Europe at odds with US over Iraq: DATELINE BRUSSELS

Eight weeks after European Union leaders meeting in Copenhagen threw open the doors of their 15 nation club to 10 central and eastern European states, east and west Europe have become embroiled in an angry battle of wills over Iraq and relations with the United States.

The east-west struggle confirms US Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld’s distinction between an ‘old Europe’ led by Germany and France which is resisting America’s calls for war on Iraq and a ‘new Europe’ of former communist nations which back Washington’s policy on Baghdad.

With anger growing on both sides of the one-time Iron Curtain, more is at stake than just Europe’s relations with the US.

Fractures in the European family are endangering the much- feted end of the continent’s Cold War divide. Few doubt that the EU’s eastward expansion to bring in countries like Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, will go ahead as scheduled in 2004, despite threats made by French President Jacques Chirac.

But the feud has cast a dark shadow over east-west relations, raising fears that an enlarged Europe of 25 countries — rising to 27 as of 2007 when and if Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey enter — may now be born amid suspicion and resentment.

Instead of unity and a subsequent increase in Europe’s global clout, next year could see Europe splintered into opposing camps and still largely ineffective on the world stage.

There is little doubting the strength of the current acrimony. Eastern European governments are bristling at what they see as EU ‘diktat’ over how they should act on Iraq while many EU leaders have warned the candidates that joining the Union is not just about securing more money and investments; it is about abiding by certain rules of conduct among partners.

Eastern Europe’s pro-American sympathies have also prompted fissures in the current EU, with France’s Chirac warning the applicants that their support for the US was ‘childish and irresponsible.’

Eastern European leaders had “missed a great opportunity to shut up” on Iraq, Chirac said after EU crisis talks in Brussels this week, adding that by supporting the US, they may have spoiled their chances of joining the Union. But British Prime Minister Tony Blair has welcomed the region’s ‘leadership’ on Iraq.

Efforts to mend fences are under way. After weeks of backing America’s tough stance on Iraq, east European countries this week fell in line with an EU statement calling for a peaceful resolution of the crisis but which also warned Baghdad to disarm or face war as a “last resort.”

Significantly, however, east European leaders stamped their pro-US sympathies on the joint statement issued with the EU by insisting on Europe’s strong partnership with the US.”

Eastern European states had an “invaluable contribution to make to our common will to resolve the Iraq crisis,” said Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, speaking as current president of the EU. Backing him up, a joint statement by all 25 current and future EU members promised to “avoid new dividing lines” and vowed “joint endeavours” to meet their common goals on Iraq.

But Simitis criticized the candidates for failing to understood EU rules. “Every new member has to get used to the way in which we work and understand each other...they need time to adjust,” he said patronisingly. East European states, however, cautioned testily that they had no lessons to learn from the west.

“I am too well brought-up to respond” to the French President’s comment said Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy. There was no contradiction between membership of the EU and good relations with the US, added Polish Foreign Minister Vlodzimierz Cimoszewicz.

The discord will not disappear in a hurry. Having fought long and hard to throw off the Soviet yoke, the former communist nations of the east are in no mood to start obeying instructions from Paris or Berlin.

While EU membership will clearly give them access to billions of euros in badly-needed EU aid, many in the region see America — and the US-led western Alliance — as the ultimate guarantor of their security in an unstable world. And despite EU plans to develop a defence and security arm, that is unlikely to change anytime soon.

A photo-finish for the Senate?: DATELINE PESHAWAR

MONEY can drill a hole in a mountain, so goes a saying in Pushto. But hearts are easier to pierce. So don’t blame our parliamentarians if some of them fall to temptation. If those closely associated with the political game being played for Senate elections on Monday are to be believed, money has worked its way through the hearts of many of them. Briefcases have changed hands and so has the conscience of quite a few of our parliamentarians, most of who probably had never seen or felt so many crisp notes before.

The game is about to come to an end. Two former provincial cabinet ministers, Imtiaz Hussain Gillani and Dr Shaheen Sardar Ali, who were thought to have been asked to file their nominations by you-know-who, may seek retirement from the contest, again on the prodding of real players of the political chess game. The reason: to make up for the shortfall in expected votes and ensure that the opposition-backed candidates make it to parliament. They include Asfandyar Wali Khan, Engr Fazal Hussain of PML-Q, Shujaul Mulk of PPP-S, Col Inamullah Wazir and yes of course former senator Commander Khalil, former senator Gulzar and his son, Waqar. If you wonder who Inamullah Wazir is, suffice to say he is said to be close to one of the powerful figures.

Rules for the game have been clearly laid out. And there money is flowing like never before. The going rate for a vote to Senate is said to be between Rs3.5 million to Rs4 million.

To ensure that opposition votes do not slip to the other mighty contestant, Azam Khan Swati, the opposition parties have devised their own plan.

This is how the game is supposed to be played on Monday: the ANP and PPP-S MPAs will vote for each other’s candidates, the PML-Q and PPP-P will swap votes while the PML-N, PPP-S, PPP-P and PML-Q will be voting for each other’s candidates to ensure that all of them win. Where will this arrangement leave the PML-N candidate and former chief minister Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan and the PPP-P’s Sardar Ali? This is something that needs to be watched.

