| May 31, 2003 | Saturday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 28, 1424 |
May is for Manto
VIEWING the scene from the rural aspect and the Sindh government’s performance administratively and politically, one cannot but feel utterly dismayed. Internally, there is loss of credibility of the federal and the provincial governments, and the latter’s reliance on the president-chief of army staff for their survival has robbed the coalition of any semblance of its being popularly elected one.
Affairs of the government run with priority for personal and group interests are gnawing at the strangely cobbled coalition of rural ‘gentry’ and the urbanites. Externally and at the inter-provincial level, Sindh is hardly heard and nominally represented, be it in foreign affairs, regional issues or, within the country, the water dispute or the finance award. Constitutional institutions lie in shambles. Think of the Council of Common Interest. It is non-existent and non-functional.
The National Reconstruction Bureau, a body created under a presidential order, has made changes in the jurisdictional area of powers and functions of the provinces. It has centralized the authority to change the list of provincial subjects and brought about drastic vital changes in the political, administrative, legal, fiscal and financial system of the provinces, which has adversely affected the vast rural population of Sindh. The bureau has not bothered to reflect as to the need to get its edicts passed by the provincial assemblies on a consensus basis. The bureau has set itself to acquire power and authority, which is not its own by any constitutional and legal standard. It has directed the provinces, as newspaper reports indicate, to extend the finance award for another three years. This is a sensitive issue in Sindh, which feels that it is not getting the revenues it is entitled to. Nor is the province getting its due share from the oil and gas production. This by passing the province in vital interests is alienating the people of the province from the federal government policies and plans.
Over-centralization has always adversely affected the political, social and economic progress of the province. The finance awards since at least 1990 were imposed on the province during caretaker or military-led governments. Usually the governors as nominees of the centre or the ministries in the province working as proxies of the federal government have been taking decisions of far-reaching consequences for the people of the Sindh. Such methods do not attract the people’s approval.
The water accord was signed in the heady days of the federally-imposed government of Jam Sadiq Ali. The decision of construction of the Thal Canal is opposed by Sindh on the plea that is construction by an upper riparian would further aggravate the already water starved Sindh. But neither the Indus River System Authority nor the Council of Common Interests have been able to hear the case and make suitable amends. Meanwhile, Sindh continues to simmer with discontent.
In the education sector, Sindh is forced to accept a syllabus that has little relevance to the requirements of its rural population. Sindhi was the medium of instruction up to primary and secondary levels in the whole province before partition. But after that it has almost been wiped out from Karachi city’s schools and is not part of the syllabus in the other major cities of the province.
In the present government set-up in Sindh, the rural areas are represented by a large number of ministers and advisers who draw their name and fame from the hastily made king’s party. What sort of hash this later lot of politicians in power is making out of the administration needs to be seen from close quarters and in the districts. This time to the good fortune of this set of provincial power seekers, the centre seems least worried about what is happening in the interior of the province. As one looks at the prospective candidates vying for the chief minister’s slot intending to dislodge the present incumbent, one is struck at the drive to gain and consolidate individual and narrow group interests in the districts. It is unfortunate that Sindh is represented by a majority of non-Sindhi speaking ministers whereas Sindhi-speaking ministers / advisers lack a professional approach. It is precisely here that the Sindh coalition is failing to inspire any confidence and hope, and naturally law and order and any semblance of good governance are becoming extinct. Since the interests are too trivial, there is, ridiculously low level of infighting among the Sindh government’s rural partners. In fact this kind of mumbo jumbo is being played on Sindh’s political scene so as to keep the largest party of the country forcibly marginalized despite heavily rigged elections to oust the popular party out of power.
I dare to invite the Human Rights Commission, foreign and national, and media people and even General Musharraf’s officers of confidence to see and analyze the scene in my home district as an example. But I strongly suspect that if matters are taking a turn for the worse with the passage of time, the rot must lie in the centre itself rather than the province. Or the priorities of the establishment are different than what a common taxpayer like me, leave alone as a member of parliament, is distressed about.
Why are we not empathetic enough as we witness the incidence of economic distress in the province? The means of livelihood are shrinking for the rural masses and agriculture is failing to sustain it. Law-and-order is at its worst. While all this is happening, the results have amply shown its dreadful count. Daily reports of the misery the common people are going through are depicted by incidents like the following one.
Ms Kesri, a young Thari woman, put her infant son in her lap and set herself on fire due to economic distress. Both of them died, the child instantly and the woman later on in the Hyderabad due to the trauma of the burn injuries.
I would call it a shocking tragedy. It would shock any conscionable person. These incidents of murder, kidnapping, robberies, crimes against women and children are occurring in hundreds on a daily basis in the province.
Law-and-order has been consigned to district and regional officials and the investigation wing has been entrusted to a separate district official. This has caused innumerable problems for the common man and enhanced corruption. With the district governments in place, the police at that level are required to work in accordance with the directions of the district nazim. Actually, briefly, what is happening is that in the rural areas the district government plan is causing problems because the nazim is meant to be non-political which is not so in fact and one can hardly expect this in a faction, group and caste ridden society in our country.
The nazim has replaced the deputy commissioner of the district. The symbol of state authority has been entrusted to an indirectly elected person. The holder of that office ought to be properly trained and have strong checks to balance the exercise of his power in accordance with the oath and declared objectives. Meaningful checks are not available to infuse the incumbent of that office with the qualities which are woefully wanting in a majority of cases. This has caused divisive functioning of the departments and resulted in injustice to the people. There is also wrong utilization of government funds given in the budget to the districts. The federal government controls the districts though funding and the law issued before the existence of the elected assemblies.
