The Maulana’s geopolitics

REGARDLESS of agreeing or disagreeing with Maulana Fazalur Rahman, Amir of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, one cannot but admire him for the sheer candour and transparency of his observations on emerging India-Pakistan relations. The Maulana’s vision, though essentially futuristic, is based on the solid bedrock of geopolitics and realpolitik.

In a July 21 interview with the Indo-Asian News Service in New Delhi, the JUI leader said the people of Pakistan were “more inclined to be closer to India (than the Indians to Pakistan)”. Responding to a question as to whether he had the support of President Pervez Musharraf for his visit, the Maulana said: “We are not supported by Musharraf. The truth is that we are on a peace mission and we need Allah’s support. Once we entered India, we left our differences and opposition at Wagah (border). Our aim is to give both countries a composite vision of peace in such a way that the region becomes a leader for peace programmes. We are here to pave the way for bilateral talks to resolve the Kashmir issue and other unresolved issues.”

For the first time perhaps, the leader of a political party in Pakistan and a parliamentarian on an unofficial visit to India has had such a wide and varied interaction with his Indian interlocutors as Maulana Fazalur Rehman, ranging from the prime minister to the leader of the opposition and the diehards of the BJP, the Vishva Hindu Parishad and the RSS.

Normally, most Pakistanis visiting India - politicians, intellectuals, ex-soldiers, human rights activists and Track II voyagers - go through the routine of a pre-arranged agenda, leaving little room for wider, intimate reactions.

Some of the salient points made by Maulana Fazalur Rahman in his various statements can be summed up as follows: i) resolution of the Kashmir dispute (a reality) in the light of the Shimla Agreement (1972) and the Lahore Declaration (1999); ii) no US (or third-party intervention for the settlement of bilateral issues; iii) (re)-definition of jihad as ‘Jihad-i-Akbar (Greater Jihad), prohibiting murdering, even molesting, innocent civilians; iv) urging India to treat the Muslim minority like an elder brother; v) Pakistani Hindus live in relative safety in spite of the Gujarat holocaust; vi) refutation of any link with Osama bin Laden; vii) terrorism, reprehensible in all events, must not be equated with a liberation war (as in Kashmir); viii) Bhagat Singh and Chander Shakher were national heroes and freedom fighters and cannot be damned as terrorists.

Unprecedented in frankness of idiom was the Maulana’s appeal to the two countries to get together at a ‘roundtable conference’ to discuss the modalities of a possible “reunion”. This appeared under screaming banner headlines in a dominant section of the Indian and Pakistani press, although the tone and emphasis were missed. “It’s a grand and fanciful idea. Such utopian views are easier expressed than done,” the Maulana said in reply to a question. He referred to the massive roadblocks on the way, and went on to suggest a conference of important leaders of the two countries, “ably supported by their people to discuss the proposition.”

“Whether both countries retain their individual identities or unite in the German way is best left to the leaders and the people. What is truly important, however, is that the people must have a peaceful and prosperous’ existence.”

Perhaps the Maulana might have to elaborate and explain exactly what he had in mind - whether he thought more of a reunion or a re-unification (the German way). A simple reunion, like a college or a regimental reunion, can be achieved by the revival and reinforcement of mutual trust and camaraderie without redrawing the map. Reunification will not only be completely out of the question but also have an extended dimension, involving Bangladesh. It can, therefore, be ruled out straightaway. Nothing could have been farther from the Maulana’s own mind also. In any case, something as sketchy and impromptu as a reply to a question in a news conference, with the attendant and often unavoidable element of mis-reporting, can hardly be used as the basis for a sober judgement of someone’s real intent.

What is truly reassuring is that the Maulana’s maverick statement passed of without inviting too many acerbic comments at home. Furthermore, the Maulana himself did not consider it necessary to change or re-interpret (least of all withdraw) his statement as politicians often do. In the hopelessly complex and confounded state of the India-Pakistan relationship, it should be seen as an indication of an emerging will to douse the fires of mistrust and hostility as was the case until the initiation of the on-going peace process in April.

