Chicago Roundup
PIA Planning to Resume Flights to Chicago
By Dr Mujahid Ghazi

In the midst of high security profiling of Pakistanis arriving at the airports of the United States, Pakistan International Airlines is planning to resume its services to Chicago. This scribe has been told by reliable sources in Pakistan that PIA is planning to resume its twice-a-week service from Pakistan to Chicago. However, this time it is seeking permission to fly via Barcelona, Spain.

The matter is under discussion among the US and Pakistani Government authorities. When contacted, a US Aviation security source confidentially told this scribe that it might be difficult to opt for this route as the US doesn’t have ICE facilities at Barcelona similar to those it has at Manchester, UK. The source also disclosed that due to the recent heightened threat and security measures the prospect of any additional flights from Pakistan depend on a change in the country’s present conditions with improved security and peaceful environment.

In this backdrop Aamir Bashir the newly appointed manager for PIA Chicago with his associate Sajid and other staff members met with the local travel agents at a dinner recently to develop relationship and discuss the pros and cons of the future operation in and out of Chicago. The travel agents informed the PIA officials of their concerns. The market situation was also discussed. Present at this meeting were Mohammad Ali Khan, Ali Khan, Sohail Khan, Mateen and Ziaul Hasan from Sana, Pleasant and Price Line Travel, Salamat Sheikh from Alien Travel and other travel agents who had been the sales associates of PIA in the past.

Supporters of Terry O’Brien Raise Funds for His Campaign

Community members gathered at the Sabri Nihari Banquet on Western Avenue on December 20 th to show support to Terry O’Brien in his campaign for the Presidency of Cook County.

Mr. Ilyas Khokar welcomed Terry O’Brien. He said the elections are barely six weeks away and we have to work hard to get Terry O’Brien elected as President of the Cook County. He thanked the audience for being part of the team. Joining and maintaining politics is a great opportunity for the prosperity of the Muslim community. He said that we have to support Terry O’Brien to give the people of Cook County a good government. He duly emphasized that the vote and donation are very valuable and highly appreciated.

Addressing the audience Mr. terry O’Brien said that he has been with Water Reclamation for the last 21 years and out of those 21 years he had been president of that body for the last 13 years. The agency is responsible for cleaning up the waste water of Cook County. The agency was charged with the responsibility of storm water management in 2004. “Since I was there for 21 years I thought maybe it is time to move on and take on another task of cleaning up waste and that waste in County Government,” he remarked.

He said he announced his candidacy on July 24 th, 2009 and since then has been traveling through the County and hearing a very sad message: People are being taxed right out of Cook County. He said we need to stop the corruption, the cronyism, the mismanagement that’s going on for the last three years. In this effort he needs the help f the community. He had a very clean record of running the Water Reclamation and wanted to bring the same methodology to the County Government. He said 8 months ago the county government passed a 1% sales tax because there was a deficit of $ 400 million in the budget. One of the promises that was made when passing this bill was that they will freeze hiring in Cook County. He claimed that they haven’t frozen any hiring in the County. The hiring continues today. He further claimed that people are being hired not on small salaries but six-figure salaries and yet the president continues to say that he cannot cut the sales tax because he needs it for the health care system. That increase in sales tax is hurting the businesses. He said because of increase in the sales tax the commercial business and industries are leaving the county which must stop. He said it is his pledge that the first thing he wants to do is to roll back another half percent of the sales tax when he is elected the president of the County Board. He said the second thing he wants to do is to hire the economic development manager from pleasant Prairie Wisconsin and ask him to bring all those companies back to Cook County. He said, “People ask me who is my opponent and I tell them that my opponent is apathy.”

We need to get the people to come out to vote for Terrence J. O’Brien when the early voting starts on January 10 th or on the Election Day February 2 nd.

Attorney Michael Mosses explained how the opinion polls in the newspapers are messed up and are unreliable. He said the polls are done on a weekend when everyone is out on vacation. He said Terry needs our support because he will cut down the taxes which will bring more businesses in the County which, in turn, will bring jobs.

Raja Yaqub, a community activist, said, “Terry, I welcome you and also appreciate Mr. Khokar and Michael Mosses’ efforts for this evening. First of all I give you a $500.00 check donation. I am very upset with some of the things. I am a small business person in Cook County area for the last 15 years. I buy property in the CC area. Six years back the property tax was $15,000. Today I am paying $ 47,000 on that property. I represent all those small business people. They have the business in CC area. If I have a choice I will sell all of my businesses and properties in the CC area because of the reason that the appraisal value of the properties is going down but the property taxes are going higher. All candidate promises to decrease taxes but when they come in power they doesn’t do it. Tell me how you are going to do it?”