More or less, a similar scene is being played out in Punjab, though the exercise there is not as tricky and difficult as it is here. In Punjab, parliamentarians say each ‘official’ candidate has been assigned a group of MPAs to ensure that they vote for him and therefore eliminate chances of possible slippage. So far so good.

There is a problem though. Put together, the combined opposition votes in the NWFP Assembly come to 54 whereas they need 63 votes to ensure that the MMA does not walk away with a majority of seats. To see things through, insiders claim, the triumvirate of the affluent has bought over four MMA MPAs, though they need five more to achieve their goal. Like it or not, the MMA may be in for another shock after the dramatic switch-over of its MNA from Shangla Amir Muqam to the government.

If things work out as planned, the MMA and the combined opposition might end up clinching seven seats each in Senate; this is despite the clear majority of the six-party religious alliance in the NWFP Assembly. That is, the MMA may end up getting two seats less than its anticipated eight seats, considering its 69-vote majority in the house of 124.

The MMA’s expected haul does not include Azam Swati, an independent candidate from Mansehra, who was able to woo JUI leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman to get four of his MPAs to support and second his candidature. He is said to have been asked to ‘arrange’ for the remaining five votes. It is now being rumoured that Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani, too, has joined the panel of MPAs who will vote for the America-returned former district Nazim. The Khalils and Gulzars are no match to the considerable wealth that Azam Swati is reputed to have. At a press conference, he once claimed to be one of the richest men in Virginia in the United States. And this is what is giving the opposition planners some sleepless nights. What if he buys over opposition MPAs?

If he wins, the MMA may get nine seats in Senate and sour the dreams of many a political planners of this government.

This is not all. The federal government faces an equally tricky situation while ‘handling’ Fata MNAs. As things are, five of the 12 Fata MNAs support the Jamali government. The sixth one, Amir Sadiq, is said to be unhappy. There were commitments made with him, he says, that remain unfulfilled including development schemes for his area and a visit to his tribal region by Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali. Now, Mr Jamali has no time for him, he complained to an associate recently.

Under the rules set for the Senate elections for Fata, the government needs seven votes to get all the eight Fata seats. Thus, Mr Jamali does not only have to win over the heart of Amir Sadiq again, but also rope in another Fata MNA to spoil broth for the MMA in Senate.

Is this going to be a photo-finish for the MMA and the combined opposition and their political patrons? Will the MMA be able to win a majority of Senate seats from the NWFP and Fata and further consolidate its position in the political power-game or will the Senate elections mark the unravelling of the ruling religious alliance and signal the beginning of its end? These are some of the questions whose answers may come soon.

The men in blue: MEDIA REVIEW

INDIA’s cricket team seems to be collapsing under the weight of expectations of its own people. And probably the media has played the biggest part in building these expectations. Their cricket team has been dubbed everything in TV ads — from the men in blue (a take by Pepsi), the tigers of India, to Team Samsung (sponsored by the South Korean electronics giant). And it clearly hasn’t helped, not least because Indian team isn’t half as good as sections of the Indian media make it out to be.

While Zimbabwe’s match showed that the men in blue might have finally turned things around, it is too soon to tell how well the Indians will do in their other crunch matches with Pakistan and England. Captain Saurav Ganguly was quoted in most Indian newspapers on Thursday as saying that he had dedicated the victory to teamwork. While speaking during the presentation after the match the evening before he said the victory had been possible because of the support that had come from within the team, “since there seems to be little support from outside”.

Well, what would one expect from a captain who has to face the wrath of the Indian cricketing public. In fact, it’s probably not much different here in Pakistan, it’s just that the Pakistan team has been so erratic of late that people have realized that they have the potential to be the world’s best team and the world’s worst team, all on the same day.

As for the Indian team, prior to Zimbabwe match, and following their sound beating by Australia and so-so performance against Holland, they had to face a lot of anger from their fans at home. The recrimination turned ugly posters and effigies being burnt of the captain, star batsman Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag. Clearly cricket fans in India, and in fact in Pakistan, have little patience for failure and do not accept defeat easily. But since we don’t have our electronic media building the national cricket team to be what isn’t, its okay if we lose in sense that it won’t be the end of the world.

In the Indian team’s case, the burden of expectations emanating from Indian’s one billion-plus population is so great that failure becomes unacceptable. And this public ire could not come at a worse time, at least for Ganguly and his men, since some people in India have suggested that were the team to lose to arch-rivals Pakistan, they would not be allowed to even get off from the plane. Black paint and oil has been thrown on Muhammad Kaif’s house in Allahabad and although no damage was reported, the reaction clearly was quite unfortunate. Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar was incensed on ESPN, and quite rightly so, when he asked that Kaif almost singlehandedly (with Yuvraj Singh) won the NatWest Trophy at Lord’s last summer, did any Indian fan go to his house and leave bars of gold in appreciation?