The relative silence of the media in regard to Maulana Fazalur Rahman’s statements from New Delhi speaks eloquently of the growing desire for peace between the two neighbours at all levels.

— The writer is a retired brigadier of the Pakistan Army

FDP under a cloud

The Faisalabad Dryport is under a cloud these days because of friction between its management and the Collectorate of Customs.

Set up in 1994, the FDP has around 175 clearing agents, 98 of whom are reportedly involved in the clearing and forwarding business. Various assignments, including loading, unloading, forwarding, transporting and shipments, have been assigned by the FDP management to various contractors against heavy charges.

It is learnt that these charges are used by the FDP management for running its affairs as well as “to share toothsome delicacies in company of the high-ranking officials of police, district administration, Customs and Sales Tax Collectorate.”

Ever since its inception, the FDP has enjoyed excellent terms with the top government officials. The top functionaries of the dryport are known as uncrowned kings, forcing the customs and other officials to follow their pursuits and dream different from the ground realities.

There is no check on this exchange of power and wealth. As a result, as many as 22 FDP trustees have been sitting on “currency notes” for retaining and boosting their export. But no one can imagine the hardships of those who dare to enter the trade and export business.

The newcomers are forced by the FDP management and the customs authorities and even the clearing agents to pay through the nose for entering the business. They have to pay heavily in the form of a number of fees and charges to the dryport management.

The trustees share handsome money (Nazrana) for providing quick assistance of clearing the incoming and outgoing goods, skipping over minute checking and examination.

Out of the whole lot, there was a customs collector who was the most admired. Recently held by the NAB, he surrendered Rs250 million in the presence of a magistrate and other officials to seek bargaining plea.

During his three-year service, he reportedly used to whisper in his circles that the posting in the FDP was a memorable thing.

However, today the FDP management and customs officials are at daggers drawn. According to insiders, trouble started when a new local collector customs announced that he would strictly adhere to the rules. He also reportedly refused to accept Nazrana. This act of the collector came as a bombshell for the FDP management, which could not believe its ears.

Reacting to it, the FDP management released a calculated statement in the press with a request to publish it.

The press statement, inter alia, says the import trade in Faisalabad has drastically declined over the past two months. In May 2003, the total number of containers of import cargo was 347 and in June, it declined to 297. The number of import containers in April was 500.

The import traders have described this decrease in import in a short span as a conspiracy to deprive the district of business opportunities and its due share in the import trade. They say the supervision of tax evasion can’t be disputed, but panic about the import business is not ignorable either. The authorities concerned should take cognizance of this decline and investigate the causes of this debacle.

The local importers have expressed concern over the current state of affairs. The cargo carriers, container owners and clearing agents have opened their offices, established their terminals and other auxiliary logistics in Faisalabad. They fear the present crisis may force them to wind up their business.

Expressing concern over slump in trade, cargo carriers and container owners claim that the imports from this region have been confined to industrial machinery only which had been dispatched from foreign ports three months earlier. No commercial imports are making for Faisalabad.

“This is, in fact, the first guided missile fired by the FDP management as a signal to behave. However, it could not hit the target because the Collector, instead of toeing the line, asked the dryport management to allocate the entire first floor of the FDP Complex for use of Custom House in the larger interest of the government revenue.

However, the FDP reacted sharply and claimed rent and other dues from the Collectorate for the services, which the latter had enjoyed in the past.

The letter written to the collector customs by the FDP acting general manager reads: “As directed by the FDP management, I have to state that the FDPT constructed a multi-storey plaza at the dryport in 2001 and shifted the offices of its various sections to the ground floor, while the offices of executives, including the chairman and three vice-chairmen, were set up on the first floor. Later, on the request of the then Collector Customs, Yasin Tahir, adequate space for collector of customs was also provided on this floor and the offices of the collectorate were furnished and equipped with modern furniture.

