Aj pin wayoon kann, wanjaara wanjan joon,

Athayee pahar athan, sa’ayo kanhen safar jo —Shah Latif

(Today the traders too have starting speaking of departure,The only thing they are repeating for day and night is to make preparations for the journey)

TRUE to Shah Latif’s Sur Samoondi (The song of sea-surfers), Syed Ghulam Shabbir Shah, the last doyen of the poetry and music of Shah Latif, passed away on April 20. His death is an irreparable loss to contemporary research on the mystic poetry, especially music. The 84-year-old Shabbir Shah was a real aesthete of the discipline known as Latif’s Music.

In line, he was the 11th ‘sajadah nasheen’ of the shrine, but Shah Latif was a multi-faceted luminary. On the one hand he was a poet of the people, and, on the other, he was the founder of the style of Sindh music he evolved from the music in vogue at that time and that has fortunately lived owing to regular recitals that Shah instituted during his lifetime and which continue three centuries later.

The late Shabbir Shah became sajaddah nasheen in 1969. His birth in 1919 coincided with a great man-made catastrophe the fallout of which was also felt by the simple-hearted people of Sindh. Nonetheless, it was Latif’s mystic poetry and soothing music that gave people solace. In this backdrop, Shabbir Shah concentrated on the philosophy of Shah Latif as revealed through his poetry and the music he reorganized in content and presentation. Shabbir memorized the poetry and learnt the music. He did it with such excellence that during his lifetime there were very few people who could interpret the philosophic complexities Shah Latif had interwoven in simple musical scores.

In 1969, when his father, Syed Shah Dino Shah, died and he succeeded him, Shabbir Shah he also began taking interest in the uplift of the people of the area besides promoting Shah’s poetry and music. For that purpose he formed the Shah Latif Foundation of which he remained the patron till his last. It was he who proposed the building of a cultural centre in the name of great poet, which was launched by Pirzada Abdus Sattar, the then chief minister of Sindh. However, Shabbir Shah’s proposal to establish a music school at this complex could not materialize because of the absence of political will. He had offered his own services to teach and preserve the unique tradition of Latif’s music, but political bickering and an unconvinced bureaucracy put everything in store. Structures have come up, but no work is being done.

Shabbir Shah’s life witnessed and guided some of them such great exponents of Latif’s poetry as Miyoon Kamal, Kehar Faqir Lanjwani, Pir Ghulam Shah, Pir Noor Mohammad Shah and Allah Bachayo Faqir. Occasionally, Shah used to visit the musical proceedings and guided the faqirs as laid down in Latif’s tradition.

Syed Shabbir Shah is dead, but we missed the opportunity to make use of the contribution he could have made in the form of interpretation of Latif’s poetry, especially the musical system the great poet reorganized. Now there is no one in Sindh who can sit, decipher and communicate these facets of Latif’s life to the lovers of music and poetry.

This gives rise to the thought that with every passing day, Latif’s poetry and music would become more difficult to understand. This thought should worry all those interested in preserving Sindh’s cultural heritage.

WHEN Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was the prime minister, the late Chaudry Fazl Elahi was the president. And so weak was the president in the face of a very strong prime minister that, it is said, somebody wrote on a wall outside the President’s House: Chaudry Fazl Elahi ko riha karo (release Chaudry Fazl Elahi).

Trust our politicians, they can conjure up anything and bring context to something where there is none. They create a situation and then make people believe it. Now, there could be no analogy but the PPP parliamentary leader Abdul Akbar Khan was trying his best to convince his opposition colleagues to ‘strengthen’ the hands of Chief Minister Muhammad Akram Khan Durrani.

Abdul Akbar is a seasoned parliamentarian and has remained speaker of the NWFP Assembly. He knows the internal dynamics of power politics. So when he was talking to his colleagues in the opposition chambers, who are new to parliament, they were listening to him attentively. He did not agree with the mode of the opposition protest early this week. He was bidding for the chief minister, who, he argued, was a weak man, besieged by heavyweights in the MMA leadership. “We need to free him,” he stressed.

Then he went on to recount the Chaudry Fazl Elahi episode to impress upon his colleagues the need to ‘liberate’ Chief Minister Durrani. And he was serious.

There are names being named in the corridors of the NWFP Assembly. It is the opposition only which is tossing these names. The treasury members also whisper about the ‘doers’ from Dera Ismail Khan and Nowshera, the home districts of Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Qazi Hussain Ahmad.

For two days now, the proceedings in the house are devoid of any interest. Speaker Bakht Jahan is intent on pushing the day’s agenda and at times comes to the rescue of beleaguered ministers who appear to have no clue as to what is going on in their own departments.

This has deprived the proceedings of whatever little interest that could have been generated.

