| September 27, 2003 | Saturday | Rajab 29, 1424 |
Fighter to the end
People-friendly police a far cry
LAHORE: Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan spent all his life in fighting against dictators, military as well as civilian, and struggled to strengthen the parliamentary democracy, bothering little how he would go down in history for targeting all governments.
ISLAMABAD, Sept 26: The group show put up by established and young artists at Hunerkada of artist Jamal Shah, and inaugurated by the Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat, apart from reflecting each artist’s enquiry into the language of art, turned out to be a function where those assembled also heard the pleasant news of plans for beautifying Islamabad.
Faisal Saleh Hayat, whose interior ministry oversees the work of the Capital Development Authority, remembered the dead city of Islamabad of yesteryears. He paid tributes to artists, and men of culture and literature who are now transforming it into an artistically and culturally better city by the day. Very few belonged here, but those who have come here, he said, are transforming the Capital into a cultural, artistic and literary sophistication that one associated with cities like Lahore and Karachi.
He, however, also spoke of the bureaucratic mindset, which he thought, sometimes served as an obstacle in the city becoming more beautiful. (One also sympathized with the bureaucracy too which, if did not follow the rigid “rules”, in spirit as well as word, could, land up itself in trouble when things changed. Then there is the famous joke about the audit of a function where the late Madame Noor Jehan sang.
Looking at the expenses, the auditor is reported to have remarked: “Were three quotations invited?”). One learnt of various plans for beautification, which could give a more artistic look to the city, including a big globe on the crossing near the French embassy, and such other decorative structures on various crossings, and the development of an artistically- designed Food Park in the Blue Area. The parade “ground” is also being made more artistic.
One also overheard some one saying that the name “Blue Area” did not sound good, and the minister seemed to be agreeing for a substitute. There was a suggestion that Islamabad public may be allowed to suggest the substitute. One also saw some slides of some beautiful artistic (non life) statues made by Jamal Shah in this beautification process.
Jamal Shah explained that apart exploring individualistic vocabularies of these artists, he had arranged this exhibition especially in connection with the visit of a Canadian artist, Rachel Kalpana James who had held an exhibition of her form of art in Lahore this month. (The exhibition consisted of an audio and digital print instillation exploring the process of how we know some one, and it encouraged speculation about the identity of one Louise Booth of Toronto through 108 readable digital prints of the actual pages in her 1941 diary. It also offered a statistical mapping of her life through a book of collaged images and text which charts data such as the number of times Louise Booth mentions her mother, or has the “curse”, or goes to work, or has a red letter day. Ultimately, the work implicates the viewer in an archeological dig of sorts where the identity of Louise Booth is constructed not only from the dairy but through the imposition of our own personalities and history on the subject.)
At the group show, one finds Jamal Shah painting where he tries to come to grips with the awesome mountains, and the hostile environment of Balochistan, where he hails from. There is also the obsession with rain, which is scarce in his area. Artist Aleem depicts the culture and the rich tradition of the Northern Areas. Here one finds a young thinking artist who is conscious of his own surroundings and its relevance to his art. Hamid Durrani’s interesting images with all their subjectivity are reflective of the physical landscape of the area he lives in, “the Sohan Valley”.
Amna uses painted fibreglass, focusing on shapes and forms in a free space, all her own. You also find three small colourful paintings and an instillation done on Iraq war. She is a Hunerkada graduate.
Nadir Jamali, a graduate of NCA, teaching Fine Arts at Balochistan University, and a sculptor, draws figures in different moods depicted through vivid colours in pastels, acrylics, and oils.
Irfan’s wooden sculptures are entangled and anguished human forms remaining devoted to its material.
Hamid Alauddin has displayed a soap stone sculpture, which plays with abstract planes and the luminosity of the material.—Mufti Jamiluddin Ahmad
He wanted a democratic system in Pakistan in its purest form, dismissing arguments that in a country where the ultimate word rests with the military such a desire was nothing more than daydreaming.
“Either there is democracy or there’s no democracy. There’s no third situation,” the senior leader would say whenever it was argued that it would take the democratic system a long period to take roots in the country. He always held the army responsible for the fragility of the system, saying if you uproot a plant (of democracy) every now and then to see whether it has taken roots, it will dry up and never grow.
The Nawabzada formed many alliances during his fifty years or so of active political career. He used to say that it is beyond a single party to challenge dictatorship and thus parties of all shades of opinion should join forces. He likened the democratic struggle to construction of a house where bricks, gravel, steel, cement and even shrapnel are needed to complete the project. This argument he used to offer to reject suggestions that one-man parties or what are tauntingly called ‘tonga parties’ should not be included in alliances set up for the achievement of lofty ideals.
