Support for a Pakistani family: DATELINE NEW YORK

THE Sept 11 attacks on the United States had a profound and indelible impact on the American psyche. At first there was the shock and horror of the attacks, then grief, as they counted their fallen, then a sense of fragility and vulnerability which they never thought would afflict them. Although the Americans have forsworn to get it all together and get back to business of life, they know it will never be the same.

Amidst all the introspection and assessment of what went wrong and why, there’s another side of the Americans coming through. Then there was the inevitable backlash against the Arabs, Muslims and the South Asian community, perceived to be the enemies of the United States. (The phenomenon is not new: remember when Indira Gandhi was killed by a Sikh, over 2,000 Sikhs were massacred in a backlash overnight). But the backlash has dissipated somewhat with the American President showing up at the Muslim mosques and the Mayor of the New York City, Rudolph Giuliani, admirably condemning the attacks and noting: “Don’t do it. What’s the difference between us and the terrorists who did this?”

Their sense of compassion and love for human beings is really heartwarming and reassuring and, in fact, reaffirming the goodness of human beings. This was manifested in the response that a Pakistani family in New Jersey got following the killing of Waqar Hasan in Dallas, Texas, while working in his grocery store.

Although the Dallas police have not determined that Hasan’s killing was a consequence of any backlash, it is being treated as such by all officials and New Jersey legislators who have rallied around the family of Waqar Hasan, who left behind his wife and four daughters. Hasan who came to the US 11 years ago was just approved for a green card by the US immigration office but with his death the INS said that his family would not be eligible for the green card and might be asked to leave. But the New Jersey Congressman Frank Pellone immediately stepped in on behalf of the family and asked the immigration department to open the case for the family and start the process to give them green card. He told INS: “If the law has to be changed to make the exception, we will change the law.”

While all this was happening, the New Jersey neighbourhood where Hasan’s family lived rallied around the family, establishing a council to raise funds for the family. The local town council formed a committee to help Hasan’s family as gifts of food, fruits and clothing poured in from all parts of the United States. Besides all that, the Victims Cell in Dallas, Texas, called Hasan’s family members and told them that they should submit Hasan’s last tax return and told them that the United States government would pay them the amount of income listed on his last tax return throughout their lives.

Besides, they said, all educational expenses for all four girls would be paid by the US government. The grieved family is overwhelmed with the show of compassion. In a show of support for the family, many women dressed in typical Muslim hijab go with the family to mosque and other places.

On another front, in order to sensitize people against bigotry and racial discrimination, the UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, called the family to offer condolences and met the victim’s brother-in-law, Zahid Ghani, a correspondent of Pakistani news agency NNI, at his office. He is now planning an elaborate meeting with Hasan’s family at the UN where international media will be invited.

Similar outpourings of support by conscientious Americans have been witnessed by the Sikhs who fell victim because of their traditional and religious garb. The long beard and hair, combined with turbans, also singled them out as victims of backlash. One Sikh businessman was killed in Arizona at the hands of a bigot. Sikhs are invited to rallies and prayer services to sensitize the Americans.

Last week President George Bush met in the White House the Muslim, Sikh and Arab community leaders and he was presented with a copy of the holy Quran by a cleric, Muzzamil Siddiqui.

The element of backlash, bigotry and discrimination may not end as a result of these gestures but surely it has been tempered decisively, which is a relief, because the US war against terrorism is here for the long haul.

Commission should summon Dr Ali Bacher: SWINGING DRIVES

WHILE there seems to be a great deal of activity on other fronts, it is all quiet on the cricket front in Pakistan though domestic cricket is in full swing and after a long time, all the top players are participating.

As I write there is no news about whether Sri Lanka will make a short tour to play three One-day Internationals. I don’t think it is all that easy to organise even a short tour at such short notice though I don’t see why not. I think it would be nice to have some cricket to take the people’s mind of all the anxieties about what is going to happen or not happen in this region.