This space for customs collectorate was given free of cost and the entire facilities were provided to the collectorate, which started operating on July 9, 2001. On the second floor, we also provided office accommodation for the collector customs adjudication, on the request of the then collector, Umar Farooq, which is also functioning for the last year.

About half of the portion of the second floor was given to the customs for setting up offices of the central excise. All this was done in good faith just to maintain a good working relationship between the FDPT and customs.

According to Section 14-A of the Customs Act 1969, we were dutybound to provide accommodation to the customs staff for offices, examination of goods, their detention and storage. But it was mentioned nowhere that the FDPT was bound to accommodate the whole collectorate. However, we did not object to this move as well.

The dryport premises are meant only for the use of offices and staff posted and working there. The Central Excise establishment and its paraphernalia have no claim to use any space in the FDPT building. The past arrangement was in place because of good faith and cooperation on reciprocal basis.

It is requested that the collectorate head office, along with central excise establishment, be shifted from the FDPT building immediately because the trust needs this space for its own use.

It is also requested that the utility bills consumed by the customs department are to be cleared by the customs from its own resources. We will, however, provide all facilities as envisaged under law,” the letter concluded.

The city circles are keenly watching the new development, saying the action of the customs functionaries and reaction of the industrial class once again prove exploitation of power for investment and monopoly in import and export.

Shafiqur Rehman Shafaq — a natural poet

SHAFIQUR Rehman Shafaq was born in the late 1930s in a small village of Bijnaur district in India. Smitten by the Muse early in life, he started composing poetry during his school days and kept taking guidance from Khayal Lukhnawi. Migrating from India and landing in Karachi, he started attending sittings with Rais Amrohvi. Moving over to Lahore in 1960, he remained under the tutelage of Ehsan Danish up to 1982. Changing residence once again, he has been in Peshawar since 1986.

It was the chairman of Halqa-i-Aijaz, Aijaz Feroz Aijaz himself, who arranged the launching of Rang-i-Shafaq, a collection of poetry of Shafiqur Rehman Shafaq. The venue was Chaupal, the new meeting place of writers in the heart of the famous Gol Bagh.

In her comments on the book, Bushra Rahman said Shafaq’s poetry was natural to the core and his intense feelings seem to tingle his intellect.

Dr Anwar Sadeed feels that the aim of his verses is to bring about reforms in society.

Similar views have been expressed about Shafaq’s poetry by Prof Jafar Baloch, Anwaar Qamar and Zafar Ali Raja. They point out that he is adept at having a fling at the problems afflicting our society and is sore about the inadequacies of the times. With a keen eye he views the numerous social problems confronting the country and refers to them in his verses.

All in all, speakers on the occasion were unanimous of the view that Shafiqur Rahman Shafaq combines classicism with modernism in his poetry. His verses are not laboured but the result of natural outpourings. Here are some:

Dard kisi ka bantey kaun

In zakhmon ko bhuley kaun

ANIS Nagi’s literary quarterly, Danishwar, has again made its appearance. Interesting, as usual, it is replete with outright condemnation of many authors and their work. Munshi Charagh Din, who previously did this kind of job with expertise, has now been converted into Shamsul Ulema. However, one can always smell a rat in the name. The present issue is supposed to be in memory of Iftikhar Jalib who died earlier this year. He, together with Anis Nagi, Gilani Kamran and Akhtar Ahsan are the pioneers of New Poetry in Urdu. Although they met with a lot of opposition in this respect, not only from the classicists but also the progressives, they persisted with their way. But it is not that they did not have any supporters. A person of the calibre of Safdar Mir, for one, favoured such poetry wholeheartedly in an article under the heading, New Poetics.

Apart from a very personal article by Anis Nagi about his relationship with Iftikhar Jalib, the issue carries an article by Iftikhar Jalib himself in which he has discussed the thoughts of Freud and Jung. Also included in this issue are four of his poems, so clearly different from one normally sees in magazines.