The Nawabzada’s last political mission was his visit to London and Jeddah where he met former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif and asked them to return to Pakistan to lead their parties. During his exhaustive tour, he also tried to organize a meeting of the two erstwhile rivals. He advised them that they should contest the next election as allies and then form a coalition to set a new precedent of tolerance among adversaries.
The Nawabzada, who in addition to being a capable political leader was also a poet, allergic to philistinism. A man of sharp memory, he remembered thousands of verses, both Urdu and Persian, and would immediately come up with couplets to describe any situation.
He had participated in the 1940 meeting in Lahore which had adopted the resolution for the creation of Pakistan.
He had contested the first election — for a seat of the Punjab Assembly — from the platform of Majlis-i-Ahrar in 1945 and lost to Mr Abdul Dameed Dasti.
In 1951, he joined the Pakistan Muslim League. Then he worked with Mr Suhrawardi before joining a movement against Ayub Khan. He had campaigned for Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah as presidential candidate against Ayub Khan.
He then set up the Pakistan Democratic Party and contested the 1970 election from its platform.
His PDP was a constituent of the Pakistan National Alliance which had launched agitation against the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto government on charges that the 1977 elections had been massively rigged.
He always insisted that the government and the PNA had reached an agreement to hold fresh elections when Gen Zia imposed martial law.
Despite such claim, his party had joined the cabinet Gen Zia had set up to hold elections. The cabinet was in place when Gen Zia hanged Mr Bhutto on a Supreme Court order. Thus, the dictator succeeded in giving the world an impression that anti-Bhutto parties were with him in his decision of taking the ousted prime minister to gallows.
The Nawabzada opposed the Provisional Constitutional Order promulgated by Gen Zia, the Majlis-i-Shoora he set up to prolong his rule and then the partyless elections the general had held to bring a setup of his choice. The Movement for the Restoration of Democracy, the then opposition alliance headed by the Nawabzada, had also boycotted the elections — a decision on which Gen Zia had offered thanksgiving prayers as it suited his scheme of things.
The formation of the MRD was reflective of the Nawabzada’s political craftsmanship as the platform was shared by the PPP and the parties responsible for the ouster of the Bhutto government.
He struggled against the Junejo government, arguing that being the product of partyless elections it lacked legitimacy. However, when Zia dismissed this government on May 29, 1988, the Nawabzada was shocked. “What pressure he was facing that he took such a drastic step,” the Nawabzada had said in the presence of this reporter.
He did not join the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad the then government had cobbled together to counter the PPP. When the PPP won the elections, he was not happy on the terms and conditions on which Ms Bhutto had got power. In less than a year after the formation of the government, he tabled a motion against the Benazir government, supporting Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi as a candidate for the top office. The move failed, mainly because of Mian Nawaz Sharif’s indifference, who did not like to see another Sindhi leader in power.
After the 1990 elections, the Nawabzada remained in the opposition camp but did not join the train march against the rigged elections.
The Nawabzada was supporting Akbar Bugti’s assertion that being a coalition partner with the PML in Balochistan, the PPP was left with no justification to launch the train march. He was insisting that before going for the anti-government campaign, the PPP should quit the Balochistan government.
Mian Nawaz Sharif’s government was dismissed by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan in 1993 and despite reinstatement by the Supreme Court the president and the prime minister could not co-exist. As a result, fresh elections were called under an agreement brokered by the then army chief.
The 1993 elections were won by Ms Bhutto, who appointed Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan chairman of the Kashmir Committee. The Nawabzada visited many countries at the head of a delegation to highlight the Kashmir cause. He proudly said on many an occasion that it was because of his efforts that the OIC summit at Casablanca had unanimously adopted a resolution seeking solution of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the UN resolutions, ignoring the Shimla Accord which makes the dispute a bilateral issue.
He also proudly mentioned that as a result of his efforts the Labour Party of Britain had included the Kashmir issue in its manifesto and had committed to make all possible efforts to have the matter resolved.
The Nawabzada did his best to dissuade President Farooq Leghari from dissolving the Benazir government and assemblies. However, his advice was ignored, which strained relations between the two leaders.
The Nawabzada set up Pakistan Awami Ittehad after the 1997 elections, swept by Mian Nawaz Sharif. He alleged that the polls had been massively rigged. A parallel alliance — Grand Democratic Alliance— was launched for parties reluctant to join the PAI.
Then the PAI was consigned to history and the GDA was converted into the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy, a coalition where the rivals PPP and the PML-N turned into allies. The PML-N had refused to join the GDA as this was the alliance which had been agitating against the Nawaz Sharif government.
THE demonstrations staged recently by villagers against police atrocities and the failure of law enforcers to check heinous crimes like murder, robbery, dacoity and vehicle snatching in Saddar division exposed the tall claims of the authors of the Police Order, 2002.