There is activity, however on the match-fixing front as the Justice Karamat Bhandari Commission begins its probe on whether two matches in the 1999 World Cup were fixed, Pakistan versus Bangladesh and India, both matches that Pakistan lost. The accusation that these matches were fixed, in fact, was by Ali Bacher and as I have written previously, my understanding of the law is that the accuser must also be examined and be cross-examined by those he has accused.

I sincerely hope that Bacher will be summoned and should his evidence turn out to be frivolous, then some action should be taken against him.

I am surprised that Bacher should have chosen to target Pakistan and shut his eyes to two matches that his own South Africa lost, one to Zimbabwe, as big an upset as Pakistan losing to Bangladesh and the other, South Africa losing to Australia and the crucial dropped catch of Steve Waugh by Herschelle Gibbs. He had, in fact, taken the catch and then quickly thrown that ball away like a hot potato. At that time we thought he was just celebrating by hurling the ball in the air. But Gibbs name came up in connection with the investigations against Hansie Cronje and he was actually banned.

I think that match-fixing as a scandal has run its course as a news story. All that sound and fury amounted to virtually nothing apart from life bans imposed on Hansie Cronje, Mohammad Azharuddin and Salim Malik. All three are appealing these bans but don’t appear to be making any headway.

But a whole galaxy of stars had been named by India’s CID, Mark Waugh, Alec Stewart, Martin Crowe and Brian Lara. All these players have been cleared by their own Boards and without, it seems, holding any kind of serious inquiry. I find it fascinating that Stewart opted out of the India part of England’s tour of India and New Zealand. He feared that the scandal may resurface.

The ICC had jumped into match-fixing, head first, determined to stamp it out without having a clue about what it entailed. For a while, it seemed that the cricket would be destabilised. But, in the end, the sole beneficiary seems to be Sir Paul Condon who landed himself a cushy job as head of an anti-corruption unit. To this day, this unit has failed to nail a single ‘match-fixer’ though we have been provided with guidelines.

I have written this before and indeed written it many times, that match-fixing being a crime, it should be left to agencies whose job it is to detect crime. All those persons who said they had knowledge of match-fixing should have gone to the police instead of going public. They thought nothing of accusing players through headlines and getting some personal projection in the bargain but when it came to coming up the goods i.e. the proof, they came up with nothing, nothing that would constitute evidence in a court of law.

Once it became known that there are no penalties attached to making what, in the final analysis, amounted to false accusations, it became open season on the players, a time to settle accounts for past rivalries and grievances.

Justice Qayyum took an inordinately long time to finalise his inquiry and its hearings which were public had a quality of a TV soap opera. I hope that Justice Karamat Bhandari will wrap up his investigation as quickly as possible. The game of cricket had survived the storm that been kicked up earlier. It would be a pity if it were to be re-opened again.

It is common sense that for a match to be fixed, you need the collusion of players of both teams. If the 1999 World Cup matches involving Bangladesh and India were fixed, then Bangladesh and Indian players were party to it. Shouldn’t they be summoned as well?

Far be it for me to get involved in the politics of the Indian cricket but my felicitations to Jagmohan Dalmiya for becoming the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. Newspaper reports indicate that it was an acrimonious election but that is a healthy sign.

Dalmiya has been a controversial figure not only in Indian but in world cricket. Whatever else may be said of him, he has the reputation of a man who rolls up his sleeves and gets things done. When the Indian cricket board was dilly-dallying about touring Pakistan and lamely passing the buck to the Indian government and the Indian sports ministry passed the buck to the external affairs ministry, Dalmiya had spoken out for the tour to go ahead.

He has been a friend of Pakistan cricket and one hopes that with his election, the present frozen cricket relations between Pakistan and India will be defrosted. One thing is certain that with Jagoo around, there won’t be a dull moment in Indian cricket.

Meanwhile, one was shocked to learn of the death of Madhav Rao Scindia in a plane crash. Apart from being a prominent politician, many had seen him as a future prime minister, he was a former president of the Indian cricket board and followed the game keenly and I am told was an impeccable host when international matches were played in Gwalior. My sympathies to his family and to the Indian cricket board.