The issue provides a lot of good reading material, with the poetry section larger than usual. But the highlight is the short, rather condensed, travelogue of Anis Nagi in which he talks about his ramblings in different lands and makes startling observations. In South Korea, he visited a place with a large signboard in English reading, Tagore Society. The room he entered had several pictures of Tagore hung along the walls. On inquiry Nagi was told that the expenses of the society were being borne by Daewoo. The lady conducting Nagi around was all the time talking about Tagore and going in raptures about his literary achievements.

That was something which did not appeal at all to Nagi. As it is, he considers Tagore to be an ordinary poet and has good reasons to feel that way. But the climax of the visit came when Nagi asked the lady conducting him about Iqbal. “Who was he?” she blurted, “I have never heard the name.” Then she went on to say that she had been to India quite a few times and even met Indira Gandhi but no one ever made a mention of the name, Iqbal. Yes, thought Nagi, how could anyone in India talk about Iqbal.

There are many more interesting incidents in this write-up. And now about the book reviews by a Shamsul Ulema. I think Dr Enwar Sajjad should consider himself lucky as he has been given plus marks by the writer for the collection of all his short stories under one cover but the non-lucky ones happen to be Khalida Husain, Prof Hamid Ahmad Khan, Mushfiq Khwaja, Dr Waheed Ishrat and, to some extent, Shahzad Ahmad.

Writing about Khalida Husain’s novel, Kaghzi Ghat, the Shamsul Ulema very wisely says that good short story writers do not necessarily make good novelists. As such, he does not find anything creditable about the novel. He also finds fault with its language and general construction.

The Muraqqa-i-Ghalib, so laboriously compiled by Prof Hamid Ahmad Khan, is of no value in the eyes of the reviewer. He calls it an exercise in futility as it provides nothing new about the poet.

The well known scholar, Mushfiq Khwaja, has recently made a detailed research and compiled Kulliyat-i-Yagana. However, the Shamsul Ulema rejects his effort outright as he considers Yas Yagana Changezi to be an ordinary poet and did not deserve the labour put in by Mushfiq Khwaja. He feels that Khwaja Sahib has just wasted his time.

Iqbal’s Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam has been translated into Urdu separately by Dr Waheed Ishrat and Shahzad Ahmad. The reviewer has condemned Dr Waheed for his poor knowledge of English but feels that Shahzad has done a better job. All the same, he has some adverse remarks for his loose sentences. — ASHFAQUE NAQVI

Afghanistan, Pakistan should join hands to fight terror: Karzai

THE following is a transcript of the BBC World interview with Afghan President Hamid Karzai:

Q: Are you worried by what the Human Rights Watch has said about warlords and political strongmen creating a climate of fear across the country with their private armies?

A: The question of the security of the common Afghan man is something we are concerned about from the very beginning of the interim government and the transition government till today. It’s the primary focus of our attention and it has to improve. There is no doubt that there are violations, committed by certain gun-holders. There is no doubt that Afghan people have been killed in quite a number in some of these skirmishes between various groups but the intensity of this, the spirit of this, has reduced considerably, a lot, we don’t have many instances of that.

The programme that we have for the creation of the national army, the national police force and the training of the national police force and the training of the national army is in accordance with the standards that are observed in other countries, civilized countries where such violations are reduced. The process of disarmament, the DDR, disarmament, demobilization, reintegration process and the judicial reform process and overall improvement of the administration as it is being done are things that we are doing precisely for the removal of these violations.

Q: There have been more announcements really rather than doing of these things, yes, there have been announcements regarding disarmament, yes, the Afghan national army is being trained but it is still 5,000-strong and most of the security is in the hands of the private army so if they decide to secure people they decide to secure them, if they decide to loot, they decide to loot them.

A: We cannot jump time on this. Nation-building is an arduous process. Afghanistan got all its institutions destroyed, almost to the ground. It has to rebuild it and it will take time, Building a road will be done in a year’s time, building an apartment or an office structure will be done in two months, 5-6 months, a year’s time, but to build people, to create skills and awareness, it will take time, it is a hard process, we are in a greater hurry than anybody else because we are affected by it on a daily basis, it is our life that is being threatened by these illegal elements but it will take time. The 5,000 that we have now in the national army, they are doing very well. I saw them when I went to Hor, they had gone ahead of me.