With Zimbabwe in a pretty good position — thanks to England and Australia chickening away from their matches — India and Pakistan will fight out for the remaining third place for the Super Six stage. The Zimbabwe win is probably not the end of Ganguly’s worries. Yes, his team has managed a significant turnaround but it remains to be seen how India’s mediocre bowling attack will fare against two probably stronger batting line-ups. As for the Indian print media, much of them had to eat their words of a few days ago when some of their commentators and experts had written off the men in blue. Also, on the night of Feb 20, right after the match had ended, the ads featuring the men in blue — yes, with all the proclamations that they are undoubtedly the best team in the world by a long shot and that winning the World Cup is like winning a Pepsi — were back on ESPN and Star Sports in full swing. Again — and as

we speak — hundreds of millions Indian fans are being wound up again by this media barrage expecting that their team now has the world’s cricket teams at its feet. Only, time will tell the likes of LG, Hero Honda, Pepsi and Samsung again withdrawing their ads featuring the men in blue. — OMAR R. QURAISHI

(E-mail: omarq@cyber.net.pk)

Life during the holidays

SEVERAL forced, and some assumed, holidays on the occasion of Eid, obliged a person to remain confined to his home especially when he is not young enough to go about frolicking. Moreover, it is necessary for an old man to stay at home because some of the younger lot still believe in coming to pay respects and offer greetings on festive occasions. He has, therefore, to pretend that he is at home only not to disappoint them when they drop in.

However, since visitors are few and far between, one has to fill the gap by reading books and magazines which, luckily, keep pouring in.

Let me start with the government’s literary monthly, Mah-i-Nau. It seems that those handling its affairs have lately been working overtime as last month I received the issues of November and December, 2002, in one cover, and this month, to my utter surprise, came the January, 2003, issue.

The November-2002 issue is supposed to be the Iqbal Number, appearing belatedly because of governmental procedures as the matter to be carried has to pass through several hands, leaving hardly any choice for the editor. However, in this bulky issue of 272 pages, the only articles of quality are by Dr Tehsin Firaqi, Dr Waheed Ishrat and Fateh Mohammad Malik. I can also appreciate Aamir Suhail’s condemnation of Syed Nazir Niazi for his translation of Iqbal’s Reconstruction into Urdu as he has used words which belong less to Urdu and more to Arabic. One thing in that issue which I fail to appreciate is the detailed reproduction of the Iqbal seminars organized in different cities of the country. They need not have been included in their present form. In fact, I feel, the insistence on their reproduction has resulted in the appearance of Iqbal Number in January, 2003, instead of November last.

In the December-2002 issue of Mah-i-Nau some quatrains by Inamul Haq Javed have been printed on the same pages as the verses of others. This, I feel, is something unethical. In the first place, the so-called humour of Inamul Haq Javed did not deserve to be carried at all, and if its inclusion was at all essential, it should have been allotted a separate corner so that it does not pollute the sober thoughts of other poets.

In the January-2003, issue of the magazine, the piece written about Jon Elia appearing under a doctor’s name is most disappointing. The writer does not seem to be a doctor of literature at all. And in the same issue the article about AG Josh by Sughra Sadaf made me laugh. Accepting him as a poet is the biggest joke of all time. The article extols the praise showered upon that burly character although everyone knows how he has endeavoured to earn it.

NOW about my friend, Mohammad Saeed Shaikh, who came specially to present his latest novel, Rang-i-Jahan Aur. I initially knew him only as a short story writer and saw him produce four collections. He then went on to write a travelogue of Haj and a novelette, Fard-i-Jurm, the launching of which I attended in 1995. In that book he shocked the readers by divulging that fifty per cent of those sent to the gallows were innocent. Since he has been actively involved in district administration, his statement had to be believed sending shudders down many spine.

It did not take long for Saeed Shaikh to expand his vision and start writing novels. He has so far written four which have earned him highly favourable reviews. In one, a leading literary critic like Dr Anwar Sadeed says that after reading the first page of Saeed Shaikh’s Eik Aur Darya, published last year, he could not leave the book until he had gone through all of its 477 pages.

Like bureaucrat-writers Masud Mufti and Tariq Mahmood, Saeed Shaikh also gets topics to write about because of his official position but deals with them with dexterity. As opposed to symbolic stories, his are matter of fact narrations which can be appreciated by all. There is realism in his stories, and I am glad he has shed his preference for metaphysics which seemed to be seeping into his earlier writings.

After going through Rang-i-Jahan Aur, one cannot but appreciate both his characterization and narration. As it is, a novel is built around characters and Saeed Shaikh seems a pastmaster not only at portraying various characters in their true colours but also phasing them into the body of the story. The portrayal of Malik Ayaz in the novel speaks volumes for his expertise at characterization.

With his long experience in the civil service, Saeed Shaikh has no difficulty in exposing what the bureaucracy has to endure for not toeing the superiors’ line. Officers showing some independence of mind are suspended on faked charges and even tortured to extract a confession, even to their incarceration.

While reading this book, I thought of another bureaucrat the poet, Murtaza Barlas. He has also hinted about a similar problem in one of his verses:

Mujhey ki gaee hey yeh peshkash keh saza mein hongi reaitein Jo qasur mein nein kiya nahin voh qabul kar loon dabao se. — Ashfaque Naqvi