Qurratulain the Pure

NO other poet suffered so much for her conviction as Qurratulain Tahira did. Her poetry and life explain each other so well that she has become the universal symbol of resistance to compulsion in religion.

The way she wrote the poetry of faith — and the way that poetry has become synonymous with the poetry of love — is something which is destined to go down in the annals of Iran, nay in the annals of the world, that all the great Orientalists and lovers of poetry and wisdom marvel at the tenacity of Qurratulain to live out her conviction.

She was not only a great poet but a great orator, an uncommon religious scholar and logician who beat her opponents in intellectual battles — the manazaras. It is not surprising that she had to be strangulated for being too powerful a woman to bow down to the dictates which she couldn’t comply with. Maybe she thought that even in her death she would remain alive.

As a poet she has left an indelible imprint and quite a few Urdu scholars have accepted her as a poet of unsurpassable passion. Abdul Ghafoor Nassakh was the first to discuss her in his Tazkiratul Maasrin. Maulana Abdul Halim Sharar wrote a great tribute, entitled Qurratulain, in 1923. Shaikh Abdul Qadir wrote highly appreciative articles about her in monthly Makhzan. Others who praised her included Prof Hidayat Husain who wrote about her in the Royal Asiatic Society’s journal, and Allama Iqbal, Khwaja Hasan Nizami and Sarojni Naidu.

Seen against this light the spiritual assembly of the Bahais of Karachi’s recent seminar on Qurratulain in the Bahai Hall, Karachi, came as an opportune commemoration of a great soul who could be hailed not only as a passionate believer in the justness of her cause but the first feminist of the East who worked against gender discrimination and made it possible for an Eastern woman to prove that a woman could be an intellectual ‘terror’ and a resplendent ‘grace’ at the same time. The speakers of the evening were Afaq Siddiqui, Mahwash Sheerazi, Parwin Jawaid, Sarwar Jawaid and this scribe.

Born in Qzwin in 1819 in a family of distinguished scholars she was mother of three children when strangulated on the order of the Qachar court for the crime of being a deviant. She tried her best to impress upon the learned ‘judges’ that she had a viewpoint and it should not be a crime to hold fast to it.

Qurratulain very soon became a legend. Some acknowledged her right of being a deviant. Some acknowledged her prowess as a poet. Some were influenced by the profusion of passion and mellifluousness in her poetic diction. But Allama Iqbal was moved by Qurratulain’s image as a great lover. He thought that she could melt the hearts of even the soulless majority. Iqbal paid her an unimaginable compliment.

In his Javed Namah, modelled after Dante’s Divine Comedy and before that on Ibn Arabi’s imaginary Mairaj Namah, the Javed Namah revolves round Maulana Rumi’s conducted tour of the skies (in fact planets). Pir Rumi takes Iqbal to Falak Mushtri and points out that there were only three sacred souls (Arwah-i-Muqaddissah) — Mansur bin Hallaj, Qurratulain Tahira and Ghalib. Iqbal is taken aback and asks why that trio was there. Rumi informs Iqbal that these three souls enjoy the rare privilege and power. Asked what that power was, the answer was that they were blessed with a fire which could melt the earth. So strong these souls were in their conviction, i.e. love, that they could use their gaiti gudaz, i.e. the earth-melting Ishq, to achieve any object they set their eyes upon.

Allama Iqbal is known for his opposition to Mansur Hallaj’s Wahdat-ul-Wujood and Qurratulain is herself a mystic not very far in her affirming the kind of Wahdat-ul-Wujood Mansur Hallaj represents. Ghalib was most probably part of the trio for his advocacy of the Wahdat-ul-Wujood, besides his belief that no age could be without a rejuvenator — a mujaddid. Iqbal was also a great believer in this notion and some Iqbal experts have gone to the extent that he was searching for someone to fulfil the requirements of a mujaddid. (Perhaps he didn’t exclude himself from being one though he didn’t say it openly.) Iqbal was so much enamoured of Qurratulain’s passionate poetry that much of his passion could be traced to Qurratulain whom he paid the highest compliment of placing her on Falak-i-Mushtri in the trio of those great souls who could change the destiny of mankind through their passion and commitment.