The Thikriwala incident in this connection proved that the objective of the Police Order — converting the police into a people-friendly organization — remains a far cry.
Hundreds of villagers had staged a protest rally on the Faisalabad-Jhang Road to register their grievance against the police failure in arresting the culprits involved in a dacoity-cum-murder.
The villagers in view of inaction of the area police contacted Saddar division police chief Raja Osama Mumtaz, who reportedly told them to shut up and refused to answer telephone calls saying that competent officials were sitting in police stations for resolving petty issues like dacoity-cum-murder cases. This brusque reply infuriated the villagers who came out on the roads, staged a demonstration and chanted slogans against the police and government officials. The villagers claimed that they had been left with no other option due to the police failure to check the rising crime graph.
They blocked traffic on the Faisalabad-Jhang Road by erecting barricades and burning tyres. They chanted slogans against police high-ups and demanded suspension of the Thikriwala SHO.
Ironically, the Saddar SP was heard issuing instructions to the police to crush the villagers who had dared to block traffic and create problems for travellers. The Thikriwala police, without any warning, resorted to a baton-charge against peaceful demonstrators. This infuriated the protesters who reacted strongly forcing the police to run away from the scene by pelting stones at them.
The SHO aired an SOS message to the SP demanding a police contingent to disperse the mob. In a calculated move to aggravate the situation, he told the SP that in case stern action was not taken with the help of commandos, the mob may set on fire the police station building. The SP reportedly reached the spot with a contingent and without holding talks with the protesting people, ordered baton-charge, tear-gas shelling and aerial firing. Such a horrible action against aged villagers forced the people to retaliate. The SP was heard asking the police to discipline the villagers as indiscipline would not be tolerated in his jurisdiction at any cost.
On the orders of the SP, the police registered a case under the Anti-Terrorist Act. In the FIR, 24 people were nominated, while by mentioning that there was a mob of 200 to 300 people, the police got an opportunity to take into custody anybody according to their sweet will. In consequence thereof, the area police rounded up more than 200 people.
The Thikriwala police, allegedly with the help of touts, first prepared a list of those villagers who were known as safaidposh or average growers or owners of small land holdings who could pay bribe for getting themselves released. The police reportedly raided their houses without women police. The arrested youngsters and aged persons were tortured in the streets to create harassment and terror in the area. Women were disgraced and forced to vacate their houses. Their belongings were allegedly taken away by the police. Relatives of the arrested persons were not allowed to see them in the police station. Instead, all those who visited the police station for delivering them meals were arrested.
Later, the Thikriwala police deleted Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorist Act from the FIR registered against villagers, reportedly on the intervention of the chief minister, thus paving the way for their release through court.
The whole incident negated the claims of the authors of the Local Government Ordinance, 2001, and the Police Order, 2002, of transforming the police into a people-friendly community-oriented service from an armed institution subjecting the people to fear and terror through unbridled power and cruelty.
In the past, the police were required to seek permission from a magistrate for taking an action and were liable to face judicial probe for excesses, which now seemed to have been done away with leaving the law-enforcers at liberty to take drastic action without any fear.
The district Nazim, who, under the Local Government Ordinance, is the custodian of law and order, remained indifferent. He neither took cognizance of the police baton-charge, tear-gas shelling and aerial firing, nor he visited the area for holding talks with the protesters. He also did not motivate the union council Nazims to pacify the angry villagers. Similarly, the Saddar tehsil Nazim was conspicuous by his absence, while the police did not hesitate to book the area Nazim and some councillors for leading the protesters. Significantly, the police did not bother to seek any guidance or order from the district Nazim about how to handle the situation.
The Thikriwala incident has raised many questions about the police functioning. The people are asking as to who should the villagers approach in view of unchecked activities of outlaws and what should they do in case of police failure to arrest the criminals. How can the people remain silent after losing their valuables and their near and dear ones? Who should be made responsible for police inaction, and what action should be taken against the supervisory police staff who, instead of handling the situation prudently, preferred to resort to armed action on their own without seeking permission from the competent authority?
Not only this, there are questions like who should have the authority to decide offence under Section 7 of the Terrorism Act against peaceful citizens and delete the same at will or on the instructions of superiors. Moreover how can society compensate for the torture and disgrace of aged persons and women at the hands of the police? Who will make the police accountable for taking bribe for releasing innocent villagers? What should people do to attract the attention of police bosses in case of misdeeds of subordinates and the refusal of the latter to listen to public complaints? Is there anybody to see whether the belongings of victims of crime are returned to them?
Sadly, the so-called police accountability wing, the police complaint authority, the district public safety commission, the national police complaint commission, the provincial police complaint commission and district Mohtasib-forums meant for providing relief to the people exist merely in books.