I AM a child psychiatrist currently working in the United States. I am writing these lines as there seems to be no other way to reach the ears and the sight of the ruling elite in Pakistan. I have been struggling to open an orphanage for the last five years in Pakistan. I am a trained child psychiatrist who moonlighted, worked hard to raise my own personal funds to open an orphanage in Pakistan.

I have friends, numerous students, both Pakistani and Americans, who want to fund my cause, but I refuse to take money from them as yet, as I need a proper trust with an auditing system. I cannot even register a trust or a non-profit organisation in Pakistan. I have engaged the services of a firm for Rs400,000 just to register an NGO in Pakistan. The timeline given is one year as my application will travel to different ministries for approval with numerous challans issued.

There is no website that I found which could expedite my submission or protect me from the intricacies of bureaucratic administration. There is no single department that I could call and get help.

To further my cause, I went to the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) along with my father, who is an 85-year-old army veteran suffering from severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. I chose DHA as land anywhere else is subject to land-grabbing and fraud.

I sat in the office of a major for half-an-hour, waiting for a pre-scheduled meeting with the brigadier. My time was of no consideration. In the very lavishly designed low-ceiling office, it was very interesting to see a large sign posted to educate common people about Covid, while non-stop cigarette smoke billowed from the officer’s chamber, giving me concerns as to what was I exposing my ill, elderly father to, and to what end. The physician in me wanted to question chain smoking within a government office building and the link to respiratory ailments, like Covid.

Upon my growing impatience, we were ushered into this huge office and my father tried to request for a piece of land to build an orphanage. He was easily brushed off. This is not the military culture I grew up with. Our military honours its veterans, or so I thought. My experience at Malir cantonment had been quite the opposite when we had gone to visit my father’s unit there.

I finally spoke and said I did not need ‘free land’ allotment and only desired the permission to open an orphanage in DHA or DHA City and would incur the complete cost on my own. I was asked to show a source of funding (a trust), an architectural design and a written proposal, which were valid requests, though with a catch.

I immediately discussed with an architect who requested for land allocation first as they do not design in the air. In this chicken-and-egg situation I do not know what needs to be done first. I am at a loss. As per an architect, there is to be no architectural design if there is no land allocated, while no land can be allocated unless there is an architectural design, as per the DHA.

I, however, retained the services to have an NGO registered. I fully intend to retain an architect as well. The requested written proposal was drafted and emailed back to DHA. There was an acknowledgement of receipt, followed by complete silence.

I was raised by a father who simply does not believe in shaming others so I do not want my intentions obscured by counter-accusations. I am identifying people only to validate the human roadblocks in my endeavour. If rectified, they have no bearings on my struggle.

I voted for the ruling party and I want to be able to say that my vote was not wasted. I want to bring my funds and my skills as a child psychiatrist to this country. Is there a way I can be helped along the way?

If not the prime minister, then perhaps ordinary citizens who read this newspaper might step forward and help a just cause.

Beena Saad
New York, USA

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2022