It is strange that Iqbal is supposed to be hostile to Wahdat- ul-Wujood but Hallaj, Qurratulain and Ghalib got the ultimate honour of being at Falak-i-Mushtri. Iqbal had written development of metaphysics in Persia under the impact of Ibn Arabi and with the passage of time he substituted Maulana Rumi for Ibn Arabi, proving thereby that his criticism of Wahdat-ul-Wujood didn’t imply a departure of 180 degrees from Wahdat-ul-Wujood. In fact, he accepted some religious plea that it was difficult to have Ibn Arabi as the role model. There were more pitfalls in explaining his concept of Wahdat-ul-Wujood.

Dr Sabir Afaqi in his book Iqbal Aur Amri-Bahai has claimed that Iqbal was attracted towards Bahaism because he liked the ‘reconstruction’ of Mard-i-Momin who could absorb the knowledge without forsaking the life of Islamic faith. Iqbal is well-disposed towards Bahaism in his metaphysics of Persia. This thesis of Iqbal which, originally written for Cambridge University, was also accepted by the Munich University as a PhD dissertation without any substantial change. Very few Iqbal experts have paid attention to the fact that its chapters on philosophy and psychology were heavily influenced by Myron H. Phelps’s book Life and Teachings of Abbas Effendi.

It was because of the above-mentioned book’s influence on thinking that Iqbal wrote the following lines in his treatise Development of Metaphysics in Persia:

“But all the various lines of Persian thought once more find a synthesis in that great religious movement of modern Persia — Babism Bahaism — which began as a Shia sect with Mirza Ali Muhammad Bab of Shiraz and became less and less in Islamic character with the progress of orthodox persecutions...”

So our surprise over the inclusion of Qurratulain Tahira is not in place. Iqbal was interested in the poetry and thought of Qurratulain, a pivotal soul — even sacred — and this is how the most celebrated ghazal of Qurratulain is reproduced to share with us his fascination for a poetess whom Iqbal accepts as a sacred soul.

Agrivarsity & the bullock: DATELINE FAISALABAD

THE main entrance of the University of Agriculture — Dhagga Chowk — is almost blocked by monuments commemorating the centuries-old farming traditions. The faculties’ staff and intelligentsia as also the administration are adamant to get the Persian wheel, symbolizing outmoded agricultural practices, removed from the gateway.

The university emerged from the Lyallpur Agriculture College and Research Institute in 1962. It is the foremost institution of agricultural research and education in the country. The lush green campus, with its luxuriant lawns and shady trees, is a mosaic of old and new architecture, situated on the periphery of the Civil Lines and spread over 1,950 acres. Its old campus is reminiscent of the old Muslim architecture. Its arches and domes add to the solemnity and grace of the academic environment.

The new campus is a conglomeration of monolithic blocks built in a modern style. Its master plan is hinged on a spinal corridor running from one end to the other, built as a continuous, colonnaded, pedestrian walkway, opening out at regular intervals into green spaces. On each side of this walkway are different departments of the university — lecture rooms are on one side and laboratories on the other.

The total member of the faculty is 460 out of which 195 are PhDs which is the highest number in any scientific institution in the country.

The very object and mandate of this university is to impart the latest know-how of agricultural techniques to students and to keep them abreast of modern farming methods for increasing productivity. For agriculture technology, it has an independent faculty known as agricultural engineering and for admission to this faculty, there is a tough competition.

The campus of the university has one of the most scenic views. People love to visit it for a sigh of relief and relaxation due to over centuries-old ornamental plants and a pollution-free environment. One really forgets the tension-ridden atmosphere of the city after entering the campus.

The main entrance is from the Jail Road which is known as VIP Road as the administration has made it a route for dignitaries and VVIPs coming to the city. At the main entrance of the varsity, there used to be a small fountain which was installed way back in the 60s. One fine morning, it was removed by the local administration and replaced with a monument of a Persian wheel.