In response, Terry Obrien said that his agency was the one which refunded 56 million dollars in taxes to the residents of CC last year. He said another thing was that we had AAA bond rate and can borrow money at a cheaper rate. Another thing at Water Reclamation was that it decreased its work force.

He said it has a trickledown effect on businesses. He said the things needed to improve the financial situation in CC are:

1. Consolidate Cook County Government. There is too much duplication and it is too large. People want smaller government rather than a large government. Why do we need a purchasing department separately for each department? There should be one department for all the departments. Two, board of elections need to be consolidated. We have a city board of elections and we have a county board of elections. There should be only one Board of Elections.

2. Another thing he wants to do is to get all elected officials, including the Mayor of Chicago and mayors of all these towns, to sit down at a table and say how they could make the government smaller. Large governments have had tremendous impact on the business people of this particular region and it is chasing business out of this area.

3. He said that Retail Associations and Manufacturers Associations will be part of committees formed by him to figure out what is needed to be done in order to bring economic development back to this county.

Mr. Ilyas Khokar concluded the meeting by reassuring Terry O’Brien that the community will support him for the great ideas he has for the County Government.

President Cook County Todd H Stroger Organizes Free Health Fair in the Rogers Park

 

President Todd H. Stroger and Cook County Board of Commissioners organized a Free Health Fair at Pakistani American Medical Center 7324 N. Western Avenue last Saturday. The fair attracted more than 200 people. About 100 people received free H1N1 flu shots. There were booths for educating the community about HIV, influenza and other communicable diseases. Blood samples were also collected for various ailments including diabetes, gout, SLE and kidney diseases by Mr. Khalid of Northshore Lab, which offered free services to help the needy community.

On-site physiotherapists helped people with physical disabilities. Blood pressure and cholesterol screening was conducted in risk population. Infants and children were also screened. Dr. Ashraf Toor and Dr. Imtiaz Arain attended to patients with advanced medical conditions.

President Cook County Todd H. Stroger visited the health fair and talked to the patients and volunteers. Faisal Abbasi welcomed Mr. Stroger and said that it is an honor for him to work for a person who believes in the welfare of the community and is always ready to invest in community projects.

Dr. Mujahid Ghazi, Coordinator of the Health Fair, thanked President Stroger for his time and effort to help the underprivileged community of Rogers Park. He said that this community has been long ignored and needs the help and support of public officials. He said that it is very difficult for many members of the community to get proper medical help. There are people who are under-insured or uninsured and could not afford medical treatment. He said the Pakistan American Medical Center which was established eight years ago is helping these needy people and every Saturday physicians from the Pakistani community volunteer their time. He commended Dr Ashraf Toor who has consistently volunteered since the inception of the Clinic. He requested the Cook County president to help the medical center forge partnership with Cook County Health Department.

Mr. Habib Abbasi, coordinator of the fair, recalled his experience with the Stroger senior and said that the father of the present president was very energetic and hard working. He said he used to come to him for his physicaltherapy.

Dr. Imtiaz Arain, who is chairman of the committee which runs free community clinic in Westmont, gave a brief overview of the strategy the APPNA Clinic adopted to get the area hospitals’ support. He said that they convinced the hospitals that by seeing patients at their clinic, they would help to decrease the patient overload on the hospitals, thus saving them time and money. He asked the President that if the same thing would apply here and County hospitals could extend help to this center then the patient overload on these hospitals could decrease.

 

President Stroger thanked the coordinators, volunteers and professionals who helped to make this fair successful. He gave the example of his uncle who died because of lack of medical help due to health insurance unavailability. He said it is the right of every individual in the county to have better and timely health care. He explained how the County government is helping the community through its health system. He commended Faisal Abbasi for his good work as liaison to the community. He also presented an appreciation plaque on behalf of the Cook County Government to Raja Razzaq, President of the Pakistani American Medical Center. Raja Razzaq thanked the President and the Board of Commissioners for this generous juncture.

Later, President Stroger toured the Pakistani American Medical Center. He also took an H1N1 flu shot. He spent some time with Dr. Mujahid Ghazi and Faisal Abbasi discussing the problems faced by the community and business owners in the 50 th Ward.

This health fair was organized in partnership with The Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago (CIOGC), Asian Alliance, Muslim Community Center (MCC), Pak-American Business Association, Federation of Pakistani Organization of Chicago (FPOC), Indian Minority Association, Pakistani Physicians Society (PPS), APPNA Free Clinic, Asian Broadcasting Network, Pakistan Link, Urdu Times, IQRA’ International Educational Foundation, Muslim Education Center (MEC), North Shore Laboratory, Mona Shah, Infection Control Manager, and Anita Occampo RN, Abdul Qavi Phlebotomist.

The success of the fair can be measured by the fact that in spite of bad weather people came from as far as Lombard to benefit from the Free Health Fair.

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