Q: Yes, we went to Zormat and we were also pretty impressed.

A: Yes, they are doing very well. People want them very much. The people are very much demanding the dispatch of these people to the whole country. It will take time to build an army and a police force. Now we hope that with the possibility of new US assistance and other countries assistance, this process will be speeded, that we will have more of the national army and the police force, I mean the trained ones.

Q: Are you actually happy with the way the US and coalition countries are acting in this regard. They are themselves siding with the warlords, while they profess support to you as well in Kabul.

A: Well, the US government and the other governments that were helping Afghanistan have done tremendously to bring safety, security and reconstruction to Afghanistan. As I mentioned it’s a slow process, it’s a gradual process, it has to be a thoughtful process.

Q: Are you happy or they should do more....

A: I am happy with what they have done so far for Afghanistan. But if you ask me do I want more, of course I want more. In terms of support for the reconstruction of Afghanistan, in terms of support for state building in Afghanistan, nation- building in Afghanistan. That is what we need very much.

Q: But there have been recent incidents of violence, particularly in the border provinces. Do you think the Taliban is actually regrouping?

A: I don’t think this is a serious concern, I am not worried about that. The Taliban have no place in the Afghan people, that I know for a fact. What is important for us in this region, especially for Afghanistan and Pakistan, is to fight terrorism together, to fight it in earnest, to fight it in truth and to finish this menace. Extremism will not deliver anything to anybody. It’s like a snake, it’s like a scorpion, you can’t live with it. If it bites you tomorrow, it will bite me the day after or the day before, so it’s something that this region has to do, especially Afghanistan and Pakistan have to join hands in a strong manner to fight extremism and the emanating consequences of that which is terrorism to the full.

Q: Of course, I completely agree when you were mentioning a little while earlier that everything takes time and the process of nation-building, the law and order situation. But do you think under these present circumstances, your democratic reforms, elections all that would go ahead as scheduled?

A: We have to go full speed and meet the deadline set fast by the Bonn process, by the Loya Jirga, and by our own announcements and decrees. There is no way that we can stop now and say well, can we reach that point. We will have to run to that point but if the day comes that we don’t reach it then it should be for a good reason, technical reason or some other reason. Now we will have to go full speed with all the means that we have to reach the deadlines that we have and to have the relations for the Afghan people and to let them choose their government with their own hands.

Q: But doesn’t it get frustrating at times?

A: Some things frustrate me, for example, the slow progress on the national army, the slow progress on the police and some other things, but then you look at Afghanistan, two years ago where are we now. Two years ago we had a currency that sold one dollar for lord knows how many thousands of Afghanis and one Pakistani rupee for 800 or 1,000 Afghanis. Today we have 47 Afghanis to a dollar. One Afghani for 1.20 Pakistani rupees. We had last year to travel seven hours from Jalalabad to Kabul, now we travel three hours, we had last year to travel 24 hours from Kandahar to Kabul, now in recent day especially we travel seven- eight hours and by the end of the year it shall come down to five hours. We shall have paved roads. Same to Kandahar to Herat, same from Kabul to Salang, to Mazar-i-Sharif.

Q: About the US, they have been pumping in nearly a billion dollars a month in their war effort here in Afghanistan but for this country’s development and reconstruction they have given only 1.8 billion dollars so far. Does it bother you?

A: The war effort on terrorism, that is for both of us, that’s for America, for us, that’s for you, it is for the whole of humanity. We have to free humanity from this menace of terrorism, that is the enemy of all. That money is being spent for the general security for the people of the world, it’s not only for Afghanistan, it’s not only for Pakistan, it’s not only for India, for America, it’s for everybody. So that money is spent rightly. But do we require more money for Afghanistan? Do we need more money for Afghanistan? Yes we do, and if somebody gives it to us, we will be happy, of course we will be very happy.