The administration prevailed upon the university management to spare 20 to 30 feet space of almost one kilometre so as to widen the road. The university authorities could not refuse the administration. Knowing that this institution always attracts foreigners and VVIPs, the administration decided to undermine its look by getting installed a Persian wheel at the main entrance.

The importance of the bullocks in the history of farming dates back to the earliest period of mankind on the face of earth. The use of bullock power for crop production spread right from seed-bed preparation to harvest of the crop. The implements used for meeting the required objectives are run in the field with bullock power. The number of bullocks is declining due to increase in mechanization. With the use of tractors and heavy implements — disco plough, chisel plough, Rotavators, etc. — the bullock power is unable to meet the draft power requirement and has now been replaced by tractors. Moreover, with the changed cropping system, farm operations if carried out by bullock power cause a delay in the sowing of crops as is experienced in cotton-wheat of rice-wheat systems. In these systems, zero tillage technology based on use of the latest machinery is introduced and it has proved useful in timely sowing of wheat after rice.

In the present scenario, with the changes in farm operations, the traditional agriculture has lost its importance and so has the bullock and bullock power. Taking cognizance of the rapidly changing times, the intelligentsia of the agrivarsity have made it as the very quintessence of the education being imparted to students that at the dawn of 21st century, they should strive to learn and grasp the means and methods to boost the yield and production. This miracle can only be accomplished by mechanized farming as well as by doing away with the obsolete farming by bullocks.

The university management due to its weakness against the administration politely pointed to the defunct divisional commissioner by a DO letter that efforts of the district administration in redesigning and rebuilding city roads, as part of Faisalabad rehabilitation project, have borne fruit. Now while passing through the city, one can differentiate the recent and past of the city. Under its beautification programme, a model of a Persian wheel facing the main gate of the university has been erected. The university faculty have shown their concern that the model does not clearly depict true reflection of an educational institution. Furthermore, the people usually in the morning and evening block traffic just to see the model. Resultantly, there is a risk of a serious traffic incident at any time. In order to avert any such incident, arrangements of traffic lights by replacing the existing model of the bullock may kindly be made as early as possible.

The defunct commissioner in response to the request of the vice-chancellor refused to accede to the demand and rather insisted that the decision to instal a Persian wheel in front of the university’s main entrance was right and best in their judgment.

The language used by the defunct commissioner in justification of the Persian wheel installation was this: “The model of the bullock installed at the main gate of the university depicts rural life of the area and the culture of the Punjab. It also symbolizes the very genesis of the university and genre of education imparted therein. Thus, the installation of traffic signals at the chowk in front of the main gate of the university appears to be not justified at all.”

A former dean of the university said: “Status-wise and intellect-wise, the vice-chancellor of the agrivarsity should always be considered at the top and required to be given such a status in consonance with his office and his stature of knowledge backed with prestigious institution, but the administration always under a pre-planned policy undermined his stature and he was never given required protocol which decency demands.”

He said the installation of a Persian wheel model at the face of the almamater was a pre-planned game of the administration to undermine the institution in the eyes of the public by identifying the agrivarsity and its students with bullocks.

A senior citizen said the administration in their gatherings always dub the faculty members dangar doctors, and say they are not cultured but master of agriculture.

Squandering taxpayers’ money: DATELINE SUKKUR

PEOPLE are dismayed over the state of affairs concerning city development projects as well as over the bad state of sanitation. The city once used to be very clean: one would remember a former local bodies secretary, Abdul Salim Khan, who was administrator here in 1972, going round various bazaars and streets much before the Fajr prayer.

It would, therefore, provide a hard exercise to the sweepers and other employees who knew of his checking, and they too were not shirkers. The situation remained steady and good till 1986. The budgets of the Sukkur municipality — it was made a corporation in 1981 — during the BD (basic democracy) system and also before that used to be surplus and there were no problems of funds or delays in the payment of salaries to the staff.

