HOW often of late have we read statements made by our captains of commerce and industry and by the robber barons, those who robbed with impunity the country's exchequer and banks, hand in hand and with the connivance of our two delinquent leaders of the 1990s, Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif and their team-mates?

A selection of such statements : We are not loan defaulters, we have not robbed the peoples' banks, we have committed no crime. Honest to the core we are, we never fleeced the beloved people, we gave no support to our corrupt leaders, we have never connived at their misdoings. NAB has not nabbed us nor have our arms been twisted, the million and million of rupees we have now agreed to repay to the exchequer is paid of our own free will and out of the goodness of our hearts. It is not stolen money, it is all kosher, a gift to the nation.

The latest statement we have read is that of former senator Gulzar Ahmed Khan, great friend and admirer, and host of Benazir in Islamabad with whom she stayed before she bought herself a house there. According to a news item, dateline Lahore March 3, he has 'agreed' to pay Rs.19.7 crores to the Punjab Cooperative Board for the liquidation of a claim against him made by the National Industrial Cooperative Finance Corporation. The man has also "dropped his claim on around 2000 kanals of land located at Niaz Beg Thokar and other places."

Have the two former prime ministers no idea of the extent to which they impoverished this nation of 150 million?

There is a government meteorological complex on University Road, Karachi, the proud owner of an observatory which has the good fortune to possess instruments and scales to monitor seismic and climatic changes, many of them donated by our friends, the people of Japan. The equipment is operated by electricity and is designed to run on a round-the-clock basis. When the KESC supply is cut off it is geared to operate on emergency generators which in turn are fuelled by oil which at times is not available, because of the paucity of funds at the disposal of the observatory.

The recent earthquake at Bhuj has woken us up. The plight of the people there is still dire. The death toll was in the range of 30,000, the injured were about 60,000 and 200,000 were rendered homeless. Since this quake, two seminars were organized in Karachi, both well-attended. One was held by the KDA/KBCA and the Association of Consulting Engineers of Pakistan, on the subject of 'Seismic Activity in Karachi: its impact on building design and structures.' The second was hosted by the Directorate of Civil Defence, Sindh, on 'The Coordination of Disaster Management in a Changing Environment.' Both organizers felt compelled to invite as the chief guest the Sindh minister of housing and town planning, Dewan Yusuf Faruqui. Presumably this was done by the flunkies employed to toady to their minister. Luckily for all of us, the minister obliged by not attending either and time was saved.

Perhaps the many fawning flunkies of our governments and administrations may be enlightened by a true story related to me by the Marquis of Orellana, the Spanish ambassador to the Court of Ayub Khan. A career diplomat, one of his first postings was to his country's embassy in London, then headed by (if I remember rightly) the Marquis de Santa Cruz. According to Pereco, as we knew Orellana, Santa Cruz was a practical man. He often would line up the juniors on his staff and tell them 'Tomorrow you will not come; tomorrow we are working.'

Now to revert to the serious, and to a bit of rare good news. Vice- Chancellor Abul Kalam of the Nadirshaw Eduljee Dinshaw University of Engineering and Technology, has established an Earthquake Engineering Study Centre manned by Professors Dr Sahibzada Rafiqui, Dr Sarosh Lodi (engineers) and Dr Abid Khan (a geologist), with which and with whom NEDian Engineer Roland deSouza of SHEHRI will coordinate. The Centre, apart from conducting studies, hopes to enlighten the corrupt briefcase developers and builders and their architects.

At a meeting held with the above gentlemen, they were asked to clarify certain misconceptions in a question-answer form:

Q. What are the effects of earthquakes on buildings which were designed according to the Code (upgrading of our zone from 2 to 2B)?

A. The change in zone factor from 2 (1980) to 2B (1997) requires a strength evaluation of buildings designed and constructed during the period between 1980 and 1997. However, small dwellings and structures which are not normally designed to be seismic-resistant can pose problems. Concerned people such as small contractors, briefcase architects and such need to be educated.

Q. What is the difference/correlation between 'magnitude' and 'intensity'?

A. Magnitude and intensity are two different units of measurement quantifying an earthquake. There is no co-relation between them. Magnitude is defined as the amount of energy released as a result of the slip of faults. There is only one magnitude of an earthquake. Normally it is expressed in terms of the Richter Scale (origin 1930) named after Charles Richter, an American geologist (1900-1985). Intensity is the measure of how an earthquake is felt at a particular location. It is based on human observation and, to a certain extent, on damage to structures. It is expressed in terms of the Modified Mercalli Scale (origin 1920) named after Giuseppe Mercalli (1850-1914). An earthquake has several intensities. Intensity is an indirect measure of ground acceleration which depends on factors such as epicentral distance, type of soil, depth of water table, amount of energy released at the epicentre, etc.

Q. What was the magnitude of the Bhuj earthquake?

A. 7.7 on the Richter Scale as reported by the United States Geological Survey.

Q. What was the magnitude in Karachi?

A. An earthquake has only one magnitude measured at the epicentre.

Q. What was the intensity in Bhuj?

A. Between X and XII on the Modified Mercalli Scale (I = imperceptible, XII = total destruction).

Q. What was the intensity in Karachi?

A. Around IV on the MMS.

Q. How can one design 'earthquake-proof buildings'?

A. Buildings can be and are merely designed to be earthquake-resistant, never earthquake-proof.

There are many more questions/answers to come.

Pakistan, for all intents and any useful or earning purposes, closed for business, for productivity, for work, for progress, for disaster or catastrophe, for attacks from outer or inner space, at noon on Friday March 2 and, for all serious intents and purposes will remain in a state of closure, suspended in celebration, until Monday, March 12. Most of the authorities, including Chief Executive General Musharraf and his entourage, Governor of Sindh Mohammadmian Soomro and his right-hand man Brigadier Akhtar Zamin, Sindh Home Secretary Brigadier Mukhtar, are away performing. Those who are in the country have all proceeded 'home'. One must hope that Abdul Sattar Edhi is around and that no calamity strikes Karachi during the coming week.