovations of Gul Bahao. (One of the speakers later on commented that it was sheer laziness on the part of the people that they have not responded as well as they should have to Gul Bhao’s innovations). On the other hand several instances were given of people having used the Paaki Paani and recovered from illnesses. Others are regularly using this technique as a water purifying method

The centre of attraction however was the Chandi Ghar a prefabricated house which lived upto its name every bit . Its spectacular beauty elicited a remark from a visitor Why! it is fit for the king …may be king Abdullah of Saudi Arabia .

Another major aspect of the exhibition was the Safai/Kamai Bank which according to Nargis Latif, (head, of the organization ) ‘‘is a modern day up gradation of the Kabaria where the instrument of banking is dry garbage’’.

The Chief Guest was taken around the exhibition. Deeply impressed with all that he saw he remarked that instead of looking to the government for jobs all the time people can earn their living through the different schemes devised by Gul Bahao.

A Government Official who had come to see the exhibition said that his Department is seriously looking in to adopting the model of the Chandi Ghar for the low income groups.

A delegation of the Agha Khan Community Development Department evinced keen interest in the prefabricated system and said they intend to have their workers trained in this new technology.

In the public meeting that was held later on, it was announced that A Busti Benazir exhibition cum seminar would be held twice a year on the occasions of the birth and death anniversaries of l the late Prime Minister Benazir.

Gul Bahao in a statement has announced holding of an exhibition called “Busti Benazir” on Sunday and Monday, the 3rd and 4th of January 2010. The exhibition will be portraying a new concept of “urban dwelling”. It is meant to give a glimpse of what urban areas in Sindh will start looking in the near future. “Chandi Ghar” (alternate housing), fuel pack (fuel for running power plants), “Choora Chara” (fodder for animals), “Safai/Kamai” Bank, a new kind of a bank, “Paaki Pani” (water purifying method) are the innovations which will completely change the lives of the people. These are the result of 16 years of research and an expenditure of more than 8 crores of rupees.

These innovations did not spring into being all at once, several young men trained as artisans worked on different aspects of the innovations, refining them from time to time. For months, seventy young men and more than a dozen trucks and Suzukis used to go all over Karachi, including the Export Processing Zone and collected tones of waste material. Millions of rupees were collected as loans and donations from hundreds of Karachittes to finance these activities, accounting for 30-40% of the total expenses while more than 60% of the expenses were covered through sale of waste material.

Gul Bahao’s two day exhibition called Busti Benazir on the occasion of Benazir Bhutto’s birthday ended on the 22^nd of June. The program was jointly sponsored by the Culture and Tourism Department Sindh as well as Pakistan Steel Mills. Consisting mainly of Gul Bahao’s innovations the exhibition was a rare spectacle and enjoyed tremendously by the man in the street. The organisation had invited a group of talented folk singers who enthralled the audience with their original songs dedicated to Benazir. The venue was the area opposite Sindbad below the NIPA Bridge at about 6 pm, the sun was shining brightly on a riot of colors, shimmering silver and gold, pink, bright yellow, red and green. A soul-searing song on Benazir was being rendered while hundreds of coaches and buses carrying jam-packed passengers was slowly making its way on the over-head bridge, the passengers also acting as audience; it was a rare scene.

The exhibition was a combination of the scientific and the cultural. In between the songs the audience were being exhorted to study and use the different discoveries and innovations of Gul Bahao namely Chandi Ghar and Paki Pani. One of the speakers said that Paki Pani being a water purification method not only prevents most water-borne diseases but also cures them. Poor people, he said, would be greatly helped if their health improves. A swimming pool made from wastic blocks, an innovation of Gul Bahao, was shown filled with water. A 12 X 15 foot “Chandi Ghar” was shown looking every bit a “Chandi Ghar”.

Summing up the two-day exhibition, Nargis Latif said that Gul Bahao takes its inspiration from the martyrdom of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto who dreamed of a prosperous Pakistan. In one of her addresses to the audiences, Nargis Latif declared that ” Busti Benazir” is now another name for the research-cum exhibition centre which houses all the innovations of Gul Bahao Trust.

Yesterday, Nargis Latif, Managing  Trustee of Gul Bahao had a detailed meeting with the Vice-Chancellor of Hamdard University, Dr Nasim  A. Khan.  In the University Campus at Madina-tul- Hikmat where she gave an elaborate account of  Gul Bahao’s  Research Centre in Gulshan-e-Iqbal. Nargis claimed that the Centre has succeeded in providing answers to problems of waste management of one of the largest cities of the world i.e. Karachi. What is more, several of the products developed there are geared towards changing the economy as well. According to her Gul Bahaos latest innovations include “fuel pack” a low cost fuel for running power plants and Choora Chara” – fodder  for livestock. Nargis said that the task before the Centre is not only to innovate but to market and do the extensions work as well. In a hide bound society such as ours which she described as “lakeer key fakir”, there is initially a total rejection of anything new, original or creative. She regretted that a good deal of her time is spent in arranging funds for her research work.  Nonetheless she said that she never allowed her research work to suffer even if she had to borrow money from moneylenders at exorbitant rates of 100-120% rate of interest. She said she paid one moneylender eight lacs of rupees as interest for a principal amount of three lacs only. The V.C.  of Hamdard University  took keen interest in Nargis’s  presentation  and asked her to make a detailed survey of the University Campus to find how Gul Bahao’s research work could be applied to the Hamdard University . Dr Nasim offered to have installed Gul Bahaos Chandi Ghar or prefabricated housing in the campus. To start with, he said that the universities plant doing research work on alternative energy stands in need of such a structure. He said that if successful the Chandi Ghar (made from industrial waste) could be used copiously in the fast growing campus of the varsity.