Now we are experiencing a new system of devolution of powers, and it may take years to test its viability. What we are talking about is that most of the development works that were initiated in 1993/94 are yet to get due attention of the new district or city governments, as any further delay in the completion of these projects would only hurt the interests of the people.

The incomplete Shaheed Bhutto amusement park, with its several kilometre-long iron fence across the Sukkur barrage, is one example of how huge money was spent on filling the embankment of the river and then the work was suspended. The judicial complex, also started in that period, has been left halfway. Federal Law Minister Shahida Jamil was informed about this when she was the law minister in the Sindh cabinet. But things stand where they have been.

Now about roads: these do not have a deep foundation. What contractors do is that they lay a two-inch layer of crushed stones, with asphalt, and pass a heavy roller over it a couple of times. Thus a dozen roads are ready in a short time. But these are gone with the first showers. Before that the water from overflowing gutters batter these roads out of shape. The taxpayers’ money is thus callously misspent.

Another pain in the neck is the rising volume of traffic around the Clock Tower area, Shaheed Ganj, Barrage Road and Shikarpur Road. All sorts of vehicles, including donkey carts, have contributed to the congestion, particularly in the Clock Tower area and Anaj Bazaar. People expect the city government to shift the wholesale Anaj Mandi to the outskirts of the city. It was planned in 1982 to shift the wholesale Mandi to Golimar, and in that regard a number of shops were also built, but strangely no shifting has taken place so far.

However, former federal minister Khurshid Ahmad Shah was able to get shifted the Tanga stand from the area Clock Tower, and in its place a shopping centre was built, where the affected shopkeepers of the Clock Tower were rehabilitated.

Kohat served as passage for invaders

KOHAT: The Kohat district has served as a passage to many invaders who travelled from the land-locked Afghanistan into the subcontinent, lured mostly by the wealth.

Alexander the Great was the first to pass through here in 320 BC, followed by other warriors including Changez Khan, who chased the local rulers up to the Indus including Ahmad Shah Abdali Sadozai.

He hailed from Kandahar where his shrine is visited by thousands from across the country. He laid the foundation of the Durrani dynasty. He appointed his trusted companion Prince Sir Sultan Jan Sadozai (Durrani) as the King of Kohat, which included the tribal areas of Kurram and Orakzai Agencies, Karak and in the east up to the Indus. The British rulers also gave him the title of Sir and 60,000 acres in Peshawar, Kohat and Punjab. The elder prince has now returned most of the property to the government as he could not look after it and pay taxes. His kin served on various important positions during the British rule.

One of his issueless grandsons, Prince Taimur Jan Sadozai (Durrani), was a lawyer educated at Aligarh. He had three wives. His last wife who hails from Baghdad, is still alive, living a secluded life in one of many palaces situated there. The prince possessed the copy of Holy Qurran written by Hazrat Ali (AS), now the property of Nawanzada family of Kohat. He had a treasure of valuable articles and antiques which rested with his wives. These antiques included the necklaces laced with emeralds and rubies excavated from Afghanistan; letters of Queen Elizabeth, statues and rare pictures of princesses and queens, now part of the family antiquity. His family is settled in the heart of the Kohat in about seven palaces each spread over 80 kanals. There is also a 250-year-old mosque of which three minarets still exist. A huge building also exists where the former King of Kohat, Sir Sultan Sadozai used to hold his court.

Sir Sadozai was a poet, artist and a pious person. The family still owns a marvellous piece of his artistry, his self-portrait which he completed in three months.

The graveyard of kings and princess is in dilapidated condition as it has been constantly vandalized by the smugglers. The apathy of the archeological department also contributed to this situation. A team of experts visited the place several times in the past, planned a museum, prepared maps and never came back. The baradari now rests on one wooden shaft and can collapse any time.

The nearby villagers are also using the underground tunnel and the water reservoir as garbage dumping place. Like the mosque constructed in 17th century, both the tombs of Sir Sultan Jan and his wife are in poor condition and are being used as dens by the drug traffickers. Abdul Sami Paracha