The opposition, which requisitioned the current session, also has no clue where it is heading. The PPP and PML (N) are, for all intents and purposes, playing second fiddle to the government. The PML (Q) is leaderless while a hamstrung ANP is neither here nor there. That has left the job of opposition to PPP (S). To be honest, Murid Kazim Shah, the parliamentary leader, does not quite have the ingredients needed for an opposition leader. This explains the lack of a credible opposition in the NWFP Assembly. And this also explains the ease with which the government is getting away without encountering any problems or embarrassment at the hands of the opposition. There is ammunition aplenty to corner the government but who will take the lead and fire the first salvo.

The question hour is bereft of any interest with the MPs focused too much on issues that are narrow in nature and relate mostly to their own constituencies. The larger issues that involve the mode of governance and the impact that it has on the province are being overlooked.

The NWFP Assembly is in its sixth month since its birth but it has yet to see a serious and engaging discussion despite it being the “graduate assembly.”

When the house meets again today, it will debate the recent massive transfers and postings in the education and health departments. One hopes someone on the opposition benches would ask as to who had recommended the over eight hundred transfers and postings in the education department in Dera Ismail Khan alone. And who ordered promotion of an SHO to the rank of an SP in the same district.

Also interesting would be to see how the government deals with a motion by Abdul Akbar Khan calling for the dismissal of district Nazim Mardan for ‘revolting’ against the provincial government. He needs a simple majority and, sensing from the mood of the treasury benches, he should have no problems in pushing the matter through. If it happens, this will not only be the first time that a provincial assembly would exercise the powers granted to it by the controversial Legal Framework Order but it may also trigger a virtual war between the already polarized district and the provincial government.

Mr Durrani is not a novice in the corridors of power nor is he new to parliamentary politics. But he seems to be heading a government that has more than one power-centres. He surely would know the kind of stories being told behind his back but, sadly enough, he has taken no measure to allay the impression being created about him — that of a weak chief minister interested in the uplift of his own constituency only.

THE prodigal son has returned to the family. It should not come as a surprise to those who are familiar with the mind-frame of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) that Shoaib Akhtar has been recalled to the cricket camp.

It is no secret that the PCB has always had a soft corner for the self-styled “fastest” bowler in the world. The cricket grapevine has it that the PCB has in its entire history never spent so much money on any one cricketer as on Shoaib Akhtar, alias Rawalpindi Express, to keep him “alive and kicking”.

When Australian umpire Darrell Hair came down hard on Shoaib and called him a couple of times for “chucking” during the Australian tour of 1999, the PCB went out of the way to defend Shoaib. They sent him to the cricket academy in Perth for getting his bowling action “corrected” and later got him certified by the ICC, on whom as much as Rs 500,000 were spent, insiders claim.

Later when Shoaib sustained an injury in 2000-01 the PCB again came to his rescue and spent quite a fantastic sum on his treatment. Sources in PCB who have access to “classified” information say that since his induction in the national team the board spent as much as two million rupees to keep Shoaib Akhtar “fit”.

How much of it has Shoaib repaid? In most of the tough and important series or contests — the latest being the World Cup 2003 — Shoaib has been the biggest disappointment. He has either failed to perform, as in the World Cup where he turned out to be the most expensive fast bowler of the event with an average of around seven runs per over or has become “unfit” midway during series, as in the 1999 series and against Zimbabwe in 2002.

If we compare the performance of the PCB’s most “pampered” bowler with some lesser favourites like Abdul Razzaq and Azhar Mahmood, Shoaib’s is far from what one would expect from him.

The hype that the PCB has built up for Shoaib over the years has done more harm than good. Pakistani TV commentators —and even others — often indulged in big buildups before a match even in the early stages of Shoaib’s career. Most often this PR exercise proved counter-productive.

The PCB’s decision to recall only Shoaib of the eight who were not considered for Sharjah Cup squad after their disappointing performance in the World Cup 2003 matches has shocked the followers of cricket because some of the others had stronger claims for recall — like Saeed Anwar and Wasim Akram or for that matter wicket-keeper/batsman Moin Khan. What was the criteria before the selectors for Shoaib’s recall is anybody’s guess but for sure it is neither form nor performance as the speedster has not played any cricket-like the others — since the debacle in South Africa earlier this year.

When the cricket board decided to “clean the mess” after the World Cup and begin afresh by sacking the selectors, the skipper and seven senior players, it was hoped that the decisions were not because some heads needed to be “rolled” but to rebuild the team and reinvigorate the game. However, our hopes were dashed after reading the names of those who replaced Wasim Bari and his selectors and Richard Pybus. The “ new look” team won the Sharjah Cup. It was neither a surprise nor something to boast about. There was hardly any contest except for Sri Lanka — a team which like Pakistan was going through the same phase following failure in the World Cup. Sanath Jayasuriya had resigned but was persuaded to lead the team by the country’s sports minister.

Obviously he was not in the same frame of mind as in the past and hardly had any motivation. Their main strike bowler, Chaminda Vaas and veteran Aravinda de Silva were not playing. The other two teams contesting the Sharjah Cup 2003 had in any case no pretensions. Any victory is welcome as it helps boost the morale of the players. But the success in Sharjah (where in any case Pakistan has more wins than any other cricket playing country) should not make our cricket managers complacent.