Thus, the new system is heavily centralized and is not free from the clutches of the government. There is much contradiction between the officially patronized and other district nazims, which is more in evidence in rural Sindh than perhaps any other part of the country.
In the present-day political scene in Sindh metropolitan Karachi’s representation is well reflected in the ruling party through the Muttahida Qaumi Movement. How can the urban-rural divide be bridged when the scheme is different for rural Sindh? Rural Sindh particularly is economically most depressed now than of any time previously and poverty is fast affecting vast areas and sections of the population. Its political will through the induction of the governments of choice of the establishment has been made infructuous. There is no use for the presidential team to make the people believe in its type of democracy and to make them wait for yet hidden benefits that are projected to occur to the province in the future.
It is the interests of the unity of the republic that a democratic order should be inducted, provincial rights should be respected and parliament and the provincial assemblies should reflect the will of the people. Only the introduction of real and unhindered democracy can save the country from disintegration and reverse the dangerous and divisive trends spawned by long autocratic rule.
The writer is a member of the National Assembly
SINCE Saadat Hasan Manto was born in May, 1912, the Halqa Arbab-i-Zauq decided to devote one of its weekly meetings of the month to his memory. But the regular, and normal, disruptions of power supply in the city, thanks mainly to the kite flyers, played its part that evening as well. People like Dr Alam Khan, Mahmood Gilani, Dr Ali Sana’a Bukhari and Anjum Parvez who had come with specially prepared papers for the occasion could not decipher their own handwriting in the dim light which was available. The entire proceedings, therefore, were conducted by the word of mouth. That was more enjoyable in a way. Those who spoke included Mahmood Gilani, Dr Anis Nagi, Hameed Akhtar and Enwar Sajjad who presided over the function.
Dr Anis Nagi said Manto was the only fiction writer whose books were being published and sold even after 48 years of his death. This, despite the fact that he did not leave behind any patrons; it was only the quality of his work which attracted readers.
Mahmood Gilani said Manto’s stories, depicted both humanism and barbarism. In his famous story, Khol Do, he proved that woman was only considered a commodity by the Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs alike and there was no communal angle to what they did. Manto felt the pain of partition, he added, and passed it on to his readers to make them feel it as well.
Recalling the days he spent in Bombay before partition, Hameed Akhtar said the progressive writer had regular sittings at the residence of Sajjad Zaheer but Manto never attended them. He was not the one who needed support of any movement; he could very well remain alive by dint of the quality of his work.
In his presidential remarks, Enwar Sajjad said Manto was not only a legendary figure but also the cultural hero of fiction. It was unfortunate that he was disowned by people for fear that they might be counted among those in favour of obscenity. Manto’s sexual themes were a reflection of our society and did not carry any hidden message. The need today was to bring out his greatness as a writer. He was a realist and could not keep his eyes and mind closed.
It was a pleasant get-together last week. Mustansar Husain Tarar turned up and so did Kazy Javed and Siddiqa Begum. She ventured out of her house probably for the first time after her confinement in hospital. Mustansar never comes empty handed. This time he brought along his 37th book, Beizatti Kharab, a collection of newspaper columns. The contents of this book happen to be quite different from those one published some years ago which forced me to say something not very pleasant about them. The columns in this book are evergreen, especially the first one on Kashmir. Then there is a telling piece about some of us who are constantly in the grip of war hysteria without realizing its consequences. Further up is a forceful denunciation of the Pakistanis living abroad in luxury who come here once in a while only to criticize those living in the country failing to realise the problems they are faced with. Each piece in this book is a treat to read.
Mustansar also gave an inkling of his forthcoming novel, Julaha aur Dakia. It would be his ninth in Urdu.
That evening Kazy Javed mentioned that when Zubair Rizvi of Indian Kashmir TV visited Pakistan, he expressed the desire to meet Mustansar. That was some kind of news and I had to ask Mustansar the reason for that request. “I was myself taken aback at the request,” said Mustansar, “but when I met him he said he only wanted to meet the person whose name was so difficult to pronounce.”
Now something about Siddiqa Begum.
Modern gadgets are quite naughty in some respects. For example, my telephone number is fed in Lahori’s mobile phone at number 9. Now whenever he presses 9 inadvertently, I get a buzz, often at odd hours. Now Siddiqa Begum has probably got me at number 10 although I am no das-numbri. Anyway, she touched it by mistake the other day leaving us with no option but to talk to each other. Since I had received the latest issue of her Adab-i-Latif by then I told her what I thought about it.
It had been compiled during her confinement in hospital and hence no offence was meant to her when I said it was a completely unprofessional compilation. The matter had been selected haphazardly. Then, the last two lines of Rakhshinda Naveed’s ghazal on page 136 are disputable. In addition, some of the book reviews were atrocious. The books by Shakir Kundan deserved to be confined to the trash can. I know his literary capabilities from the day he compiled a book about the poets and writers belonging to the armed forces. In that he gave pride of place to a pseudo-poet only because he happened to be a general and placed Munir Niazi at the fag end of the book because he was only a small boy in the Pakistan Navy.
The only redeeming feature in the latest issue of the Adab-i-Latif is the section confined to Dr Annemarie Schimmel. One translation of a Turkish story is also worthwhile. — ASHFAQUE NAQVI